Bending Culture

Pressure can be sudden or build up slowly over time, but in most materials a sudden pressure creates a rupture. A relatively small pressure that occurs over a long period of time can bend rocks.

Ductile Deformation

Bending and deformation can completely shift the “direction” of a rock layer.

Asking whether one is better off with a sudden rupture or a slow deformation is a meaningless question when it comes to things like rocks and pipes, but it might make sense in an institutional or a cultural context. Institutions and cultures have a higher yield strength when it comes to sudden pressures that they lack when it comes to prolonged and even light, pressure.