A term coined by Kenneth E. Boulding, economist, poet, peace research pioneer and husband of the world-renowned peace sociologist and revered author Elise Boulding, in his 1972 classic, Stable Peace. The slightly ironic ‘law’ states:
“If something exists, then it must be possible.”
The intention is to point up the casual dismissal of peace possibilities even when they have already occurred. For example, many routinely argue that nonviolence “would never have worked against the Nazis” though it did brilliantly the one time it is known to have been tried on a fairly large scale, namely in the Rosenstrasse Prison Demonstration of 1943.