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tipping point n. In epidemiology, the concept that small changes will have little or no effect on a system until a critical mass is reached. Then a further small change "tips" the system and a large effect is observed.

Could you have misread this David? Might we not be approaching or have passed a tipping point in public opinion regarding the troops abroad? Many have been working for this change, accomplishing incremental shifts, and perhaps overcoming the inertia associated with the war little by little, bit by bit.

(Perhaps you're reacting to the fact that Gladwell's best seller made the common-place usage of "tipping point" a cliche... drove a perfectly good phrase past the (coff-coff) tipping point of permissible use.)

A tipping of the hat to you, Frank, but I stand by original post: The gradual change of public opinion from pro to anti on the Iraq War is not a tipping point in the sense you cite (which is Gladwell's sense). Not every gradual change is a tipping point change. E.g., an election accumulates lots of little effects (votes) that bring about a major change, but elections aren't tipping points. A tipping point change occurs (as I understand it) when little effects suddenly have an unanticipated bigger effect, bigger than the mere accumulation of little changes: The 100th person gets the virus and suddenly it gets a velocity it didn't have before. But the change in public opinion seems to be a mere change.

No, I certainly don't blame Gladwell. He introduced the phrase and concept to a wide readership and he meant by it exactly what you describe. But, as so often happens, meanings get degraded, flattened. Oh well.

Drat. I had hoped that we had truly reached that tipping point and it would be a rush down hill to see how fast we could get the troops home, the reparations paid, the war crimes adjudicated, and the rascals in prison. I suppose I was a bit over optimistic.

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While I welcome this, many of us thought the tipping point would come when American deaths reached 2000. Gratified it's coming early. It can't come soon enough.