The Edge of Chaos

Of the self organizing behaviors, two are of particular interest to the study of evolution. One is adaptation. We see it everywhere. Corporations adapt to the marketplace, brain cells adapt to signal traffic, the immune system adapts to infection, animals adapt to their food supply. We have come to think that the ability to adapt is characteristic of complex systems – and may be one reason why evolution seems to lead toward more complex organisms.

But even more important is the way complex systems seem to strike a balance between the need for order and the imperative to change. Complex systems tend to locate themselves at a place we call ‘the edge of chaos’. We imagine the edge of chaos as a place where there is enough innovation to keep a living system vibrant, and enough stability to keep it from collapsing into anarchy. It is a zone of conflict and upheaval, where the old and the new are constantly at war. Finding the balance point must be a delicate matter – if a living system drifts too close, it risks falling over into incoherence and dissolution; but if the system moves too far away from the edge, it becomes rigid, frozen, totalitarian. Both conditions lead to extinction. Too much change is as destructive as too little. Only at the edge of chaos can complex systems flourish.

And, by implication, extinction is the inevitable result of one or the other strategy – too much change, or too little.

Wait a second! Science on a political blog? Yes, once again I intend to use science to make a point about politics, much as I did a couple of months ago with a more basic concept (pendulums).

Where am I going with this? Find out below the fold.

This time, the science is something called Complexity Theory, and the quote above is a decent introduction into the basic ideas.

As a system nears the edge of chaos, there exists what are known as “tipping points” – behaviors and/or actors which tip the system over the edge and into utter chaos.

The United States of America has been extremely close to the edge on two occasions in its history where a tipping point was reached, and possibly others where a tipping point was averted. Those occassions were roughly 1760-1780 and 1850-1870.

The year 1850 came up recently in a moderately unexpected place – this interview Jim Galloway did with Ray McBerry. In it, McBerry, the former history teacher who is ignorant on the number one cause of war throughout history, says that America was at its ideal in 1850. For those that don’t know your history, in 1850 we were just a single short decade from Civil War.

But Ray knows this. You see, he is the Georgia Chairman of an organization that is theocratic and racist to the core – the League of the South.

This is a group that idolizes the Civil War and the antebellum South.

From the League of the South main site:

The League of the South asserts that Southern society is radically different from the society impressed upon it by an alien occupier. American society today is egalitarian and Marxist and is devoid of any grace or charm. In contrast, we believe in a Southern society that is structured upon the Biblical notion of hierarchy. In short, a recognition of the natural societal order of superiors and subordinates.

Later, it states

To be truly free and self- governing, the South must throw off the yoke of imperial oppression. Therefore, The League of the South advocates the secession and subsequent independence of the Southern States from this forced union and the formation of a Southern republic.

The Georgia site, which McBerry presumably has control over as Chairman of the Georgia League, states

The League of the South believes that the answer to these problems is a free and independent Southern republic. … We are not so naïve as to believe that the Northern states, nor their West Coast counterparts, have a desire to ever return to the Bible or the Constitution, if they ever did before; and, therefore, we know that the likelihood of reversing the current course of Washington is non-existent.

If someone is the State Chair of an organization and on its National Board of Directors – and McBerry holds both positions in the League of the South – it is very easy and proper to assume that said person believes very strongly in the organizational beliefs. This is true of ANY organization. After all, you wouldn’t exactly expect the President of the Georgia Baptist Convention to be a Catholic, would you?

So it is therefore easy and proper to assume that Ray McBerry believes from the very core of his being the statements above. After all, they are foundational beliefs of an organization he is the State Chairman of and whose National Board of Directors he serves on.

It is further evidenced by McBerry’s claim that 1850 was the ideal year in the United States’ illustrious 200+ year existence.

I hold that the political upheaval we see in America today is evidence that our complex system of government, politics, and society is nearing the chaotic edge. This, in and of itself, is a very good thing. After all, as evidenced by the quote at the beginning of this piece, it is within this period that creativity flourishes and life is vibrant.

Ray McBerry represents a tipping point along this chaotic edge. He actively seeks the dissolution of the American Republic, and with it our American way of life that I personally cherish. Yes, our country has severe flaws at the present time. But unlike McBerry, I believe those flaws can be fixed to ensure maximal freedom for EVERY individual – including freedom of religion, which Ray McBerry doesn’t want us to enjoy.

I would classify McBerry’s beliefs as hopeless – he has lost all hope that our Nation can be fixed, so he seeks to create his own.

Another person I spoke with (off the record, so I will in no way identify the person here) phrased it like this, which I really like:

“You know these are challenging times. So many things, in addition to the economy, are changing right before our eyes. People are more than unsettled. It’s easier to sell the simpler solution (states’ rights) than be straight with folks. The way out won’t be easy. We’re going to have to put our differences aside and make hard choices.”

I concur.

By the way, the quote that kicked off the article is from the late great Michael Crichton. For those unaware, Crichton always based his novels in some concept of actual science, as the best science fiction writers (and I would certainly classify him as such) always do. Complexity Theory is the basis of The Lost World, where the opening quote is from.