4.2.2 Chaos

Chaos is often mentioned in the context of families in our Focus Group.  For example in this website (and in many others) children may be described as growing up in the chaos of addiction.  Such chaos is deemed to be very unhelpful to children’s healthy development, whereas predictability, consistency, and order are all considered to be very important.

(This is true not only in respect of children but in human development and growth in general).

When people come together to form a group, (whether it be a political party, a commercial company, a sports club, a class, a group sharing the same hobbies, a community council, even a therapy group), the first thing that is done is that rules are written – so that as much chaos as possible can be eliminated and something can be achieved, as we all know that nothing will be achieved if chaos prevails.

Even in very loose groups where there are no set rules, unwritten rules and courtesies are adhered to so that the familiar order which we all yearn for can be present.  And at a personal level, this applies too.  Think of the amount of time we spend tidying up, sorting, classifying things etc.

It is through the continual dance between order and chaos, or certainty and uncertainty that we evolved to what we are today.

In the Chapter on the Family Support Shamrock we mentioned how a picture is more attractive when it is framed, or a game is more attractive when there are rules. These examples reflect our conscious and unconscious need to eliminate chaos.  With the addition of the boundary (the frame, or the rules) it is complete and our expectation is that it will not change again.

Or think about gardening. Even though we humans are part of nature, every time we pull a weed out of our garden we are imposing our desire for order on nature’s chaos. But, non-human nature is not really chaotic – in fact, as I stated above, it is beautifully ordered. It’s only chaotic when it is viewed from the perspective of desire for order as defined by us!

So an enormous amount of our time, energy and effort is spent trying to eliminate, or at least minimise the effect(s) of chaos (and unexpected change) in our lives, and make everything certain and predictable.

Yet; chaos and uncertainty are things that we know both intuitively and from our lived experience, will always be with us.

I believe that in our efforts to be relevant in the lives of people whose day-to-day experiences include regular chaotic events, acceptance and admittance of a manageable amount of chaos can give people courage to be themselves, take a risk and/or show a part of themselves that would remain forever hidden in a more ordered and structured environment.

Here is a nice poem by a colleague of mine, the redoubtable Mick Lacey, about the human desire to put order on chaos.

So, after all that, has chaos any positive attributes – or is it helpful in any way to humanity?

In a previous post I explored how darkness – which we all dislike and want to avoid, can have beauty and attractiveness. Our abhorrence of chaos reminds me of our attitude to darkness.

And, like trauma (as I described in the Chapter on Trauma and Related Topics), chaos in respect of designing initiatives to assist families in the Focus Group probably deserves a book in itself.

Here I will attempt to describe practices that may be developed to continually refine the response to the chaos that will inevitably occur, and how they can be used in a positive way to enhance our work. An awareness of this and development of skills to do it is far preferable than using vast amounts of energy and time trying to eliminate it. (Again, think of the enormous amounts of energy used all over the world trying to eliminate darkness)!

Rolling out initiatives that encourage agencies to accept the reality of chaos and work with it may be very challenging.  Once again, it’s a question of balance.

As a general rule, I would like to propose that if chaos rules, nothing is ever achieved, but if rigidity rules, people who matter most are often left out.

One of the reasons why accepting (or indeed embracing) chaos and unpredictability may be very challenging is that uncertainty holds such fear for us.

For example one of the techniques of torture is to not tell people what is going to happen to them.  While this is an extreme example of the terror that can be brought about by uncertainty, it can also be used by unscrupulous people in authority in our day-to-day lives to keep employees on their toes so to speak.

In encouraging organisations to accept the realities of chaos, I’d like if people get what I mean – I do not in any circumstance promote the use of uncertainty as some sort of control tool.

The Chapter on Symmetry and Resonance is concerned with the human tendency towards symmetry that (I argue) is a result of us being part of the world in which symmetry is ever present in space and time – having high impact-low noticability.

In this post I mention how science, specifically modern neuroscience, has caught up with, and given significant weight to intuitive knowledge about behaviour that is as old as humankind itself.

Also, earlier, I spent some time describing how traditionally, mathematics (generally) ignored chaos (and unpredictability), as the primary applications of mathematics were seen to be the fields of engineering and science, where predictability and the ability to measure accurately were of vital importance.

After all, we, the ordinary citizens, (the consumers of the items that are manufactured by the advances in engineering based on mathematical equations and formulas), won’t buy an engine that is unpredictable, nor will we be enthusiastic in crossing a bridge if we are in doubt as to whether or not it will hold our weight as we walk over!

This has some relevance in this Chapter, because the world of mathematics has been making strides in our understanding of natural phenomena that have been observed as long as humans have had an awareness of the natural world, in particular those phenomena that are chaotic or unpredictable.

In the 20^th Century, particularly the latter half, mathematicians began looking again at chaos and its usefulness and/or applications in mathematics, (and vice versa) and, over time, developed theories which proposed that underneath the chaos [1] (or unpredictability) that we experience in our day to day lives there is an underlying order, that is, a predictable pattern that is not immediately obvious.  Originally this was applied to phenomena such as the weather, but further developments have reached into psychology and society.

In the remainder of this Chapter I attempt to explore the continual to-and-fro between inevitability, (that which we expect will happen, i.e. our plans) and uncertainty (not knowing what will happen, i.e. our surprises [2]). That is, chaos.

This to-and-fro is a constant reality in our lives which we do not usually have in our conscious awareness.

[1]. The chaos that we are familiar with could be a weather event, the course of a forest fire, the spread of an epidemic, a battle in a war, how a field is taken over by weeds/shrubs etc. if left untended, or, relevant to our area of interest, the day-to-day activities of a family affected by alcoholism and drug addiction.

[2]. When I was younger an older man said to me, by way of cautionary advice: One way to give God a good laugh is to tell him your plans for tomorrow!