Acknowledging and indeed embracing the messiness of chaos (and all that goes with it, i.e. uncertainty, unpredictability etc. and the nature of self-similarity in growth) and seeing it as strength, would change the way we approach helping people in general but in particular protection of vulnerable children.
But certainty is very seductive.
Trying to eliminate chaos, and the inevitable mistakes that will result from chaos, (rather than accepting that mistakes will happen and then using them for growth) is a constant aim of many organisations.
But (I propose anyway) because we are human it is not possible to have an entity that never makes mistakes so there is no point in trying to eliminate them completely.
On the other hand there is a lot of value in admitting to them, showing that we are human, trying to learn from them to minimise further mistakes, and aiming to be good enough.
The vast majority of formal-type interventions, (whether by statutory or voluntary agencies) that are introduced in communities to assist families who are deeply hurt and distressed, immersed in the chaos of addiction, and whose children are at high risk of being involved in anti-social behaviour and serious crime, are conceived, born and then promoted by academia, or by people who have academic backgrounds. They are largely influenced by the science of psychology, which is in turn strongly influenced by formal educational or reductionist approaches that, (like engineering), are based on linear models, and see chaos as something to be abhorred and cast out!
Mostly, these programmes ignore the significant amount of chaos and unpredictability in the lives of the people that they are supposed to help – or, at least, do not factor them into the design.
Now I am not at all surprised at their ordered, curriculum based, time limited nature.
The designers, to feel secure, need the constancy of the ritual that the time-limited curriculum brings. The ritual, in turn, tethers, or anchors them to the world of order and predictability – expecting that it will do the same for others. We try at all times to embed constancy and predictability into our human processes, but knowing, instinctively that it is an impossible task.
So I believe that one of our most important tasks as practitioners is to recognise the value of chaos and uncertainty and consider them to be allies in our work. Chaos and uncertainty are of their nature dynamic which means that external changes (that is, changes to the environment) will take place over time, and over time humans change internally also.
Paradoxically, the constancy and security that we desire in others will actually be optimised by acknowledging and realising the importance of symmetry, and going some way to match the chaos that is prevalent in the lives of the people that we are reaching out to help. (This is further explored when we discuss cultural matching later on in the website).
If our root foundations have been allowed to develop, and we are connected with, and at ease with our true selves, there is a better chance that we will become aware of forces that are connected but invisible that lie beneath the surface in our life – and in particular be open to the possibility that they are driving chaotic events which manifest in crises.
However, if our root foundations have not been allowed develop, (in particular our consciousness) we may have little self-awareness and tend to blame others for predicaments that we find ourselves in. In the case of emergence, we may find ourselves constantly frustrated.
In such cases we may not be aware at all of such patterns and their interconnectedness that destines us to plough the same furrow over and over again.
This Chapter on Chaos, Critical Mass and Fractals is lengthy – I hope that it is relatively easy to understand, and that it is clear why I included it. For the reasons outlined in the Chapter itself, I believe that it is of crucial importance in our efforts to design a response to families in the Focus Group.
I stated earlier on that we exist because our two parents met – and they exist because our four grandparents met, and our grandparents exist because our eight great-grandparents met, who exist because our sixteen great-great grandparents met etc. etc.
I find it fascinating to think that I might have, for example, a personality trait or genetic disposition that just one of my 1,024 ancestors had, a mere 10 generations ago. And, taking a generation as, on average, 30 years, that’s only a time span of 300 years. (This trait, of course, is a fractal)!
So the whole of who we are is determined by unpredictable encounters going back countless generations to the dawn of evolution – and the same is true of every single human on Earth.
Our human family exists because we have adapted to chaos and uncertainty in unpredictable and chaotic environments over tens of thousands of years.
Finally, I believe if we try and think about how big a problem is in a situation where a person is in distress, it is very difficult to objectively assess how big it actually is! This is because all events that cause us distress are felt subjectively – i.e. by us personally.
Our journey, and in particular how it might impact on how we view our fellow humans who struggle, is the subject of the next Chapter on Anthropology.