A time of chaos

Chaos theory is a mathematical term used to “describe the qualities of the point at which stability moves to instability or order moves to disorder.”

I remember the moment chaos theory entered into politics, at least in the context of State of the Union addresses. It was Barack Obama’s 2009 State of the Union address when Republican Joe Wilson shouted out “you lie.” I was surprised and puzzled as to why he wasn’t led out of the chamber. It was the first such address I could recall in which someone stood up and called the president of the United States a lair. This was disorder in the joint chambers of Congress. Of course, now it seems commonplace.

Recently as last week, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene yelled out “lair” (among other things) at Joe Biden’s SOTU address. Sitting beside her was none other than Joe Wilson, whom Donald Trump had just praised recently in South Carolina, where he appointed him to be on his state leadership team. He mentioned that 2009 incident when he introduced him, saying “it was so beautiful.” So Trump was egging on the disorder ahead of Biden’s speech, and he has been creating disorder for a long time now.

There are other systems breaking down. Climate change has caused the local and national news to report on the weather with much more focus because it is affecting millions of more people. This is a system moving into disorder. I would like to say we can do something about it, but realistically, I think it is too late. It goes back to the previously mentioned system of politics. There is no will in Congress to pass meaningful climate change legislation.

Another area where chaos theory comes into play is guns and mass shootings. After each one we shake our heads and wonder why anyone would want to do such a thing. In the end it is to spread chaos. We can point to mental illness, but there are hundreds of thousands of mentally ill in America and only a few decide to shoot a group of people. We can point to white supremacists and their hate, but the evidence only points to them wanting to create chaos. Why start shooting at electrical power stations that power a large area of a city, county or state? Because blackouts create chaos.

We are living in an era of chaos whether we like it or not. Maybe we have always been there, but now it has become more apparent, more in our faces, as if asking, like a bully, “What are YOU going to do about it?”

STEVEN TRULOCK Fayetteville