I wrote a diary in 2010 when Daily Kos version 4 was being rolled out. It was about the new site software and some very negative reactions to it. I remember it well because, in a FP posting about it the next day, the site founder quoted me, TWICE!
The starting point for my diary was a three paragraph passage in Michael Crichton’s sequel to Jurassic Park, entitled The Lost World. In it, Malcolm, his chaos theoretician, talks about the role that chaos plays in extinction considerations for natural systems. To generalize, extinction could be caused either by too much chaos or too little. Too little?! Really? Here’s how Malcolm explained it in the beginning of the book.
"Of the self-organizing behaviors," Ian Malcolm said, "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," he said, "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."
(__ from The Lost World, by Michael Crichton)
More below.
Top Comments recognizes the previous day's Top Mojo and strives to promote each day's outstanding comments through nominations made by Kossacks like you. Please send comments (before 9:30pm ET) by email to topcomments@gmail.com or by our KosMail message board.
So, why do I bring up chaos tonight, in Top Comments?
I’m bringing it up because of the chaos I feel right now, because of the intensity of the times, due to the terrible recent (and, worse, ONGOING) events. And I thought back to the last time I had similar feelings. It was during the time when I joined Daily Kos, in 2006.
Another Republican was president then. A terrible person in that historic line. He drummed up a rationalization for going to WAR, for putting so many of our citizens at great risk, indeed, for costing very many of them their lives. He governed very poorly, because, as a Republican, he wasn’t INTERESTED in helping our citizens. The only exceptions were fellow Republicans, his family, and very rich white people. It was a very dark time.
My recollection of the time isn’t of darkness, however. It is of humor, resolve, commitment. But mostly it is of the beginning of my time on this site, with brilliant, passionate friends, of community shared with them. Celebration of victories shared with them, commiseration and planning to deal with defeats.
Seeds planted in those days began germinating afresh in 2008, with the campaign and election of our champion, Barack Obama, our first black president. There have been plenty of complications and setbacks in the past 8 years, but overall the balance between calm and chaos has been a propitious one, enough chaos to keep us focused and engaged, enough calm to avoid feeling overwhelmed and discouraged.
Note that I am mostly speaking for myself when I say that, talking about my personal chaos spectrum. No other person has an identical spectrum, and what for me is good, may for another be totally untenable.
Now, after this election, the chaos is dramatically and surprisingly on the rise, at a terrible rate, in terrible ways. There is very little calm to be found, very little solace, and we enter again into a state of political opposition, a sad state for a party far more representative, in real ways, of the will of the electorate than the party they picked to ‘govern.’
And as bad a person as that president in 2006 was, this president-elect is worse, still. Less qualified, if you can imagine it, even less honest, far more egotistical, more overtly racist, more explicitly racist, more misogynistic, more belligerent …, it’s a hideous combination, that, chaotically, defies adequate description.
You can see the ramifications of the changed chaos quotient in every person here. For many, it is outside their spectrum. Some leave. Others lash out. Others haven’t exposed a perceptible response, perhaps they’re catatonic? Who knows?
I can feel it pushing on the upper limits of my spectrum. I can feel the pain, I can feel the anger, the frustration, a sense of panic, of desperation, of despair. Theoretically, I understand that it is likely to get much worse before it gets better. Though that is hard to imagine.
So, I plan, keeping my chaos spectrum in mind. I plan to deal with it as I try to deal with any major upset. With action. With making the best fight I can against the chaos that is pressing on me. Against the purveyors of that chaos.
And more than that, I plan to use my community. For nurturance, for companionship, for ideas, for stimulation, for focus, for inspiration. I plan to stand with ALL of you as you have always stood with me. I hope to help you as you have helped me so many times. I can’t recall ever being more focused. I can’t ever recall being more committed. Until this chaos returns, once again, to a more propitious version, and we can help our people and our world move forward, once again. Into the light.
Thanks for reading! On to tonight's comments!
Brillig's ObDisclaimer: The decision to publish each nomination lies with the evening's Diarist and/or Comment Formatter. My evenings at the helm, I try reeeeallllyy hard to publish everything without regard to content. I really do, even when I disagree personally with any given nomination. "TopCommentness" lies in the eyes of the nominator and of you, the reader - I leave the decision to you. I do not publish self-nominations (ie your own comments) and if I ruled the world, we'd all build community, supporting and uplifting instead of tearing our fellow Kossacks down.
Note: Especially during this passionate primary season, please remember that comment inclusion in Top Comments does not constitute support or endorsement by diarist, formatter, Top Comments writers or DailyKos. Questions, complaints or comments? Contact brillig.
From BeadLady:
Comes this comment from wasatch on the greatest security threat this country has faced in many years. (It was just elected president.) In Jen Hayden’s diary about him declining to attend the intelligence briefings. (Why would he, after all? Intelligence is anathema to him.)
Highlighted by SninkyPoo:
Is this diary-worthy comment by Front Toward Enemy on the real nature of the president-elect. Scary, but apt. (Also in Jen Hayden’s diary about him declining to attend the intelligence briefings.)
Is this comment by meralda, on Canadian efforts to match and support the Jan. 21 Women’s March on NYC, as written about in this fine diary, by joanbrooker.
Is this comment by Future Gazer on the great body of scientific research pertaining to our climate.
Highlighted by asterkitty:
For Thursday, December 8, 2016, first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you mik for the mojo magic! For those of you interested in How Top Mojo Works, please see his diary on the subject.
2016-12-09, courtesy of jotter!