Chaotic Good?

         Chaos; a state of disorder, uncertainties, and of unexpected results. Often, chaos is negative as many people like order. However sometimes chaos is a good thing and necessary, even in the obvious form of burning buildings and explosions, though not very often. Where ever chaos exists, systems are rendered mostly useless, giving rise to revelations about those systems. Whether it’s, “hmmm, perhaps we should prepare in case the house does burn down,” or, “geez, maybe we should have treated our peasants better so this wouldn’t happen,” there can always be a point to be discovered in said chaos because chaos is almost always is a result of flaws within a system that allows for said chaos to happen or invites chaos.

            As I said, chaos can be good. Technically, the marches Martin Luther lead resulted in chaos. Roads and building were blocked, police dogs barking, people screaming, that was all chaos. However, despite all terrors that occurred, it was necessary. Martin Luther, when organizes protests, “seeks to create such a crisis and establish such creative tension that a community that has consistently refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored.” (Letter from Birmingham). If things were to be left “tranquil,” issues will be left unsolved for it would be to uncomfortable to address them without incentive. Martin Luther made very clear in his letter that all the protests they did was because action was needed to bring justice, justice that wouldn’t come if there was no discord about the injustice.

            Now not all chaos has to be earth shattering, it can be a small annoyance. Despite being small, that chaos can lead to change. While he was imprisoned, Nelson Mandela lead strikes and sang political songs. Nelson said that he and his fellow inmates “had to create [our] own lives. In a way that even the authorities acknowledged, order in prison was preserved not by the warders but by [ourselves]” (Nelson Mandela, The Dark Years). The point behind The Dark Years was that something can always be done about a situation, and even if it is something small, it can make a big difference.

            Now obviously chaos can be bad. Just as good things can come from chaos, so can bad things. Bhutto explains in her book Reconciliation that despite democracy being perfectly applicable in Muslim countries, democracy has failed to stick in Pakistan because of the chaotic environment. Extremists, foreign powers, the country never gets a moment of rest as so many factors keep coming into play that it is difficult for positive change to happen. Bhutto points out how the dictators of Pakistan uses “the crisis that [he] created to justify those same policies that caused the crisis” (Benazir Bhutto, Reconciliation). It’s true that Pakistan’s situation is bad, it doesn’t take a genius to figure that out, but while I’m not political expert, I believe that this chaos can be used for good. The citizens can organize themselves to fend off extremists and use the discord the extremists cause as a means of propelling their values by showing the damage extremists brings.