01 December 2007

CHAOTIC WINGS OF PEACE

If peace is a nonlinear system, which I suspect any human endeavor is, then it might follow the underlying and unknown laws, for now, of a chaotic system. Some kind of global peace might break out when a small perturbation in the proceedings contains within itself unpredictable, massive repercussions downstream. I say this with Edward Lorenz' famous dictum in mind: "When a butterfly flutters its wings in one part of the world, it can eventually cause a hurricane in another." Perhaps we must flutter the seemingly insignificant wings of peace in our personal lives to cause a massive social movement toward peace in the world. Each of us can be the peaceful, but chaotically purposeful, wings in the Butterfly Effect.

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