If Not The Law of The Jungle, Maybe It's Better Described as "Chaos"

Our last meditation on whether the Law of the Jungle has descended on us all may leave some thinking the jungle remains at a distance - so far. But surely the concept of "chaos" can help us negotiate our way through all that's swirling about these days.

A recent discussion with a client centered on the current chaos and the Master of Chaos - our current Fearless Leader.

Now, let's not get carried away here. We're not trash-talking politics. It's just reality. Anyone who has observed the Big Orange Guy over the years knows how he's at the least a devoted pot-stirrer.

Sure, his thing has been "The Great Negotiator." (How many times will we keep hearing how great a negotiator he is?) And he's got some bona fides in this area. Indeed, any successful business persons needs to have some modicum of negotiating skills, right? They want what they want and they know how to get it. But to get it, they may have to dance around a bit more than they'd necessarily like. And the tune they dance to is this idea of "negotiation."

Frankly, some of us, while appreciating the skill it takes to successfully negotiate anything may not not really enjoy the process. Either we're not good at it, or we just think it'd save a lot of time to just be blunt and lay our cards on the table. Of course, we're not the most successful in business, for the most part. We may not be the most successful in life in general - at least life as defined by the material world that surrounds us all. 

Then again, if we look at a definition of "negotiate" maybe we're giving it too much "oomph" that it deserves. Check these two definitions:

- obtain or bring about by discussion

- try to reach an agreement or compromise by discussion with others.

Is that it? If so, don't we all engage in negotiation in some or many ways as a matter of course during our time in this life?

On the other hand, these definitions don't seem to capture the sort of negotiating we witness with the Big Orange Guy (and others, by the way). There we find something fired out of a cannon as an initial salvo. And with that "Boom!" there's the natural scramble. After all, no one wants to stand around in a field of cannon fire, right?

And that's where the chaos comes in. The "Boom!" creates a sense of uncertainty, even anxiety. What's this guy really up to? Does he really intend to re-shape the federal government as we've known it for decades? Does he really intend to "slap" tariffs of 25% on all those countries the U.S. trades with? Is he serious about ending the IRS. Is the firing of hundreds of employees really a precursor to completely shutting down one or more long-standing Agencies of the Federal government? Does he really think that Ukraine caused the Russian invasion of their own country?

We could add to the list, but most of likely have lives to lead. And the Big Orange Guy doesn't seem to have a limit to the cannon balls he orders fired these days.

Which is why we're simply focusing on "chaos" as a catch-all for all this.

And isn't "chaos" appropriate here? After all, there's certainly been a switch thrown that's at the very least zapping if not altogether disintegrating an order that's been ensconced since World War II.

If your remember, one of President Dwight Eisenhower's last speeches was the famous warning about what's come to be called the "Military-Industrial Complex." And while "Globalism" has take pride of place in our lexicon, that original idea of a Military-Industrial Complex is more the hard-core center of all that's surrounded us for the last 80 years or so.

Maybe.

At the least, though, these thoughts flow from a brain, heart, and soul that have lived through: the Cold War: the rise of our current world of global trade and the resulting demise of the venerable American middle class/working class that built and sustained two-parent families and some now long-lost traditions that sustained them; the purported demise of the Soviet Union; 9/11 and its aftermath; and, last but not least, the whole Covid Mess that was arguably the creation of this hard-core center of all that's surround us for the last 80 years or so. So while an amateur at analyzing and breaking down historical and political trends, I'm a pro at lived experience of what's been our world for a number of decades.

From the perspective of such wide and deep experience, "chaos" certainly fills the bill as a description of what's building now. Yet chaos of itself doesn't mean real change. It just means chaos. Can it lead to real change? Yes. Will it inevitably? We just can't say.

Those of us who have marched to the tune played by those in power since WWII can't but help hope that change - for the good - comes from this chaos. Perhaps the rich and powerful aren't in this camp, but they're a small minority. The rest of us could use a change for the better.

There's so much more that can be added here. After all, the tendency to see the world in material terms is only the tip of the ice berg. And that's frankly how most of us see and understand the world - in material terms. But the bigger picture must acknowledge the spiritual, what we Catholics would term the "supernatural." 

While we don't have time to launch into that deeper reflection at the moment, perhaps a quick reference to Plato might open the door for further consideration. He wrote of us humans as living in caves and seeing only shadows on the walls, shadows of what is really real "out there," He considered his work to be the attempt to look beyond the shadows and uncover reality in its fullness, not in the little slice we typically see, touch, taste, hear in our daily lives.

Well, time grows short on this last day of February. Yes, it's just about gone - hard to fathom. So let's leave it here and settle into our last night's sleep in the shortest month of the year, to wake up to March in the Year of Our Lord 2025 bright and early tomorrow.

Cheers!