by Warren Ross
See if you can integrate the following seemingly disparate concretes:
- The movie Jurassic Park
- The latest death in the Kennedy clan
- The movie Forrest Gump
- El Niño
If what unites them is not immediately obvious, let’s start by reviewing the essentials of each item.
In the movie Jurassic Park, man’s attempts to control nature are portrayed as a sham. Despite man’s best rational attempts to defend against the harmful effects of raising dangerous animals, “chaotic” and “unpredictable” things occur which make his defenses useless. The animals break out of their cage and go on a rampage. The message, in the words of one character (a mathematician schooled in the faulty interpretations of modern chaos theory) is that “anything that can happen will happen.”
The death of Michael Kennedy in a skiing accident was portrayed by the media as just another one of the inexplicable disasters to occur to the Kennedy family. The Kennedies have been plagued by assassination, deaths by drug overdoses, divorces, infidelities, accusation of rape, accusation of murder, etc. That most of these are not even natural disasters, accidents or horrific killings, but completely predictable outcomes of the kinds of behavior engaged in by family members, is glossed over by the media. They emphasize the unpredictability of it. Michael Kennedy was supposed to be an excellent skier, but in the words of one friend, “accidents happen.”
In the movie Forrest Gump, a dimwitted, childlike character goes through various scenes in which he accidentally is involved in historic events (e.g. scenes at the White House with presidents, investing early in the highly productive Apple Computer company). Gump doesn’t take any action from which one could rationally conclude that he would succeed – he’s just a feather in the wind – but he succeeds anyway…by accident. In the words of a slogan which he miraculously happened to be present to invent (and which is an eloquent premise of the modern intellectual), “shit happens.” (And, the movie goes on to argue, “good stuff” just happens too).
Finally, El Niño. For the last half year, the media have subjected us to an unremitting saturation in stories about El Niño. Everyone is sick of it – I’ve known adults to groan and hold their ears when such a story comes on the nightly news, and young children to say they are tired of hearing about it – yet the stories continue. We see stories of floods in South America, drought in Malaysia, fires in Australia, polar bears that are too warm, etc. Ignoring the fact that El Niño is a natural weather pattern that has been around for ages, and that science has allowed us to understand this phenomenon and explain previously inexplicable weather shifts, the media simply harp on the unpredictability of local weather patterns – we used to have cold weather in Fargo, North Dakota, they say, and now we don’t. Weather happens.
What do these stories and movies add up to? Weather happens — shit (and good stuff) happens — accidents happen — anything can happen. The universe, according to the writers and reporters who interpret events for us, is not a predictable, stable world of cause and effect, but a place where the unpredictable is the norm, where the inexplicable just “happens.” Each of these concretes is an example of the metaphysics of a chaotic universe. Underlying our ability to predict events is first and foremost the idea that events are metaphysically predictABLE, i.e. they follow natural patterns where the same cause leads to the same effect. It is this metaphysical premise that is most consistently under attack in recent years.
Grasping the prevalence of this principle in our culture can help one to understand the nightly news – not only the specific content but more importantly the principle guiding selection of content. Every night we are treated to one disaster after another, somewhere on the globe. If there were life on other planets, we would be treated to disasters from all over the galaxy. Why? What conceivable relevance can a flood in the Andes (or Alpha Centauri) or a famine in Africa have on one’s life – here, in America? The answer is that it has no rational relevance. It is, however, a systematic way for the media to draw our attention to something it considers very important: disasters are around every corner. The world is unpredictable and even those who do not expect or deserve suffering are nevertheless subjected to it. (Never mind that in most cases, relevant facts are omitted to paint this picture, e.g. famines in Africa are caused by Marxism and tribalism, not by weather; and at least some of the disasters in the Kennedy clan are caused by the immoral behavior of clan members themselves.)
In effect, the media are trying to convince us, through repeated concretes, of the exact opposite of a proper philosophy. A proper philosophy — Objectivism — holds (in metaphysics) that the universe is subject to cause and effect; that inexplicable, causeless events don’t happen; that when disasters do happen they are temporary; that (in epistemology) such disasters can be combated by reason applied to understanding nature, coupled (in ethics) with action to implement the conclusions of reason. All of this is wiped out by the metaphysics of disaster and chaos — the entire philosophical structure is toppled if the foundation is destroyed — and that is exactly what is accomplished by the media concentration on such a metaphysics.
To judge by most people’s reaction to this campaign, they are bored with the content but they have bought the message. People appear relatively unaffected by all the disasters shown in the nightly news stories, but then they say things like “It’s a dangerous world out there” or “Anything is possible” when arguing current issues at the lunch table. The litany of emergencies and heartache cannot but have the desired result unless people consciously identify what principle underlies it and consciously reject that principle. For you who do actively conceptualize what you see on the news and in our culture, you possess a powerful weapon to immunize yourselves against such a destructive premise, and to convince others of the right premise. Just living in this culture, we cannot help having the undertow of “the chaotic universe” continuously pull at our heels, but at least we don’t have to be swept under by the tide — and we can help change the tide, too.
El Niño and the Metaphysics of Chaos
by Warren Ross
See if you can integrate the following seemingly disparate concretes:
If what unites them is not immediately obvious, let’s start by reviewing the essentials of each item.
In the movie Jurassic Park, man’s attempts to control nature are portrayed as a sham. Despite man’s best rational attempts to defend against the harmful effects of raising dangerous animals, “chaotic” and “unpredictable” things occur which make his defenses useless. The animals break out of their cage and go on a rampage. The message, in the words of one character (a mathematician schooled in the faulty interpretations of modern chaos theory) is that “anything that can happen will happen.”
The death of Michael Kennedy in a skiing accident was portrayed by the media as just another one of the inexplicable disasters to occur to the Kennedy family. The Kennedies have been plagued by assassination, deaths by drug overdoses, divorces, infidelities, accusation of rape, accusation of murder, etc. That most of these are not even natural disasters, accidents or horrific killings, but completely predictable outcomes of the kinds of behavior engaged in by family members, is glossed over by the media. They emphasize the unpredictability of it. Michael Kennedy was supposed to be an excellent skier, but in the words of one friend, “accidents happen.”
In the movie Forrest Gump, a dimwitted, childlike character goes through various scenes in which he accidentally is involved in historic events (e.g. scenes at the White House with presidents, investing early in the highly productive Apple Computer company). Gump doesn’t take any action from which one could rationally conclude that he would succeed – he’s just a feather in the wind – but he succeeds anyway…by accident. In the words of a slogan which he miraculously happened to be present to invent (and which is an eloquent premise of the modern intellectual), “shit happens.” (And, the movie goes on to argue, “good stuff” just happens too).
Finally, El Niño. For the last half year, the media have subjected us to an unremitting saturation in stories about El Niño. Everyone is sick of it – I’ve known adults to groan and hold their ears when such a story comes on the nightly news, and young children to say they are tired of hearing about it – yet the stories continue. We see stories of floods in South America, drought in Malaysia, fires in Australia, polar bears that are too warm, etc. Ignoring the fact that El Niño is a natural weather pattern that has been around for ages, and that science has allowed us to understand this phenomenon and explain previously inexplicable weather shifts, the media simply harp on the unpredictability of local weather patterns – we used to have cold weather in Fargo, North Dakota, they say, and now we don’t. Weather happens.
What do these stories and movies add up to? Weather happens — shit (and good stuff) happens — accidents happen — anything can happen. The universe, according to the writers and reporters who interpret events for us, is not a predictable, stable world of cause and effect, but a place where the unpredictable is the norm, where the inexplicable just “happens.” Each of these concretes is an example of the metaphysics of a chaotic universe. Underlying our ability to predict events is first and foremost the idea that events are metaphysically predictABLE, i.e. they follow natural patterns where the same cause leads to the same effect. It is this metaphysical premise that is most consistently under attack in recent years.
Grasping the prevalence of this principle in our culture can help one to understand the nightly news – not only the specific content but more importantly the principle guiding selection of content. Every night we are treated to one disaster after another, somewhere on the globe. If there were life on other planets, we would be treated to disasters from all over the galaxy. Why? What conceivable relevance can a flood in the Andes (or Alpha Centauri) or a famine in Africa have on one’s life – here, in America? The answer is that it has no rational relevance. It is, however, a systematic way for the media to draw our attention to something it considers very important: disasters are around every corner. The world is unpredictable and even those who do not expect or deserve suffering are nevertheless subjected to it. (Never mind that in most cases, relevant facts are omitted to paint this picture, e.g. famines in Africa are caused by Marxism and tribalism, not by weather; and at least some of the disasters in the Kennedy clan are caused by the immoral behavior of clan members themselves.)
In effect, the media are trying to convince us, through repeated concretes, of the exact opposite of a proper philosophy. A proper philosophy — Objectivism — holds (in metaphysics) that the universe is subject to cause and effect; that inexplicable, causeless events don’t happen; that when disasters do happen they are temporary; that (in epistemology) such disasters can be combated by reason applied to understanding nature, coupled (in ethics) with action to implement the conclusions of reason. All of this is wiped out by the metaphysics of disaster and chaos — the entire philosophical structure is toppled if the foundation is destroyed — and that is exactly what is accomplished by the media concentration on such a metaphysics.
To judge by most people’s reaction to this campaign, they are bored with the content but they have bought the message. People appear relatively unaffected by all the disasters shown in the nightly news stories, but then they say things like “It’s a dangerous world out there” or “Anything is possible” when arguing current issues at the lunch table. The litany of emergencies and heartache cannot but have the desired result unless people consciously identify what principle underlies it and consciously reject that principle. For you who do actively conceptualize what you see on the news and in our culture, you possess a powerful weapon to immunize yourselves against such a destructive premise, and to convince others of the right premise. Just living in this culture, we cannot help having the undertow of “the chaotic universe” continuously pull at our heels, but at least we don’t have to be swept under by the tide — and we can help change the tide, too.