The Case for Chaos

So it's an exciting time.  And by exciting, I mean dangerously unstable.

The French protests which are, contrary to the 24-hour-news-cycle perspective, still going.

British students are occupying universities to get their point across.

Italians are showing that Italians aren't as laid back as their government would like to believe.

And NOW, the whole Wikileaks shabang.  The US has been caught red-handed spying.  Iran has been sending weapons to Hezbollah in ambulances.  Saudi leaders have been pushing for an attack on Iran, while at the same time funding al Qaeda.  The German chancellor is ineffectual.  The Libyan king likes buxom blondes.

And all I can think is that this is absolutely fantastic.

"Every generation needs a new revolution" - Thomas Jefferson

This is a concept I strongly support.  I believe that the only government that will actually work and be representative is one that is again and again being uprooted, rearranged and replaced.  You'd think this might lead to chaos and confusion.  And you'd probably be right a few hundred years ago.  Now, we have facebook, we have email, we have daily updates and twitter posts.  If the technology exists to enable people to keep tabs on their favorite celebrities' bowel movements, I'm pretty damn sure we'd be able to make periodic government adjustments.

The great killer of potential is stagnation.  When you're really comfortable on your couch, it'd take an act of God to move you.  But when you're moving, writing people, meeting papers, you find out how much you're capable of.  And it really is as simple as that.  If people could be infused with the idea that they are active citizens, that their voice matters, we'd have a lot more voices saying a lot more intelligent things.

As it is, people just want to look at pictures of a 14-year-old sister of some dumb hot girl.

But, as I see it, not for long.  The more chaotic the world becomes, the more anything is possible.