Message of Hope

Hello! A new year begins and with it the hope of a better life, world…

But, how to keep this hope despite of the growing global problems? Isn´t a naïve hope due to the world chaos?

Hum, let’s see what the new discoveries in science can say about this (based on the book “Leadership and the New Science” by Margaret Wheatley):

-New models for understanding change and disorder came from the chaos theory. A system is defined as chaotic when it is impossible to know what he’ll do in the next moment. The system never behaves the same way twice. However, as demonstrated by the chaos theory, if we observe a chaotic system over time, it demonstrates an inherent state of order; his uncontrollable actions remain within an invisible boundary. The system contains its own internal order. And reveals the self-portrait as a beautiful pattern, its strange attractor (see figure below).Therefore, in the whole universe, exists order in disorder and disorder in order. We always thought that the disorder was the absence of order state, seen the own construction of the word, dis-order. But, what happens is a dance – of chaos and order, change and stability. Thus, we are faced with complementarities that only give the impression of being polarities. None of them has the primacy, both are absolutely necessary. When we observe the growth, we see the result of the dance.

Figure of a chaotic strange attractor (Max Planck Institute, Germany).

– In chemistry, Ilya Prigogine received the Nobel Prize in 1977 for his work that demonstrated how certain chemical systems reorganize themselves for a highest level in order, when faced with environmental changes. Prigogine created the term “dissipative structures” to describe the contradictory nature of these discovered systems. The dissipation describes a loss, a process of gradual flow of energy, while the structure describes the order embodied. In a dissipative structure, anything that disturbs the system has the crucial role of helping it to self-organize into a new form. When the environment provides new and different information, the system chooses to react to it or not; if this information becomes a disturbance of such magnitude that the system can no longer ignore it, there is certainly a real change on the horizon. At this point, with so many internal disturbances and far from equilibrium, the system disintegrates, but this disintegration does not mean its death. If it can keep your own identity, the living system can reconfigure itself in a higher level of complexity, a new form of self that can better deal with the present. Thus, dissipative structures show that the disorder can be the source of new order, and that growth arises from disequilibrium, not from equilibrium!

Then let´s see some of the insights about these discoveries of science:

– Life seeks order, but uses the disorder to get there. What happens is a dance – of chaos and order, change and stability.

– Chaos and change are ways for transformation. The growth arises from disequilibrium, not from equilibrium.

Thus, the actual chaos installed in various dimensions of society (economy, environment, politics, organizations …) means that we need to rethink all these issues and evolve as a society and as human beings!

May 2012 be a year of profound transformation, evolution and love in the higher meaning.