Another Control Argument. Police as an example. | binary-chaos

Since in pretty much all instances, control is an illusion afforded to us only through short duration or environments with very few variables, I’m thinking it ought to be renamed as “chaos management”.

The amount of order which exists in a system is raised or lowered through the management of the chaos within it; specifically through increases and reductions of complexity.

While humans love to think that control is possible, because they want to believe that there can be certainty in their lives (otherwise known as ‘security’), or that they wish reality would conform to what they want to be the case, it simply isn’t. And very often, the measures we take to increase the amount of order in a system only work in the short term, and ultimately add to the complexity; falsely giving us a sense of security.

I could go into many physical systems to illustrate this, but I think the police are a more visceral example; especially if we think of it in the context of chaos management…

When for instance, wealthier white people use policing to lower the level of chaos in the areas they inhabit by reducing the influence of poor or colored involvement in their privilege, they are only putting off the direct effects of complexity by channeling the chaotic energies away from themselves. As the need for order increases, the channeled energy requires more police and more force to maintain perceived order; which by definition increases complexity, which increases chaotic potential. In the case of wealth consolidation, the force necessary to control an ever-increasing number of people who are not affluent grows.

This shows that an increase in perceived control through the use of force actually reduces overall order, it does not increase it. Eventually, the load will act to find equilibrium by spreading the force of chaos out to the most things, thereby reducing the amount of chaos in the system isolated in areas of force and reestablishing ordered equilibrium. In the case of policing, the need for increasing amounts of officers to maintain the control also dilutes the connectivity between the enforcers and the affluent; thereby adding to the dilution of consolidated power connection, especially if the source for those who are to enforce comes from the same pool as those who are being oppressed.

This is systems theory, and even in human systems, nature will act to enforce equilibrium and deny control. Order is not something you force to happen without consequences. Order is what happens when you let the system work on its own. In this case, ‘we’ are the system.

Taking the long view in our understanding of these processes (both human-social and physical) would lead us to understand that control is absolutely an illusion and all we can actually do is manage the variables and reduce complexity.

Note: This is all still a rough draft of the principals, but I think this captures the essence even if not so elegantly.

Originally published at https://www.binary-chaos.net.