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“An intelligent hell would be better than a stupid paradise.” ~Victor Hugo
In the same way that courage is needed to stretch comfort zones, chaotic freedom is needed to outflank the tyranny of order, and for the same reasons.
The courage found in chaotic freedom checks and balances the tyranny of order. It’s Dionysian in nature, having no qualms about crushing outdated grapes into updated wines.
The Dionysian force of chaotic freedom dances through the mannequin culture. It thunders past the status quo junkies. It flips scripts, turns tables, pushes envelopes, shocks chakras, and flattens the box that everyone claims to be thinking outside of. It flies high and above the steel walls of the Apollonian labyrinth. It sees how Goliath has become an idol, a golden cow, and a parasitic icon that has blinded the people of the world from the knowledge of their own imagination.
Chaotic freedom is a courageous David with a slingshot that’s true. No Goliath is safe. No ivory tower is secure. No wall is unassailable. No God is unquestionable. Everything is put on blast.
Indeed. Chaotic freedom is a lion waking up from a nap surrounded by a herd of sheep pretending to be asleep.
Chaotic freedom is medicine for a sick world floundering in the tyranny of its own order. Likewise, and ironically, the tyranny of order is the remedy for chaotic freedom, which comes in the form of discipline. It’s important to understand that it’s a balancing act. But it’s a balancing act in which chaotic freedom must be primary to the tyranny of order lest we lose sight of the reason to maintain balance in the first place.
As F. Paul Pacult said, “Life is at its best when it is shaken and stirred.” Indeed. Just as life is at its worst when it is rigid and settled.
Use chaotic freedom to unsettle settled mindsets. Use it to count coup on outdatedness. Use it to outflank rigidness, assumption, certainty, expectation, attachment, dogmatism, and closemindedness. Use it to reorder ancient order. For it is always the case that order needs to be reordered.
This way boundaries are constantly being transformed into horizons, and change is subsumed by the ability to adapt and overcome. The world widens and we become the tip of the spear of needed change. For as Heraclitus said, “The only constant in life is change.”
Without the vibrancy of chaotic freedom, we are left with the changelessness of ordered tyranny. Likewise, without audacious courage, we are left with stagnant comfort zones.
Ordered tyranny, like a comfort zone, is comfortable, secure, and safe, sure. But there is no room for adventure, insecurity, and danger there. And without these, we are without whetstones. We are without the pressure that can transform the coal of our demons into the sheen of a diamond. We are without the rub of adversity that can transform our grit into a pearl. We are without the stropping that can transform our dullness into sharpness.
Chaotic freedom is a form of candor, a kind of fidelity to reality. It’s a way of responding to change genuinely rather than artificially. It’s a way of transforming the worst that life can dish out into the best that our creativity can turn out.
Beyond this, the main reason why chaotic freedom is preferrable to ordered tyranny is because we are a fallible species. We are imperfect and prone to mistakes. We are gullible. And this will always be the case. Especially within a preferred comfort zone or ordered tyranny where we are more likely to stick to our guns, where we are more likely to batten down the hatches and cling to what we know, and where we are more likely to default to comfort as an overreaction to our cognitive dissonance.
But, as Lev Shestov challenged, “Ask yourself which is better: the painful convulsions of a doubtful awakening, or the grey, yawning torpidity of certain sleep.”
The tyranny of order is certain sleep. But therein lies torpidity and sloth. Therein lies inflexibility and rigid thinking. Comfortable, sure, but there’s no oomph, no propellant, no forward motion. There is only the ugliness of being stuck in a rut and not even being aware of it.
Chaotic freedom is our doubtful awakening. But therein lies adventure and awe. Therein lies adaptability and flexible thinking. Uncomfortable, sure, but there is mettle, urgency, and forward motion. There is the sacred beauty of discovering something new and being aware that the path to discovery is never-ending.
We must keep chaotic freedom ahead of the tyranny of order for the same reasons we keep the Truth Quest ahead of the “truth,” or curiosity ahead of certainty, or humor ahead of hubris—and that is to stay ahead of the curve of the human condition.
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About the Author:
Gary Z McGee, a former Navy Intelligence Specialist turned philosopher, is the author of Birthday Suit of God and The Looking Glass Man. His works are inspired by the great philosophers of the ages and his wide-awake view of the modern world.
This article (Why Chaotic Freedom is Preferable to the Tyranny of Order) was originally created and published by Self-inflicted Philosophy and is printed here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Gary Z McGee and self-inflictedphilosophy.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this statement of copyright.