Happy Thanksgiving!
As you enjoy your Turkey, recall that the Pilgrims who ended up in Plymouth were fleeing the Anglican church, England’s state religion. The English church, of course, split from the Roman church so that Henry VIII could get a divorce. The little people, however, were not allowed the chance to split their churches in quite the same way, unless they fled to someplace ‘less’ civilized. Unfortunately, and perhaps ironicly, the Puritans, despite their experiences in the Netherlands, were not seeking freedom of conscience, but the chance to impose their views. This lead to the founding of Boston, and there, an accumulation of people who saw liberty as a blessing, and eventually, further unfortunate results for the powers of the English monarchs. All of which might be seen as emerging from a bits of chaos.
So I give thanks that today, leaders don’t arbitrarily change the rules under which we live to satisfy their personal desires. At least, they don’t do so nearly so often.
Happy Thanksgiving!
We gave thanks last month. But Happy Thanksgiving to you guys down South nonetheless.
Speaking of bits of chaos that lead to an emergent order: pick up Steven Strogatz’ SYNC. One of the better fast paced syntheses of recent thinking about chaos (so 80s!) complexity (more 90s) and what today is a more general science about lots of components more or less loosely connected.