I like the word chaos. I always have. There is no other word in the English language that fully captures the image that chaos conjures up. Disorder? Ha! Confusion? Not even close. Does “confusion” fully capture January 6th? Would you expect a survivor of a Category 4 hurricane to describe the event and aftermath as “quite disorderly”? Of course not (unless they were British), chaos fits perfectly and no other English word does the job.

I am well aware that if you’re my age, CHAOS also described the evil organization out for world domination with nefarious plans that were regularly thwarted by Maxwell Smart and Agent 99. That’s a story probably best left for another day, though. If you’re not my age, then you have no idea what I’m talking about and I feel so sorry for you.

Chaos is a critical part of nature and is always lurking on the dark perimeter of human beings trying to just live their lives. In fact, the word chaos is also used to describe matter that existed in space before the creation of the universe. So, you see, chaos actually existed before everything else that makes up our world. Frightening thought, but factual. (Republicans can feel free, at this point, to substitute any conspiracy theory for that fact.)

Chaos is unwanted. Randomness is fine in our lives, but chaos is randomness’ bad cousin. The French revolution was undertaken with the aim of rectifying many of France’s worse societal ills, but it quickly descended into chaos with no direction or order, no rational thought, and leaving vast destruction in its wake. War breeds chaos. The people in Ukraine have had all aspects of their existence upended and they now live in chaos.

Chaos is an integral part of nature. From what I know, it seems that chaos reigns supreme in deep space. Black holes? Gigantic, terminal chaos in a cup. Weather is just chaos waiting to break out. Weather just bides its time until it hauls off and whacks us. Having a nice, 70 degree day? Just wait. After every major weather event – blizzards, mudslides, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, heat waves – chaos results and the more traumatic the weather, the more intense and prolonged the chaos.

Chaos is even found inside the human body. Birth effects are random genetic events that result in hardship and sorrow for years afterwards. They seem to happen haphazardly. They cause chaos. The most obvious manifestation of chaos in humans and animals, however, is cancer. Cancer is almost the definition of biologic chaos. Essentially, cancer is a cell breaking free of the normal cell growth regulators and growing uncontrollably to the detriment of itself, its neighboring cells, the tissue, the organ, and, eventually, the organism. Internally there is cell chaos. Externally? Well, we’ve all seen what terminal cancer does to a person and to a family.

We human beings take great pains to try and keep chaos from ruining our lives -with limited success. The entire insurance industry is founded on the principle of keeping chaos in check. I have health insurance so that, should I become seriously ill, the rest of my life continues in a normal fashion without medical bills pushing me towards financial chaos. The same concept applies to home and auto insurance. Life insurance is even weirder – trying to insure that your lifestyle and finances continue after your life ends? I’m being facetious, of course, life insurance keeps your loved ones from falling into chaos. Hell, I even have dental insurance. I’m worried about “teeth chaos”, I guess.

Human society is quite aware of the impacts of chaos. Our entire legal system – laws, police, courts, and prisons – is all designed to attempt to limit the impact of chaotic elements on our communities. Since man became a sentient being, they have realized that individuals and communities had to attempt to control chaos. Man has limited success in these endeavors over time and the effectiveness of the barriers to chaos is rapidly waning.

I see 2 major chaos-related threats to the citizens of this country. One obviously is the alarming growth of a small, but significant, proportion of our population who have abandoned facts, science, expertise, and knowledge to follow foolish notions and silly conspiracies. There have always been fools in every society, but universal access to social media has given these particular idiots an outsized megaphone with which to blast these outlandish theories and somehow to gain additional followers. Even more dangerous than these “true believers” are the rich and powerful who fund and manipulate the mobs in order to gain more power, money, and notoriety. The most stark example of this manipulation is the trove of Fox News emails that have been uncovered and publicized in preparation for the Dominion lawsuit. Of course, everyone on camera knew that the “stolen election” claims were ridiculous, but they continued to stoke the flames for ratings. And Trump (need I say anything more?). The end result was January 6. The greatest chaotic event in the nation’s history. None of the underlying causes of January 6 have been adequately addressed. In fact, some have worsened. The question now about another January 6 event is not if, but when.

The other chaotic threat facing this nation, and every corner of the globe, is climate change. There has been no remediation of the factors that are carrying us to armageddon. The overall state of the world has significantly worsened since alarms about our warming world were first raised. The scientific community has become more direct in their descriptions of what awaits us and their warnings are more dire. The effects of our changing climate are all around us and are obvious to even the most obtuse Republican legislator. This isn’t just a Republican problem, though. The Democratic Party has barely even paid lip service to reining in our fossil fuel consumption and the resulting greenhouse gasses. The American people haven’t cared. It’s impossible to keep up with this dire climate news and all of the Kardashian news at the same time. So, we chose our priorities. God damn us. If God doesn’t, the next 2 generations certainly will.

I like the word chaos, but I hate chaos. The social and natural world order allow us to live our lives. Sure, chaos is always present, but much of what we have put in place over thousands of years helps keep chaos at bay. If you gradually chip away at order and allow chaos to run unfettered, our society will breakdown. Both the threat of an uninformed mob mentality spreading through our society and continual extreme weather events endanger our established order and will eventually bring about widespread chaos.

We are in a world of hurt and we caused all of it, but the fallout won’t be fair. As usual, the poor will suffer disproportionately and the rich will suffer the least. Capitalism at its most pure.