Loving Chaos: The logical conclusion out of confusion

Man’s favourite deployment of time- chaos management. Perhaps the most common usage of time is to try and manage confusion. Even in the absence of confusion, we employ our rationale and create chaos and then get on to solving it. Hats off to man’s ingenuity in creating nonsense. Where there is pure logic, this awe-inspiring species called man, in the name of hidden complexities, unearths a lot of unwanted, unfathomable insight. But then, isn’t that the way we were brought up? Ever since our childhood we are taught to think complex. Where it is possible to do things easily, we are afraid that after all, the problems cannot be so simple and thus we complicate things. Well, what we really need is perhaps exactly what we lack the most- the love of simplicity.

A knowledgeable person once rightly remarked, “Common sense is the most uncommon thing in the world.” Sounds absurd but surprisingly, it is very much true.The problem is that we are unable to apply common sense. After all our education, we feel that it is an insult to our intelligence if someone asks us something ordinary. Our over-fed yet malnutritioned brains feel humiliated to employ simplicity in their thinking process.

The other day as I was walking along the streets of Bangalore, I confronted a person sporting a T-shirt that read, “I was born intelligent, education ruined me.” It really gave me a sense of relief to know that there was at least someone with such deep insight into life. What is it that makes children so endearing to all of us? The truth of the matter is that they are so innocent and straight forward, that twists and turns just do not feature in their lives at all.

If only the world would begin to work straight, it would definitely be a much better place to live in. But whether we like it or not, whether we accept it or not, the truth remains that man has fallen into a trap of love for complexity and it is difficult for you or me to change it. So even as we complain and fret about it, the best we can do to avoid falling prey to this folly is to think simple, for at the heart of chaos lies simplicity. That’s the sole reason why I love chaos as it gives me the opportunity to think simple and more importantly think common sense. Simple living, high thinking.