I was thinking more about the wolf and sheep thing…

I still think it’s not quite that black and white…

I think it is more of a balancing act. It reminds me of something I read about the difference between order/safety and freedom. As people we desire both, but unfortunately the more steps we take to create order and safety in our lives the less real freedom we have. Conversely, total freedom promotes an atmosphere of chaos. Predictability, safety, security and order all come at the expense of freedom, but without freedom we can’t have self-expression, creativity, individuality, etc. Neither extreme is very appealing because we don’t want to live in a world without freedom, yet we’re not comfortable with chaos. We’re forced to balance our lives (and hopefully our government) between the two somewhere. Thoughts?

Brett and I took our conversation offline via IM and phone, and here is the bit of the transcript:

Howard— Yes, perhaps it is fear that pushes us towards “order” and hunger that pushes us towards freedom and chaos.

Brett— Possibly. However I think to get much done, we have to create an environment of order. The very act of survival requires that we create/find order.

Howard— I would think that our forefathers would love the safety of the cave, but hunger would drive them into the chaos of finding food. I’m thinking that survival is your balance between these extremes. We can’t eat if we don’t get out there and face the chaos of being eaten ourselves.

Brett— But to go out and attempt to get food, we have to create a plan… devise a system where we can control our environment a little, increase our odds of success and decrease the chaos.

Howard— Exactly. So when we go out into the chaos, we try to bring out order. Consequently, we also bring a little bit of chaos back to the cave.

Brett— But, the “wolf” will probably tolerate more chaos than the sheep.

Howard— But the wolf won’t tolerate any chaos within the pack. The chaos is only part of the hunt. But how much tolerance we have of chaos changes during our life. When we are younger, we can’t wait to get out of our Midwest hometown and move to New York City and “experience life.” But as we get older, we want to slow down and raise kids, and so we move out to the ‘burbs. Later when we retire, if we leave the house as all, we bring our house with us.

Brett— Yeah.

Howard— But there is an alternative to the work associated with balancing like this… If you have no hunger … that is, no desire … then the chaos goes away. And without the fear of chaos, the desire for order goes away as well.