Picture: Public Domain
R: Will you test me as my Fool, so that all may understand?
C: I will.
R: Will you test me as my Jester, if none else will criticize?
C: I will.
from “The Insubordinate Ritual”, Liber Kaos by Peter J Carroll.
Chaos and disorder are to be embraced by Governments, Bureaucracies and Businesses who seek to become ‘Antifragile’. This, according to a new book, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb: Antifragile: Things that Gain From Disorder. Disinfo towers awaits its complimentary copy. In the meantime a particularly interesting review has surfaced in The Daily Beast where, The Goddess Discordia, is celebrated in all but name:
Taleb maintains that living things and complex systems are all antifragile to some degree. Our bodies, for the most part, thrive as a result of regular interaction with stressors in the environment just as “firms become weak during long periods of steady prosperity devoid of setbacks” and “[s]mall forest fires periodically cleanse the system of the most flammable material, so these do not have the opportunity to accumulate.” The process of biological evolution, technological progress, and economic growth all rely on some sort of messy, undirected trial-and-error process that is fueled by regular exposure to uncertainty. We insulate ourselves from such natural volatility at our own peril.
By adopting practices that makes our lives and institutions more antifragile, Taleb argues that we can better negotiate a world that is in so many ways inherently unpredictable. It’s an undeniably rich insight, so much so that even though Taleb seems to restate it in one form or another on every page, he continues to illuminate surprising dimensions and implications of the concept as the book unfolds. It seems antifragility doesn’t just shed light on how to structure our portfolio but also how to choose a lunch partner or decide what books to read.
Full review in The Daily Beast
Followers of the noted occultist, Peter J Carroll, will no doubt be aware of his advocation of a remarkably similar principle in the incredibly influential ‘Magical Pact Of The Illuminates of Thanateros’. It’s not unusual for Chaos Magick concepts to resurface in a more palatable form in the business world.
Furthermore, it’s likely many Disinfonaughts will be aware of the archetypal role of ‘The Jester Who Tells The Truth”. Another manifestation of this principle, frequently seen in Shakespearean drama.
