David Peat

From Clockwork to Chaos 153and understand the ways such systems function at an organic level. Weneed to sense them as living, functioning systems, to see how they dependupon complex levels of meaning so that any action we take flowsfrom an understanding of this underlying meaning.Action need no longer be violent and confrontational. We don’tneed to think in terms of problems to be tackled, or of making war ondefects. Rather we must work at many levels simultaneously—at boththe practical level and the level of meaning, dealing with both particularsand generalities, looking at both a specific defect and the overallcontext in which this defect occurs. We must remember that wheneverwe look at some system outside ourselves we are also looking inward atourselves, at our projections and prejudices and our fantasies of howthings should be.Psychotherapists know this when they say that the patient is thereto cure the doctor! Our drive to correct and improve things must alwaysbe open to question. We must ask why we make such an effort todeal with the world. Are we reacting to environmental disaster out offear and anger or out of a deep love and empathy with the naturalworld? Do we want to heal because we don’t feel whole inside? Do wewish to improve the world around us because we feel inadequate? Dowe engage in endless activity because our own lives are empty? Everyaction flows out of who we are and the meanings we value. We areconstantly bringing ourselves to the world, and who we are and thevalues we hold are aspects of that world of which we are an essentialpart.The move from certainty to uncertainty that characterized thetwentieth century has brought with it a great responsibility. Each of ustoday realizes our connection to the society in which we live throughcountless feedback loops. Each of us helps to generate and sustain themeaning by which that society functions. What’s more, chaos is nolonger something to be afraid of; it is an expression of the deep richnessthat lies within the order of the cosmos and our very lives.