The Butterfly Effect
Firefights, skirmishes and even wars begin for the smallest, strangest and the most insane reasons, take for instance the recent border conflict between Israeli and Lebanese troops resulting in the death of two Lebanese soldiers, a Lebanese journalist and a senior Israeli officer. The deadly confrontation is an illustration of how the weather phenomena, the Butterfly Effect, can be applied to just about everything. MIT professor and meteorologist Edward Lorenz proposed that weather conditions were so fragile that the flapping of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil could ultimately create just the right conditions to set off a tornado in Texas. The origin of this deadly border fight, according to UNIFIL (UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon), was simply because the Israelis were trimming trees on their side of the border. How conflicts begin under such harmless circumstances is a question for anthropologists. I am sure the basis for that kind of thinking lies deep within our sense of the perceived need to protect us from them.
Marvin Wiebener
http://marvinwiebener.tatepublishing.net
