Retracing the butterfly effect on the BLM movement, Lynn Chen
Retracing the butterfly effect on the BLM movement Lynn Chen explores how one small event rippled through history to create the Black Lives Matter movement that we know today.
I -
F ANYTHING IS FOR sure this year,
computer from a coffee break, Lorenz
it is that the BLM protests were not
discovered that his mathematical computations
unprecedented. But, how did we get here?
showed that one small insignificant action
With the onslaught of monthly events that
could accelerate into a large chaotic event;
seem to shake up the tectonic plates of our
most commonly, we've heard the example of
human world, living in 2020 feels like one
how a butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil, at
tireless dystopian novel. Trace strains of
the right time and place, can trigger a tornado
COVID-19 end up in the markets of China and
in Texas.
cause a worldwide pandemic. Citizens of the United States become fed up with racist police
At our first guess, this may suggest that our
violence and are hungry for revolution. Life
universe is predictable, but checking every
changes and we're forced to begin afresh in
small variance in our world would be such a
learning new truths in both our personal lives
laborious task that it renders it impossible.
and the larger world.
However, looking into patterns of history can be a source of prediction.
The Butterfly Effect One year ago, no person would have believed
Accelerations
in this timeline of chaos. But, Edward Lorenz's
Humour me for a second and think about the
Butterfly Effect theory on the predictability of
similarity of all political issues within and
the Universe comes close to giving us an
across nations: freedom, equality and power. If
explanation. In 1961, after returning to his 90
