The Butterfly Effect and Social Justice

In these difficult times I have found myself engaged in many conversations with people passionate about helping, making a difference, fighting against racism and oppression, fighting for social justice. And I have found these conversations both hopeful and frustrating. It seems that with all the faith and perseverance there is a pervasive feeling of being overwhelmed and unable to see what effect might result. This is especially true for those of us committed to listening more and praying more deeply. 

As I pondered this tension I remembered the “butterfly effect”, the theory that something as light and small as the fluttering of a butterfly’s wings could effect a mighty wind or storm around the globe! The butterfly effect is actually a scientific theory which emerges from chaos theory. Chaos here is not the lack of coherence but the recognition and embracing even of complexity and non-linearity of predictive analysis. Hence very small events can have unexpected and extraordinary impacts.

We who are committed to a social justice movement might take hope in this metaphor of effectuality. In fact, much of the feminist movement and its gains are due to what Catharine McKinnon, feminist legal scholar, has called Butterfly Politics. 

Here is the quote which begins her book: You don’t see something until you have the right metaphor to let you perceive it. Robert Stenson Shaw

I am leaning into this butterfly metaphor and hoping the power in its gentleness, persistence and precision can assist in the perception of real change to a systemic injustice, chaotic, unpredictable and yet changeable.