The Context of Choas

Once we had started rehearsals for the chaos we had a lot of discussions figuring out the context of the play, our two main themes turned out to be the butterfly effect/chaos theory and also the life of the teenager.

The butterfly effect and chaos theory.

An example of the butterfly effect that is most common is “when I butterfly flaps its wings in Brazil it can cause a hurricane in Texas” this analogy is also repeated throughout the play in short scenes. If the butterfly had not flapped its wings at just the right point in space/time, the hurricane would not have happened. A more rigorous way to express this is that small changes in the initial conditions lead to drastic changes in the results. Our lives are an ongoing demonstration of this principle. Because we can never know all the initial conditions of a complex system in perfect detail, we cannot hope to predict the long term effects of our actions. In our reality, small things in our system have a massive impact or maybe no impact at all the points of the butterfly effect is that we have no way of knowing what the outcome will be.

“As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.”

-Albert Einstein

There has been a proverb that has been around since the 14th century way before the invention of chaos theory that has a more poetic take of the butterfly effect.

For want of a nail the shoe was lost,

For want of a shoe, the horse was lost,

For want of a horse, the rider was lost,

For want of a rider, the battle was lost,

For want of a battle, the kingdom was lost,

And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

“It used to be thought that the events that changed the world were things like big bombs, maniac politicians, huge earthquakes, or vast population movements, but it has now been realized that this is a very old-fashioned view held by people totally out of touch with modern thought. The things that change the world, according to Chaos theory, are the tiny things. A butterfly flaps its wings in the Amazonian jungle, and subsequently a storm ravages half of Europe.”

— from Good Omens, by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

The butterfly effect has been used in many forms of media throughout the 21st century either through writing, TV, film and of course plays like “Chaos” by Laura Lomas.

https://fs.blog/2017/08/the-butterfly-effect/ (more information on chaos theory and the butterfly effect)

The life of the teenager.

In the 19th century (mostly America but also the UK) the word teenager didn't exist there were only adults and children. Most parents let their older children (16-19) enjoy life before they enter the world of full grown adults by letting them go to dances and music halls. There was however full separation between boy and girls at these events including school. Although child labor practices still existed, restrictions against such exploitation were starting to be put in place. The average number of years spent in school for young people was also on the rise and parents were waiting longer to convince their children to get married rather than pairing them off at sixteen or seventeen. In short, it soon became apparent that a new stage of life — the TEENAGE phase — was becoming a reality in the western world. Adolescents were displaying traits unknown among children and adult, most likely due to a new age of change in technology and social movements. Although the word teenager did not come into use until decades later in 1940, the teenage mindset dawned in the 1920s. www.ushistory.org/us/46c.asp (an article of early teen life)

Primary research:

For a better understanding of the differences between them 21st-century teen and someone who was a teenager over 40 years ago the company had the opportunity to interview a lady named Joy. Joy grew up during the Second World War which they had much smaller families in order to keep then protected, fewer children less to worry and keep an eye on. During this time the culture was more family orientated. Growing up during the war more parents kept their children close and more protected, however, this leads to a lot of young adults not having the freedom that so many of us take for granted today. Once the war was over she had a bit more freedom but was so used to being kept safe nothing really changed, boys and girls didn’t mix in secondary schools which meant that all of her friends were majority girls making the relationship drama young people have now rarely a thing. When she was sixteen she was allowed to go to youth clubs and would attend dance classes (the 1950s–60s), although with the lack of technology she would go out a see friends but wouldn’t do anything spontaneously because there was more difficulty making plans. Joy met her husband at the age of nineteen and was married by twenty-one, she says this limited her teenage years and she took longer to mature from her lack of experience in the world. Since the whole village was quite small pretty much everyone knew each other and was brought up the same way so nobody questioned that there might be people who have a much different experience in life than them, they also lived in a white town meaning she was never exposed to racism and was oblivious to it. Things such as drugs, homosexuality (as it was illegal) and mental health issues were also alien to her as she’d never been exposed to any of that stuff when she was younger or educated about it. Overall she came to the conclusion that her life as a teenager was a lot easier than what it is like today.

As a teenager, I feel like social media causes a lot of pressure to fit in and people not just teenagers do not know their own self-worth because of the unrealistic expectations that we are constantly exposed to.  It makes us feel like we have failed in some way or another when we do not meet theses unachievable expectations.  More young people are coming forward with their experiences mental health issues like depression and anxiety. I feel that this is mainly due to the rise of social media and the pressures that are put on young people by the older generation with life decisions having to be made a lot younger like careers choices. It seems to me however that older teenagers of this generation 16+ are starting to realize just how damaging the effects of social media can be. As someone who grew up during the beginning of special media before it was fully mainstream, I wasn’t exposed to as much while I was still young. None of my friends had phones until at least secondary school even at home electronic gadgets like they are now weren’t as popular I was lucky enough to spend my childhood outside playing out which unfortunately isn’t so much the case with the new young generation. There is a lot of pressure to be liked on social media and I believe that we rely more on social media to validate our selves for e.g. likes on Facebook and Instagram and I am guilty of this myself, the sad truth is that as people it makes us feel better about ourselves. The older generation of teenagers is now coming forward and speaking out against the harsh effects that social media has caused. There are a real influence and slow change being made by people regarding social media with movements like body positivity, male mental health, black lives matter and LBTG+. I think this is because we understand that social media is never going away and instead of shouting about how terrible it can be (like previous generations) we recognize that social media can and is a great thing it can give a voice to people who often feel like they are ignored, bring community’s together and keep people in touch.

The schooling system is another issue for the teenager, as we all know everyone is unique and has their own ways or learning yet we are thrown into school expecting to learn the same way as everyone else. In school to succeed most teenagers will feel under so much pressure to do not only their best but better than everyone else, however again when that is unachievable because they are not quite able to grasp something as quick as everyone else in one subject they get told their not good enough to be put with the “smart kids” in the top sets and get put in lower sets they feel not smart enough nor good enough. By standing back and actually looking at why teenagers feel they have it so bad, we can start to address these issues and make a change from the infamous social media to the schooling system. Teenagers are being told they have a voice yet nobody actually listens because when we say we want to make a change and someone doesn’t like the sound of it we get told we’re “just kids”, like we have no knowledge about anything. But we do, the teenager isn’t a teenager forever, they grow, they learn and they turn into adults; they’re so misunderstood and stuck in that age gap of not being a child but not yet a fully mature adult.  If we actually took a minute to listen to teenagers we’d find out that they have a lot to say and their opinions are just as valid and important as everyone else’s. They are a crucial part to society and eventually they will be the adults who will be running society.