Preface To A Small Collection Of Short Stories That Should Be Out This Summer (Maybe)

Exploring the theme of chaos is a wonderful exercise everyone should become familiar with. There is much to be written regarding our suppression of chaotic theory due mostly to our fear of nature. Laws, for example, are created and enforced by humans as walls that keep the animals we are at a safe distance. These laws are not necessarily written down and punishable by incarceration or whatever the state has deemed proper. Some of the laws we abide by we do so without even knowing it.

You can see chaos churning under the surface of everything, occasionally rising to the surface and into your consciousness through experiences and things like the news and social media. People obtain that much desired "stability" in their lives and are suddenly hit with something like hurricane Sandy. For centuries we have done so much to fend off the chaotic nature of nature and we have failed. Unstoppable man made armies have marched into territories where they expected human resistance and have instead been wrecked by winters, unfriendly terrains, storms, etc.

Violent criminals are thought to be closer to animals than "normal" humans because we have supposedly surpassed that subhuman classification. Animals are a part of nature and as humans we see ourselves as being above wildly flawed beasts.  Our criminal brethren are thought to be a heretical bunch who do not obey the concept of humanity as defined by humans. Their moral compasses are chaotic and they must therefore be molded through punishment. They act on impulse expressing themselves through violence and pose a threat to all the good citizens of planet Earth. The majority of incarcerated criminals do not have responsible parents who transmit middle class values to their offspring in an attempt to create working class, law abiding individuals. Yet amidst our sublime humanity violence is an every day reality in certain neighborhoods. It becomes as much a part of the natural environment of those spaces as the television that inhabits your living room becomes a natural part of your home. Punching someone in the face in order to resolve a dispute can be the equivalent of your resolving a dispute by talking. One is frowned upon in part because physical harm caused on a human body is easier to perceive than emotional harm. In this case the "wilder," chaotic response summons human laws as a bodyguard. Yet both aggression and dialogue are options that exist side by side in a world where one is considered better than the other. We fail to see ourselves in our true form as natural beings that battle chaos with the same infinite amount of variables it has at its disposal.

Strangely enough the internet, which is man made, resembles nature. For example, a parent can take certain measures and rely on certain laws to shield their children from pornography. Their efforts are proven futile as pornographic material becomes more abundant and easily accessible to anyone over time. The children, adapting to this environment, obtain the ability to access whatever material they please as they become more familiar with the chaotic nature of the internet. I suggest that the internet is chaotic because of how malleable it is. The internet is constantly changing as a result of the actions of its users (humans). These actions mirror the unpredictability of humans who give rise to online trends and phenomena that many times "come out of nowhere." This unpredictability of the internet, humans, and nature is chaos in action.

It is with this in mind that we watch insurance commercials on television and agree with the fact that things can go wrong. It follows that we must protect ourselves from chaos and assure that our personal belongings can somehow become immortal objects we resurrect after they are swiftly destroyed by a random event. Deterrents of this nature are a way to protect our fragile existences from the reality that is reality; a reality we as humans have been attempting to change for some 10,000 years (since agriculture began). The "fear of God" is actually the fear of nature and its chaotic (according to us) nature. A puma will maul you if it is hungry. Laws, jail time, judgment by its peers, or a fear of spending eternity in hell will not stop it from enjoying your flesh.

I keep this in mind as I begin writing my next string of short stories. How does the human that no longer fears the retribution of human law act? Is this absence of fear the true definition of freedom? Are we accepting the entirety of the human experience when we are so bound to morality?  (etc.)

Fearing each other we keep our civilized world fueled and trucking into the future. Why?

- Alex Moran