A black swan is a metaphor for chaos, which often lands on those ill-prepared and unaware.

The potential for a black swan is inherent in complex systems. The more complex the system, the more often they appear. Occurrence is in systems that integrate many individual elements which work together to accomplish some function.

Chaos is like the opposite of law and order; i.e. like confusion and disorder. It is a glitch that causes the elements to not work or be confused. Some systems are man-made, like governments, banks, stock markets, electric grids, etc.

Some are natural systems, like the weather, etc. Humans are complex biological systems, and crowds of humans are much more complex. You might say cancer is a glitch.

Chance-caused actions, their probable outcomes within these systems cannot be accurately determined. So there always exists degrees of ill preparation and unawareness. No matter how observant and quick its system controllers; such as armies, police, financial regulators, judges, automatic shutdown mechanisms, etc. black swans will occur. If anything can happen, at some point it will happen. That is Murphy’s law.

Black swans come into existence quite rapidly if the confluence of necessary causes is correct, an undesirable situation. Then the system stops functioning, breaks or is disabled in some way when the confluence occurs.

Man’s created systems, other than natural ones, are our modern day “Towers of Babel” and, because of black swans, leave us vulnerable.

In these perilous times, certain events are manifestations of chaos and God in our lives makes the best controller. That is why we say, “In God we trust.”

Using illicit drugs is a fool’s understanding of chaos.