Aggression against Ukraine and the Theory of Chaos - opinion

Bombs are falling on Dnipro, where I was born and grew up. Bombs are falling on Zaporizhzhya, where I have worked for 25 years. Mariupol, where I have worked for 10 years, is destroyed.

Ukrainian servicemen drive towards the frontline during heavy fighting at the frontline of Bakhmut and Chasiv Yar, in Chasiv Yar, Ukraine, April 12, 2023. (photo credit: REUTERS/KAI PFAFFENBACH)
Ukrainian servicemen drive towards the frontline during heavy fighting at the frontline of Bakhmut and Chasiv Yar, in Chasiv Yar, Ukraine, April 12, 2023.
(photo credit: REUTERS/KAI PFAFFENBACH)

There is no excuse for this barbaric aggression against Ukraine. 

The cause of the aggression 

The first cause is V. Putin.

The second cause is a thousand-year history of authoritarian rule, a reign of fear and terror, in Russia.In my opinion, there is no demand for democracy in today’s Russia and — and there has never been one. During the last three hundred years people who strove for change were consistently and methodically expelled, jailed, executed. The same trend persists today.

The conclusion (my subjective one) is that the Free World must be ready to deal with authoritarian Russia for the foreseeable future.

During the war in Korea, many in Washington questioned the American involvement in it. Similar questions are voiced today.

In his brilliantly written book Wealth, War and Wisdom, Barton Biggs quotes the answer of General MacArthur, who said that the war in Korea decided the fate of the Free World.

Physics of dictatorships

I do believe that the laws of physics are applicable to social processes.Democracies have a lot of configurations (states). According to the laws of Thermodynamics, they are highly entropic systems.

Dictatorships, on the contrary, have a minimal amount of configurations (Nassim Taleb wrote about that); they are low-entropic systems.

In case highly entropic and low entropic systems have a common boundary (Ukraine-Russia), the only way to preserve the low entropic system is to isolate or quasi-isolate it from the highly entropic system, in our case informationally, and apply continuous work, in our case fear and propaganda.


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Therefore, in my subjective view, the most plausible outcome is a new iron curtain.

The Theory of Chaos

Why did I write this article ?Many people say: we cannot change anything. Who are we to make a change?

At the end of the 19th century, the great French mathematician Henri Poincare discovered the Theory of Chaos.In brief, in chaotic systems, a minuscule difference in the initial state leads to huge and unpredictable differences at the later stages.

It was best illustrated by the original paper’s title, written in 1972 by Edward Lorenz: “Does the Flap of a Butterfly’s Wings in Brazil set off a Tornado in Texas?”

I do believe that the Theory of Chaos is applicable to the processes going on in society.

By writing this post I am making a minuscule difference. A result is not guaranteed. 

Eduard Shyfrin, PhD, is a UK based businessman and the founder of the theory of the Kabbalah of Information.