A Butterfly for Progress

In 1961, a scientist named Edward Lorenz was processing a weather model on a computer when he made an accidental discovery. On the day following one computer run, he re-started the process using a number rounded off at the third decimal. At first it looked like the computer run from the day before, but then it started diverging, and as time continued the difference became greater and greater. The reason, he discovered, was that the number from the previous day had been rounded off at the sixth decimal. That tiny variation had altered the outcome over time. It has been called the “Butterfly Effect,” based on the notion that something as small as a butterfly, flapping its wings on one part of the globe, could eventually affect the weather on some other part of the planet.

We activists for democracy are “Butterflies for Progress.” The littlest things we do to advance democracy will have their effects. Perhaps not now, but in time. Perhaps not directly, but indirectly. Perhaps not here, but somewhere. Our contributions will matter. And the world will be altered because of them. Let us therefore join together, each contributing what he or she can, to create a world with peace, respect for the environment, religious tolerance, true equality under the law, and freedom to the maximum extent that cooperative life will allow.