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Law of Eristic Escalation applied to Lost

This is something that I picked up from Discordianism and the ‘Principia Discordia.’ I thought I would try to apply it to Lost and see what I came up with. The Law of Eristic Escalation is simply this: Imposition of Order = Escalation of Chaos. There is also an ammendment to this called Fenderson’s Ammendment: The tighter the order in question is maintained, the longer the consequent chaos takes to escalate, BUT the more it does when it does. I’ve decided to use Ben and his control of the Island in this post.

Here we have Ben and the Others living what seems tobe an idyllic suburban like life on the Island. Sure the occasional group of castaways washes ashore but never in too large a group to handle. Then 815 crashes. Well Ben does what he has always done in these situations, he sends spyies out to learn about the survivors in order to control them. But it doesn’t take long for the Losties to discover they have spies amongst them and they kill the spies. Ben’s control is starting to be disrupted by chaos already but it is not too apparent yet.

Meanwhile the Others have managed to capture Walt and exert control over him through experiments (this has been eluded to but not actually seen). The Others soon realize that they are in over their heads with Walt and some are afraid to go near him (see the mobisode “Room 23”). Chaos is escalating some more. Ben decides to go to the Losties and manages to get himself captured and beat up. He tries to impose his will through the mindgames he plays with Locke. He is so successful at the manipulation that the Swan ends up being destroyed and off Island communication is lost. Now the Chaos really picks up.

The destruction of the Swan allows the Island to briefly become visible to the rest of the world. This in turn leads to Widmore’s freighter parked 80 miles off the shore of the Island. Now Ben has more people to deal with. Even though Ben does all he can to prevent contact with the freighter that is exactly what happens. Now we have two parties on the Island trying to exert control and nothing good comes of it. Soon there are mercinaries running around making things miserable for everybody. Ben tries to exert control over Keamy but ends up getting Alex shot. At the same time Keamy is trying to exert control over Ben and ends up with a very unpleasant visit from the Smoke Monster. The chaos is rolling along nicely now and shows no sign of stopping.

Ben’s next action is to move the Island by turning the frozen donkey wheel but even this doesn’t go right. The wheel slips off its axis resulting in the Losties skipping through time. By this time Ben has lost all control, a lot of people have lost their lives, the Other’s are in the middle of a squabble between two men we don’t know the true nature of, and the Losties have just detonated a nuclear bomb. All semblance of Ben’s order has disappeared while chaos is now running wild over the Island. Now if Ben had just left the Losties alone in the first place he would still be in aleadership position and so many people wouldn’t have lost their lives.

Imposition of Oder = Escalation of Chaos.

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Written by

Achalli

Lungbarrow, Achalli Number516644 Sit down before fact like a little child, and be prepared to give up every preconcieved notion, follow humbly wherever and to whatever abyss Nature leads, or you shall learn nothing. - T.H. Huxley

3 thoughts on “Law of Eristic Escalation applied to Lost

  1. Very nicely done.

    I always felt that the number 5 tatoo on Jacks arm (I know its Matt Foxs) and the signifigance of counting to 5 for Jack had something to do with his…um… possible enlightened position in the future…

  2. Achalli, this makes good sense! The more out of order things are, around you, the more ‘chaos’ you bring to the situation.

    In Ben’s case, he was motivated fear, when feeling a loss of control. That is what created his own chaotic feelings, which in turn, created so much more chaos.

    It is like a vicious cycle.

  3. Dabs I couldn’t agree with you more. Ben brought this on himself. If he had left well enough alone and only dealt with the Losties when he absouloutly needed to (like if they stumbled upon Dharmaville) then things may have been a whole lot better. when he tries to regain control things just get worse. The beuaty of the Law of Eristic Escalation is that it can be applied to virtually any situation and you can understand what’s going on (or at least an underlying cause) more easily. Use it on politics and see what you get. On another note my paradox piece (Schrodinger’s Island) is up but I accidently stuck it in the Fun section, I’m eager to hear your remarks on that.

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