The universe itself is complex. But as the rate of change in a given region speeds up or slows down, relative to the human individual and collective to adapt, it may appear more chaotic or more stable/clear.

The chaos-order of the environment is mostly relevant to one thing: the ability to make reliable predictions, and, thus, decisions about how to acquire what we need to survive (and increase our future odds of continued survival).

A highly stable environment suggests that we don't need to store up resources: we can always acquire more from the energy and material flows around us. Chaos means we have to increase our stores, creating our own island of stability.

Individually, this is a fragile strategy. The more people we can collaborate with, the more stability we can create. But what we are seeing now is the opposite fragility. It comes from collaborating with too many people—including some with hostile beliefs, values, and goals—using too-rigid systems. We have been cooperating with bad actors, who have revealed themselves. We have been complacent, and assumed that the market (and international law) is powerful enough to reign in everyone. Oops!

Many of these defectors are American, but some are Canadian (or others).

We must separate fact from fiction. There are a lot of fictions, and some are quite toxic. But what matters is what are opponents believe, and what they might do. America (or a certain strain) has always been a danger. They are paranoid. They seem to have run out of enemies, and have decided to cast former allies in that role.

Can we talk them down? We must assess their commitment to this change of attitude. Can we assist the level-headed among them to wake up and take action, before it is too late? Or are we doomed to be a vassal territory, with reduced sovereignty and our wealth stolen from us? We've been the subject of soft colonization for decades. Now it is turning harder. Perhaps we will learn first-hand the experience of the First Nations people, and others who have been bulldozed by imperialism.

We need to make friends elsewhere. Europe may be the last hope. But maybe America simply has a sort of fever. Maybe it will pass.