Get ready for Trump bump

The ‘butterfly effect’ is a beautiful, mysterious metaphor of the planet’s interconnectedness.

- ANITA PRATAP

American mathematician and meteorologist Edward Lorenz explained it evocatively: “A butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil can cause a tornado in Texas.” As the new year dawns, the question is: What if it is not a butterfly, but a behemoth flapping his wings?

When the almighty Donald Trump becomes president again of the sole superpower, we could see butterfly effects on steroids. In mathematics, the butterfly effect is part of the chaos theory, or chaology: consequences are not random, they are influenced by distant actions. Chaotic behaviour exists in natural phenomena like climate or heartbeat irregularities and in human-engineered systems like traffic.

Many see Trump as a champion-in-chief of chaos. Experts expect Trump’s wrathful focus will be China. Books predict Trump today will lead to nuclear war in 2034—a terrifying butterfly effect. China values its own exceptionalism as much as the US does. But China’s exceptionalism is also fuelled by centuries-old grievance at west-inflicted injury, and humiliation, for toppling it from its rightful place in world glory.