L. Ron Hubbard on the nature of order and chaos, and the individual's ability to bring order to their environment and life.
The ability to bring order out of chaos is one of the most fundamental abilities a person can develop. Indeed, it could be said that a person's worth can be measured by the amount of order they can produce.
Chaos is simply an absence of order. It is not a positive force — it is what happens when organizing forces are withdrawn or overwhelmed. A desk piled with unfiled papers is not chaotic because some force created the mess. It is chaotic because no one has organized it.
The observation that brings hope is this: any individual can begin to bring order to their immediate environment. One does not need authority, permission, or resources. One simply needs the willingness to observe what is out of place and put it right.
Start small. Organize one drawer. Clean one surface. Complete one cycle of action that has been left incomplete. Each small act of ordering has an effect beyond its apparent scope. Order radiates outward from the point where it is created.
A common misconception is that order requires control over others. It does not. The most effective order comes from personal responsibility — from the individual who sees what needs doing and does it without being asked or told.
The world improves to the degree that individuals in it take responsibility for bringing order to their own spheres of influence. This is not a theory. It is an observable principle that anyone can test.
— L. Ron Hubbard