Lance Phillips • January 28, 2025
Two pins
I gifted myself two lapel pins over the winter holidays. Two pins for two very different purposes. The first pin is a silver and smoky quartz classic lapel pin. It is vintage and delicate and has, as they say, seen some things. When I told my wife that smoky quartz protects against negativity, she said, “You’re one of the most positive people I know.” To which I replied, “It’s to protect me from other people’s negativity.” She laughed, and said she hadn’t thought of it that way. This pin is for self-preservation.
As we move forward in this new year, under this “new” administration, remember that negativity projected AT you is FAR more informative about the person projecting it than about you. You do not have to accept their negativity. You don’t have to participate in it. You don’t have to respond to it.
The second pin is a fake gold and enamel “Chaotic Good” pin. It was, no doubt, produced in bulk of inexpensive materials. It most certainly has no history to speak of, but it did spark a conversation. The person working the register at Costco saw it and asked what it meant. Honestly, I struggled for a moment. I struggled the same way I do when I’m asked to define anything that seems self-evident to me. After a couple of breaths I said something like, “it means to have a good heart but to not be bound by systems.” I’ve been thinking about that response ever since. It’s not that I disagree with what I said. It’s that I think that statement is too easy.
Is what’s legal necessarily ethical? Are you bound to follow unethical laws? Thoreau would say absolutely not. He wrote a whole essay about it, On the Duty of Civil Disobedience (an essay that went on to inspire Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.). “Chaotic Good” means to pursue what is GOOD in spite of laws that are written or enacted to the contrary. It means, I think, that if laws are not enacted or enforced in good faith they need not be followed. Of course, as Dr. King would say, that means if you break a law you have to be willing to accept the consequences. This pin is for solidarity with the idea that humans can, and should, make decisions based on their own ethical compasses.
How does “Chaotic Good” show up?
Perhaps the best known example of “Chaotic Good” is John Lewis’ statement, “Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and redeem the soul of America.” To question a system that obviously and aggressively conspires to work against any truly ethical stance is to force that system either to revise itself, or to admit its ghoulish ethics.
Maybe a lesser known, but no less important, example of “Chaotic Good” is Fred Hampton and his work. Part of the rub of the notion of “Chaotic Good” is questioning the system, acting in defiance of the system, while working to change that system. It’s a difficult line to walk, and Hampton acknowledges this in his speech Revolution and Racism, “We’ve got to face the fact that some people say you fight fire best with fire. But we say you put out fires best with water. We say you don’t fight racism with racism. We’re going to fight racism with solidarity.” Fighting the marginalization and the demonization of any group of people can only be done with linked arms and a good heart.
As we move into this new year, care for each other, resist unethical laws in whatever capacity you are able, and organize with like-minded people.
These pins will not protect me from harm for the next few years, but they will be a constant reminder that critical thinking matters, that we matter, and that questioning the status quo is a powerful act of resistance. Be well.
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