Picture this: If we were to line up the tumultuous events that wracked the ancient world -floods, wars, creation of new cities and civilisations and that of the universe itself - there would be one thing in common. They were all seeded by the actions of disrupters. A disrupter was at times a hero, at times a god and in the most ancient of times, a natural phenomenon.
The great flood, for instance, was a universal fomenter of change about 3,000 years ago; unleashed by the gods who sought to destroy the old order because (take your pick) people had grown too powerful, too cruel or simply disrespectful of the powers that be. However, from the receding waters of the deluge stepped out heroes such as Noah, Manu, Utnapashtim and Deu-calion; survivors and architects of a new world.
An act of creation is always depicted, in mythology, as that of bringing order out of chaos. A disruptive force wreaks havoc and, from the debris it leaves behind, emerges a world that is completely unlike the one that preceded it. A hymn in the Rig Veda says: there was water everywhere. In that primeval water the gods were already present. They danced in it and a particle of dust (Renu) was created. This was the earth (Towards Understanding Hindu Myths by S A Dange) and the Earth Goddess was thus named Renuka. Similarly, in Egyptian mythologies, the Sun God, Ra, appeared in the primeval ocean (also referred to as chaos) called Nun. From their tumultuous union emerged the gods of air, earth and sky. In Sumerian myths, Tiamat ,the chaos monster, is the creator of all gods. She has to be killed by Marduk, a storm god, who creates the heavens and the earth from her body. In some mythologies, the struggle between creative order and destructive chaos is formalised into a cycle where new worlds are brought into existence and thrown into the junk heap with recurring regularity. Aztec mythology, for instance, has had four worlds thus far. We inhabit the fifth one.
As in nature, so is it with the gods. Among the oldest disruptive gods in Indian mythology is Rudra. He is the god of storms whose worshippers pray for his mercy. He is later redefined or morphed into Siva who is both creator and destructor incarnate. He swallowed the poison that emerged from the churning of the ocean; he dispels darkness and disposes of demons with his tandava and also breaks the fall of the river Ganga when she is brought down from the heavens. Rudra's Greek counterpart, according to Richard Seaford (Department of Classics, University of Exeter) is Dionysus.
Buddha was another disrupter. He challenged and provided an alternative to Hinduism, the ruling religion of his times. His teachings threatened the establishment forcing them to try and put an end to his sermons and to his existence. For Joseph Campbell, the Orient was blessed by the teachings of Gautam Buddha just as the Occident was by Moses. The world changed but the transition was not smooth or peaceful. For the Greeks it was Prometheus, who by bringing them fire, changed their lives, and for the Romans, it was Aeneus, the founder of their civilisation. Heroes today, they were the disruptive forces of their age. Their actions threatened chaos and unleashed fear before restoring peace and order.
Scholars have struggled to arrive at a unanimous view of the ancient stories but what is understood is that myths weave an invisible web of ideas that have helped shape the world. Of these, the notion that disruption is a precursor to creation is an especially powerful one. We have seen it play out when new nations have had to be carved out of old ones or when revolutions have sought to throw out established power structures. In the world of business, the global financial meltdown which had a domino effect on economies around the world makes the case in point. On a different note, technology is a big disrupter, overturning accepted norms and standards in several industries. Companies such as Apple, Microsoft and Square are disrupters too. The people who led these organisations dismantled the messy marketplaces and workplaces of the past to build new structures.
Anarchy has always marked the shift from the old to the new, and as our political system gets set for a shakedown, we may well have to get used to chaos on our streets. As will countries across the continent. It will take a while and, perhaps, the intervention of a modern day storm god to restore balance under a new world order.
