Complexity

In the movie, “The Count of Monte Christo”, Edmond Dantes asks his closest childhood friend, Fernand, why he had betrayed him, sending him to prison for many years in the worst prison (Château d'If) that probably ever existed (as the authorities had come to arrest Edmond):

​

Edmond: Why are you doing this?

Fernand: Oh, it's... complicated.

 

Edmond was a very sincere person. Fernand was his friend, he loved his friend, friends take care of each other, what else could there be? The world is…complicated, or we might say complex. No matter how “sincere” the heart of Edmond was or how loving he was in seeking the best for everyone he knew, he did not see the darker side of the world: the jealousy of his success, the envy of the love he had from Mercedes, his fiancé, the personal and political motivations of Villefort, the deputy crown prosecutor in Marseille, the complexity of problems and issues that lay hidden below the surface. These were real factors that he did not consider, or understand, when thinking of his future. At this point in his life, Edmond was still green, he was still learning about life. Reality was just more complex than what he had understood.

​

These papers are about complexity. Issues that people want simple solutions for but the answers harder to get because the subject is more complex than people want it to be.