The alchemist was seeking to turn base metals, usually lead, into gold. It ends up the process lead the alchemist to the possibility of seeking a better life. The lead may not have transformed into gold, but the alchemist transformed into a better person.
In a similar fashion, chaos theory, applied to social change, attempts to do the same thing the alchemist did, transforming not lead, but the status quo, into disharmony, or chaos. In doing so, he or she is hoping that the resulting balance that the community, society, comes back to will be better, more enlightened, than the previous state.
The alchemist must be prepared to be ridiculed and dismissed as a threat to the prevailing conventional wisdom and power structure. A provocation of the status quo will result in a strong unwillingness of the public to change. This is the alchemists work, to stir static, entrenched, retrogressive ideas into new, progressive, creative, and hopefully more enlightened solutions to life's many problems and issues.
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