Dragons of creative chaos(A.Zaak) Dragons of creative chaos
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In addition to mythology, I am a fan of Bacterial evolution and know that the earth is the planet of Bacteria because trillions inhabit soil, water, and almost everywhere, forming a dominant biomass. They rely on their ability to adapt and evolve through mutations and other molecular mechanisms.
I searched whether mutations are noisy or lousy processes, only to find that below the mists of time, like a gently babbling brook, Bacteria mutate in quiet, serene places, with no sounds of flowing over nature around. The changes in its DNA sequence might result in changes in the protein encoded by that stretch of DNA. As a result, the altered protein might be better suited (or not) for function under the prevailing conditions.
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Frantz Fanon's book " A Dying Colonialism" deals with what he called the mutations in culture as people become mobilized in an anti-colonial war. He believed that the Mobilization of people changes social relations and the struggle toward decolonization of the world. Fanon, the thinker, writer and doctor from Martinique in the Caribbean, fought with the Free French Forces against Nazis as a teenager and later joined the Algerian national liberation movement against French colonization of Algeria. As a figure, he was no less than Che Guevara.
Maybe it was a coincidence to call the aggregation of Bacterial cells; a colony and describe the invasion and establishment of Bacterial mass in a living body as colonization.
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Then again, a population of Bacteria grown in the laboratory is called a culture. (a pure Bacterial culture) contains only one single type, whereas (a mixed culture) includes two or more different Bacteria. If a Bacterial culture is left in the same laboratory media for too long, the cells use up the available nutrients, excrete toxic metabolites, and eventually, the entire population will die. Thus, Bacterial cultures must be periodically transferred, or sub-cultured, to new media containers to keep the Bacterial population growing. They can become immortal in this way. (Microbiologists use subculturing techniques to grow and maintain Bacterial cultures for diagnosis or research purposes.)
There is a second naming coincidence on this horizon. In sociology, a social culture is the culture of a society. It relates to the different groups of people in the community and their habits and traditions. It includes the shared practices and values common to the members of the society.
Yet, a social subculture is a group of people within a larger culture, such as a country, who have something in common, e.g., the hippies' movement. However, unlike Bacterial subculturing aimed at survival and homogeneity, the subculture of violence and racial activism may lead to lethal consequences.
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Alike Fanon's concept of Mobilization, the Mobilization of the Bacterial genome may also lead to alteration via a genetic exchange throughout the Bacterial world. Genes carried on extra-chromosomal genetic elements like plasmids can find their way onto another Bacterial chromosome. They can be mobilized (transferred) through conjugation (or mating) to become a stable part of the new bacterium's inheritance. (Unfortunately, conjugation cannot be used to mobilize societies!)
The amount of DNA transferred or exchanged is small; it may occur between distantly related Bacteria with a bit of romance when they come into contact. Both may live happily without hiding or huddling in fear. However, their stable life may be in danger if they acquire the so-called jumping DNA or Transposons carried on the conjugative plasmids.
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Transposons could cause creative chaos by helping to accelerate the pace of evolution or mutate it badly. They are mobile genetic elements in Bacteria that can recombine or rearrange the order and presence of any genes on the chromosome, turning them upside down, inside out, round and round while listening to Diana Ross singing the famous song.
It is not unlikely that Transposable elements worship TIAMAT, the Mesopotamian primordial dragon myth of creative chaos. She is considered the (Mother of All), and all Babylonian deities are her descendants.
Tiamat, the Babylonian personification of salt water, is generally depicted as a dragon, created the first deities out of her union with Apsu, the personification of fresh water.
According to Enuma Elish, the Babylonian creation epic, she was eventually destroyed by the deity of the sun, Marduk, who split her body in half. He slays his mother, Tiamat, with a flaming arrow through her watery chest. The top portion of her body became the sky, and the bottom became the earth, and her tears created the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
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The Enuma Elish (also known as The Seven Tablets of Creation) is the Babylonian creation myth whose title is derived from the opening lines of the piece, "When on High."
The Enuma Elish and the Bible include stories about the founding of Babylon (Babel in Arabic and Hebrew), including building a tower or ziggurat. But while Marduk names the city Bab-ili, which means "gate of heaven," the Bible connects Babel to the Hebrew word "to confuse."
I wonder if it is also a coincidence that the letters of the two words (Bible and Babel) are so close!
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Image from: https://twitter.com/DeviantArt/status/1066874249296654336

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