Synchronizing Animus: Between Chaos & Order

Humans are Odd

Assassin’s Creed, a game first released in 2007 by Ubisoft about, well, assassins. It’s a relatively very fun and revolutionary game thanks to its parkour mechanic, a mechanic which the next generation games try to slip in to create more joy for the players. The game is currently almost 20 years of age and has a lot of series already released during the time-frame. From the streets of Constantinople in Revelations to the newest setting, which is ancient Japan from Shadows. But that’s not what we’re here to talk about. Oh no, we’re here to discuss the never-ending ideological war between the two sides inside the game, the Assassins and their prolonged nemesis, the Templars.

The main conflict of Assassin’s Creed is the battle of belief between the two. On one hand, we have the Assassins who believe that freedom is the most important thing a human can have and reject all forms of subjugation. They believe that humans are thinking and feeling creatures, so they think that we should go back to the point where governments and other sorts of order are null.  On the other hand, we also have the Templars that claim humanity can only be guided with control and order, while freedom will only create chaos.

This was pointed out by the son of a Master Assassin during the golden piracy era, Edward Kenway, whose name was Haytham. He debated this with his own son, who later on became one of the greatest Assassins of his era, Connor Kenway, that when an excessive amount of freedom exists, humans will stab their own and will go nowhere other than the endless pit of despair. Haytham then concluded from watching his father that the world humanity constructed upon the foundations of freedom was deeply flawed and there needs to be a stable order in it’s place. Unfortunately, he did die at the hands of his own son, so he never really knew if what he believed was truly the ideal way to develop.

A critique of the Assassins was also brought long before Haytham came to life and when the Creed still had the name of the Hidden Ones. It came from one of their own being Basim Ibn Ishaq, once a mere street thief scavenging in Baghdad. He said that the people in the Creed were hypocrites in their way to achieve freedom, thanks to one of the 3 tenets of the Hidden Ones, which is “Never Compromise the Brotherhood.” So let us ponder, is freedom really the wrong thing to worship, or is there much more than meets the eye?

Rethinking Order and Chaos as Opposites

If we hear about order and chaos being a contradiction to each other, some or even most of us will think, “Oh yeah, that’s true.” However, I do beg to differ because what if they were actually way closer than we perceive them to be? Let’s take things more economically. We go back to someone finally in the real world and not an Assassin’s Creed character this time. Meet Douglas C. North (1990), an economist whose studies were related to institutions. To him, there are two kinds of institutions needed for a country to achieve growth, with those being formal institutions and informal institutions.

To differentiate them, formal institutions are the ones known with regulations and rules from a governing body. While informal institutions are like norms, customs, and unwritten rules. According to him, formal institutions, while important, will only be a fruitless tree if they don’t adapt to the informal institutions in their respective regions. In simpler terms, it’s not about choosing one while completely disregarding the other, it’s more about finding a bridge to connect both so they don’t just meet, but also can freely interchange.

He also emphasized this by stating the importance of realizing that institutional changes are path-dependent. If they are mismatched, then it will be a fatal problem and become a catalyst for most failed economic reforms. A classic example of this is from countries that were once colonies of Europe. Most developing nations who were a part of a colony like Nigeria tend to copy and paste a type of formal institution from a more successful one and implement it on their own. The ending? Mismatch does happen, and the reform did not conclude as they envisioned it to be (Ali et. al, 2018).

Basically, enforcing strict regulations and rules with institutions that just focus on order will eventually break itself gradually. Rules do play a huge role in development, but it should not dispose of humanity’s freedom; rather, they should protect it. If we make an analogy out of it, it’s like when we want to travel to a place and have different options for what transportation we can use, like trains, airplanes, or ships. What the government should do is not eliminate their options, as you can only use one type of transport. The most ideal choice is to upgrade the quality of the methods so people can travel better and not abandon freedom, rather guard it as a part of humans’ nature.

Trying to control what can’t be

Let’s take a step back and look ahead to the Templars that adore order and control as the only acceptable guides of humanity. Is that the true case in real life, though? Well, to some extent, it really is. There are proofs to support this very argument, such as a paper by Stephen Knack and Philip Keefer (1995). They found that too much freedom does bring chaos and will only make society stagnant and stray away from attaining growth. 

In their conclusion, progress will not happen if there is no order guiding it, even to the point where they say the importance of formal institutions rivals that of education. Supporting the very argument that Templars were trying to deliver. However, they also didn’t say that absolute control is what’s necessary for us to progress, they actually mentioned explicitly that people’s liberties also play a vital role in growth.

Moreover, a book released nine years after North has delved deeper into this dilemma. Indian philosopher and economist Amartya Sen (1999) quoted in his Nobel-winning book, Development as Freedom, that,  “Freedom is not only the ultimate object of development, but it is also the principal means.”

Essentially, what he said aligned with that of Douglas North from before. Freedom really is a crucial part of getting a grip on growth, and if we still reject this, it’s the same as disputing the very nature of humans themselves. He also reminded us that famines such as the one that happened in China have never happened in countries with a functioning democracy. Strengthening this very argument of trying too much to find stability will only result in the stability we want to get crumbling down.

The grace in our failings

For now, I really want to talk about the situation happening in the country that is nicknamed the Emerald of the Equator, Indonesia. Since President Prabowo was elected, he has, how to say it, some interesting ideas to boost Indonesia’s economy. The path that he takes in this context is more of a state-led capitalism where all sorts of economic activity is guided by the government. So, what about it? In reality, there are many forms of the dilemma, such as the programs prioritized like Makan Bergizi Gratis (MBG) and Koperasi Desa Merah Putih (KDMP), but for this one, let’s dive more into the dilemma inside Indonesia’s Research and Development (RnD) ecosystem.

Badan Riset dan Inovasi Nasional (BRIN) serves as the central and sole government body responsible for integrated research, development, and innovation. It is an integration of 5 independent RnD institutes, with the most recent law being Perpres No. 78 year 2021. BRIN was first established in 2019 to fight the static nature of Indonesia’s RnD, because it was perceived that President Habibie’s method of decentralized research didn’t go quite as planned.

Nonetheless, the creation of BRIN itself is currently also seen as a failed approach to awaken Indonesia’s dormant RnD. How so? The institutions that once had their own budget were also unified into one, and because of that, of course, some of them got cut. Even in 2025, it was said that BRIN got a Rp 2,074 trillion budget efficiency, making it not only harder to conduct new research, but also locking off their freedom in the process (CNN, 2025).

Another issue comes from the researchers’ standpoint. It was said that from Ejikman, one of the institutes integrated into BRIN, 120 researchers got laid off and only 40 joined BRIN, as their status was that of Pegawai Negeri Sipil (Susetyo, 2022). In other words, the new order created to reinforce Indonesia’s RnD, just makes it hibernate deeper than it was ever before. Remember, kids, research is not easy, and it is also not cheap. Because of this, we may not see another scientific revolution coming from our country in the near future..

We Were Born Yesterday

At the end of the day, we need to grasp that freedom and order are not total opposites. Thus, we require both not just to survive, but also to move forward. Freedom without order is an invitation for chaos because too much freedom means nothing will stop humans from killing each other. However, too much order will also lead us to cracks in the system because denying humans’ true nature will only result in rebellions.

It’s the same as the Assassins and Templars that fought because of their conflicting ideals on achieving peace, which only led to a massive amount of innocents dying and being enslaved, straying far away from their original goal. Thus, picking a side is never the solution to this, agreeing on both is. Just as growth is a goal for us, as peace is for them, spotting the gray area is usually the best option. What we need to do now is to stop squabbling about which idea is better, because building a good bridge so we can link them together is the better way if we really want to attain the growth we’ve been dreaming of all the time.

References:

Ali, M., Fjeldstad, O.-H., Jiang, B., & Shifa, A. B. (2019). Colonial legacy, state-building and the salience of ethnicity in Sub-Saharan Africa. The Economic Journal, 129(619), 1048–1081. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecoj.12595 

CNN Indonesia. (2025, February 7). Peneliti BRIN resah anggaran riset dipotong demi efisiensi. https://www.cnnindonesia.com/teknologi/20250207195021-199-1195885/peneliti-brin-resah-anggaran-riset-dipotong-demi-efisiensi

Hoekstra, K. (2024, May 20). Assassin's Creed games in order: A brief history. History Hit. https://www.historyhit.com/gaming/assassins-creed-games-in-order/

KabarBursa.com. (2024, October 24). Riset mati suri 10 tahun, saatnya Prabowo kembalikan ke tata kelola ala BJ Habibie. https://www.kabarbursa.com/makro/riset-mati-suri-10-tahun-saatnya-prabowo-kembalikan-ke-tata-kelola-ala-bj-habibie

Knack, S., & Keefer, P. (1995). Institutions and economic performance: Cross-country tests using alternative institutional measures. Economics and Politics, 7(3), 207–227. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0343.1995.tb00111.x

North, D. C. (1990). Institutions, institutional change and economic performance. Cambridge University Press.

Peraturan Presiden Republik Indonesia Nomor 78 Tahun 2021 tentang Badan Riset dan Inovasi Nasional. (2021). https://peraturan.bpk.go.id/Details/178084/perpres-no-78-tahun-2021

Republik Indonesia. (2019). Undang-Undang Nomor 11 Tahun 2019 tentang Sistem Nasional Ilmu Pengetahuan dan Teknologi. https://www.hukumonline.com/pusatdata/detail/lt5d5b96c5af24e/undang-undang-nomor-11-tahun-2019/

Sen, A. (1999). Development as freedom. Alfred A. Knopf.

Susetyo, H. (2022). Menyoal integrasi dan sentralisasi lembaga riset. Hukumonline. https://www.hukumonline.com/berita/a/menyoal-integrasi-dan-sentralisasi-lembaga-riset-lt61f39540f2dc4/

Susetyo, H. (n.d.). Menyoal integrasi dan sentralisasi lembaga riset. Fakultas Hukum Universitas Indonesia. https://law.ui.ac.id/menyoal-integrasi-dan-sentralisasi-lembaga-riset-oleh-heru-susetyo-sh-ll-m-m-si-ph-d/

Ubisoft Montreal. (2007). Assassin's Creed [Video game]. Ubisoft.