A complex system on the other hand is not as crucially dependent on its components because they are wholes themselves. If a cell dies or an ant is lost then this has little effect on the system they belong to. If an animal is wounded then the wound is healed. If a neuron dies we do not loose a significant part of our memory. In order to be in an overall meta-balance complex systems need to be out of balance on the level of the components.
Complex systems are meta-stable because they are built up of interacting wholes.
The freer the components behave the more out of balance the complex system is driven which in turn is the source of meta-balance. But there is a price to pay for meta-stability. While on one side the unbalance is the source to meta-stability it is also the source to a fundamental schizophreny of all complex systems. The freedom of the components brings an element of noise into the system. Complex systems will therefore never be complete unities.