Long Meander

 

Post-Impressionism / Vincent van Gogh/ Landscape with House and Ploughman

Blue skies this morning, gonna drink my coffee and head out for the library to write on the book.  I have until 9:30 to do chores around the house and to write here.  

Overall, things aren’t going all that well here on planet earth at the moment.  Sure here in the land of the free we are still pretty much sitting in the catbird seat, but things look to be changing in the world, but folks are deeply in denial and are going out of their way to ignore things and makes the provisions that might just help them weather the storm if the storm does show up (currently, my S.W.A.G. meter is at two chances in five).

Discussions lately seem to be centering around human stupidity.  A vein of very rich ore there, I kinda doubt that we will ever run out of new and creative ways to be stupid as a species.  But I am starting to question whether “stupidity” is the appropriate phase here.  

Bear with me here.  I am not discounting stupidity, I have been a willing participant in that particular activity for decades at a time.  Nope that really doesn’t seem to work for me as an overriding explanation.

I am starting to lean toward good old entropy,  

Entropy is central to the second law of thermodynamics, which states that the entropy of isolated systems left to spontaneous evolution cannot decrease with time, as they always arrive at a state of thermodynamic equilibrium, where the entropy is highest.

Let’s just ponder from the point of view of human activity in the present.  We reside in plenty of different states:  Agricultural, artisanal, industrial, post-industrial.  Hell, there might still be some hunter-gatherers around if we look hard enough.

All of these stages of development are steps away from the state of nature and a concentration of energy and resources for the benefit of our species and its hanger’s on.  We tentatively refer to this as civilization and/or technological advance, but when you actually break it down, it is a localized distortion of entropy.

Like it or not, the process of implementing this distortion is what has allowed our species to evolve in the manner we have.  You might say (in an expansive manner of definition) that the ability to concentrate energy in a semi-controlled manner is a survival trait.  Probably the only survival trait, because what is life itself other than a localized distortion of entropy.  Life is a temporary concentration of free energy.

But another of the realities of the world is that entropy always wins.

What is happening now is that a small part of the human population is beginning to realize this issue.  Some ascribe the core problem as stupidity, and there is much to like about this simple explanation.  But I don’t find it satisfying.  

Nope, I am just thinking that the whole problem is one of energy flows.  We partied like it was 1999 and now things are looking like the hangover.  Things are running out and the spiffy systems that we had relied upon no longer provide sufficient feedstock for us to continue as we were.  

We played the game with the rules being set as maximization of free energy available to an  as a means of establishing status and individual well being.  But the amount of free energy available to individuals grew well beyond the any hope of an equitable distribution.  Some individuals were simply better at setting up and utilizing systems to receive a disproportionate share of the proceeds.

What we see as “stupidity” is simply hindsight.  As I have stated repeatedly and I really do want this on my grave:  “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”