Social Entropy; or, The World is Going to Hell in a Handbasket

What I say in this series of blogs may offend some people. My views tend to fall roughly right of centre, thus aligning me with the Conservative Party, and if the sheer mention of that makes your nose hairs curl with revulsion, you should leave. Now. That said, I have my share of disagreements with fellow Conservatives as well. Suffice it to say YOU WERE WARNED.

You know what grinds my gears? A lot, actually. Some issues in today's political environment are comparatively minor irritations that just won't go away - like the itch of a mosquito bite - while others are enough to get me frothing at the mouth if I'm not careful, but the individual issues are for other days. To get a clear picture, one must start from the beginning. In the case of political worldviews, one must start with foundational assumptions - key factors in determining how one perceives the world. So, in the following paragraphs, I will outline mine.

Have you ever heard the saying "nobody's perfect"? Well, who hasn't, though many who say it use it as a lame excuse, not realizing the critical nature of that statement. We are all broken, messed up, imperfect, and as much as humanists wish to deny it, inherently evil, at least to some extent.

Let me go back a step. I am a Christian. I believe in a God who created the universe, and made humankind special - created in His image. I believe in the Fall - the eating of the forbidden fruit by Adam and Eve - and the sinful nature that has been an innate part of mankind ever since. I believe that salvation is now only available through the death and resurrection of God's Son Jesus, and so on and so forth. Now that that's out of the way...

Society is a construct created by humans, and, despite what many would like to believe, it is not greater than the sum of its parts. Since it is comprised of broken, sinful people from top to bottom, it was doomed from the start - rotten to its core.

Let's face facts. At the end of the day, people are naturally selfish - we will almost always make choices for our own personal benefit. It's the reason the capitalist system works, economically speaking, where communism does not. Selfishness, or greed, to dispose with the obvious euphemism, is inherently wrong, and is the cause of many a problem in society, even as it is one of its driving forces.

I also hate idealists. Actually, no. "Hate" is too strong a word. More like I find them foolish, silly, overly naive idiots who deserve a good slap upside the head. I don't care what ideology they follow, they are all delusional. The "good old days" weren't that "good" by half, the future won't be some kind of paradise, and the present isn't exactly amazing either. Society is crap. It has always been crap, and it always will be crap. In short, the world is going to hell in a handbasket.

That said, the "slippery slope" arguments Conservatives like to throw around are still silly. The idea of the proverbial slippery slope is that society sits at the top of a parabolic slope, and if it "slips" it will accelerate until it meets is doom. This is not the case. Society is doomed, yes, but it isn't sitting on some plateau, and it isn't accelerating towards it either (see the previous paragraph).


Let me tell you a story, or rather, make an analogy. Think of society as a rusted old tramp freighter, being slowly pulled to its ultimate destruction by the current. In order for the ship to be turned around, it needs to be drained of the water it is taking on through numerous cracks and holes in its hull. People are in the hold, trying to fix the leaks, but it's pitch dark, as the lights have shorted out, and as a result, they all end up fighting over where the cracks are, and which should be fixed first. Some holes get fixed, but new ones are torn as the ship grinds past rocks, reefs and sandbars as it draws ever closer to its final destruction. The only way to survive? Jump ship - realizing there is a lifeboat available - piloted by Christ. I could go into details, but you probably don't need me preaching at you. Science states the universe is in a state of entropy, slowly decaying as the energy imbalance on which it runs decreases. I like to think society is decaying similarly.

The arguing crewmembers are the various political factions of society. The holes are society's problems. You should be able to take it from here.

Is it cynical? Yes. Fatalistic? Probably. But in my view it's the truth of society once the rose-colored glasses of idealism and naivete are stripped away. In short, it's realistic.

So now you know.


A brief, largely unrelated, aside:
So recently, the Supreme Court decided to let medical marijuana dispensaries sell brownies, etc. instead of just the dried product. This isn't something as I can be outraged by as I just find it silly, but what I do find odd is our entire approach towards medical marijuana. Since its used medically, why don't we just distill THC, put it into capsule form, and sell and regulate through the same pharmaceutical system we use for ALL OTHER PRESCRIPTION DRUGS. That way people can get their medicine without having to smoke it, and if they want to grind up the pill and bake it into a brownie than so be it! I'm just saying...