Entropy. I hate it. I wish I could figure out some way to stop it, or at least slow it down, but nobody seems to have come up with a solution and personally, nothing very helpful seems to come to mind.
Technically, entropy is a measure of the unavailable energy in a system or process. More to the point, it is an expression of the inherent disorder in the universe. To make matters worse, it is progressive. Thinking about it can be a very frustrating activity.
The laws of entropy pretty much assure us that we will never enjoy a totally efficient, tidy, predictable universe. There will always be something that will break or something that will not properly function. The sought after result will never be perfect, because we can never completely harness the available energy, in the world. I guess the worst thing is that the laws of entropy tell us that energy will always dissipate. That means things wear out. It starts on the day you create it and it happens until that thing is gone. The tendency is supposedly irreversible. Depressing, huh?
It happens with things you build, so when you buy a new car, it starts to wear out as you drive it off the dealership lot. It happens with relationships, so happy marriages sometimes end in divorce. It happens with people, so hard muscle and smooth skin eventually become flab and wrinkles. It happens in nature, so mountains wear down and become hills and eventually plains or valleys. It happens everywhere, constantly. And it happens to cultures, which really worries me. You probably should know that I tend to worry about many things. It’s a gift. I worry a lot about cultural entropy, lately, but, by golly, all this worry seems to remind me of a story about bananas and monkeys.
It’s a clinical study, actually. You start with a cage containing five monkeys, with a set of stairs in the middle and a banana hanging from a string, at the top of the stairs. Before long, one of the monkeys will get a little hungry, see the banana and start up the stairs. As soon as his foot touches the stairs, the researcher sprays the other monkeys with very cold water.
After awhile, another monkey tries to get the banana and the same thing happens - the others get sprayed with cold water. Within a short time, the other monkeys will attack any monkey who tries to ascend the stairs, so that they can avoid the cold drenching. Do this a few times, until none of them will climb the stairs.
Now, turn off the water and replace one of the monkeys with a new resident. Certainly, he will make an attempt to grab the banana, but as soon as he tries, the others will attack him, even though there is no cold water. After a couple of attempts, he will stop trying, because he knows to do so will invite a beating from the others.
Now, remove another of the original monkeys and replace him. The new resident will have the same experience with the same result – he will stop trying to go up the stairs. Slowly replace the remaining original monkeys with new ones and the behavior will repeat itself, even though the new ones have never felt the discomfort of the cold water.
Eventually, you will have a cage full of monkeys, a staircase in the middle, a banana at the top and no monkey would ever think of going up the stairs for the banana, because that’s the way it has always been done, in the group. Nobody knows why, but it doesn’t matter
Cultural entropy, just that quick. And the sad part is that it happens almost as effectively and senselessly in human animals, as it does in monkeys. Good ideas have happened throughout the history of mankind, but they seem to have a shelf life. They grow old and die, with time. We would be miles ahead if we could reverse this process, or at least stop it.
Let’s consider a few examples of societal entropy. Look at the physical being. There was a time not so long ago, when people needed to be strong, just to exist. Men worked long, hard hours in factories, farms, mines, or shipping yards. Women worked from sunup to sundown, just to maintain a household, scrubbing floors, doing manual laundry, tending a garden, feeding livestock that would become food for the family and so on. Those people were slim and toned, but the life span was shorter than it is now. Today, we work less and live longer, because of technological advances, but we are seriously overweight and sedentary, as a society. We have given up an advanced level of health and well being, probably partly because we no longer saw the need for physical exertion on a daily basis and partly because we found time to be at a premium. I submit that after awhile, we simply didn’t think about it – it was just “the way it is”. We enjoyed the fruits of modern technology, but we paid the price of a lower state of well being and we never even consider whether that price was worth it, or even necessary. At this point, it’s just a banana at the top of the stairs and nobody even thinks about it.
Any Baby Boomer worth his salt will remember the first performances on the old Ed Sullivan Show of a young, talented performer named Elvis Presley. What you might not remember is the fact that his first performances were photographed only from the waist up, because network censors were very clear that the gyrating hips would never do, for general American sensibilities in the living rooms, across the nation. Today we have Lady Gaga showing up at awards shows in a dress made of meat and we think nothing of it.
Lucy and Desi had a charming bedroom in their TV apartment, complete with twin beds. They were clearly married, but there were those censors, again. Today, we have show after show filming couples in bed, using every conceivable trick of lighting and draping the flesh of backs and thighs to make them look naked
Do you remember the lovely Barbara Eden’s TV characterization in I Dream Of Jeannie? Her costume was specifically designed to cover her navel, so Mr. and Mrs. America would not be appalled. Today, we smile when we think of that innocent time.
The first time I stepped on an airliner (1965, as near as I can remember), male passengers were dressed in suits and ties and they removed their hats, as they entered the aircraft, out of respect for others. Ladies were dressed up. It was a kind of social event. A week ago, I saw a photo of the First Lady, Michelle Obama deplaning from Air Force One, wearing shorts, a tank top and sandals. Fifty years ago, she would not have been allowed on any airplane dressed like that. Today, it is her airplane and she is emulated by ladies all over America as a world class beauty and fashion maven.
I attended high school in the early sixties and there was a school bully. We crossed paths a few times, as so many other students have with so many bullies in so many towns. He was a scary guy and he definitely made me nervous, but that was that. He did not own a gun – I don’t think he even thought about the possibility of gun ownership. Today, we have an armed student arriving at school with the intent of killing as many fellow students as possible, before someone manages to kill him. If that comparison isn’t cultural entropy, I don’t know a better way to describe it.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not whining about the loss of the good old days. I appreciate the positive changes in the family man that have come with the passage of time. I see incredible changes in life, as it inexorably passes me by. Technology amazes me. I am typing these words on a cordless laptop, wirelessly connected to the internet, in an airplane at 39,000 feet, flying 2/3 of the way across America (from Oakland, CA. to Chicago, IL.) in a scant four hours. Amazing.
I am in awe of what Tiger Woods can do with a golf club and the talent displayed by top NFL quarterbacks is nothing short of impressive. Athletes in “the good old days” were never able to bend the human envelope in the ways that modern athletes of all disciplines do regularly, today. A good friend of mine got me hooked on the TV show “So You Think You Can Dance”. I watched it once and was blown away by the things that those young dancers do with their physical equipment. I didn’t know a human body could accomplish some of those intricate, perfectly balanced moves.
I listen to classical composers like Mozart and think I have heard perfection. Then, I listen to some of the creations of modern, young composer/performers and marvel at the new and ultimately creative use of musical notes that have existed, untested and unheard in such a creative way, for centuries.
I believe that as a nation, we have successfully dealt with racial prejudice. I know. There will always be bigots, but my advice to you is don’t manage the exception; manage the rule. We no longer have to put up with the institutionalized racial divisions that once plagued society. I’m happy about that. Who would want to go back to the old ways, in that regard?
No, I’m not pining for yesteryear. I’m very content to look forward to new, exciting ways to be, that await us just over the horizon. Life is exciting and fulfilling and perennially surprising.
My worries are more circumscribed than all that. I worry that we may have paid a price that, perhaps, we did not have to pay.
We should ask ourselves some introspective questions:
- Why did gentlemen feel the need to shine their shoes, dust the band of the fedora and adjust the tie just so, before departing for the airport?
- When did we decide that the word “intimate” no longer meant “not public”?
- How did we get the idea that the modesty and morality of our parents was an old fashioned idea that needed to be debunked?
- Is it a good thing that we no longer feel the need to exercise restraint in public, rather than quickly and easily toss off obscenities to anyone on any freeway, who happens to irritate us?
- Is the pushy, in-your-face behaviors on every level that we now see daily a positive bit of evidence of a healthy new personal freedom, or is it a destructive trend for both the individual and society, at large?
- How well has “the new morality” served us, in society? Are we happier, more fulfilled, better off?
I guess we could create a fairly long list of questions, but I can tell you that whatever the length of the list, it will lead us to one conclusion. The price we paid was the wholesale loss of simple, basic, human respect. Respect for our fellow man. It is largely dead and the demise of so important a societal construct is hurting us. That’s what I worry about.
I worry, that some hippy in the sixties, said, “Turn on and tune out” and it was a new idea, so we all did it. Some producer in Hollywood said, “frontal nudity in movies will sell”, and it was a new idea, so we all did that, too. From that point, it seemed to be a case of simple one-ups-manship. Life got exciting, rules went out the window. We were free to express ourselves with profanity, not to mention a total disdain for women, in rap lyrics. Streaking in public venues was fun. Bed-hopping was exciting and in over 50% or American marriages, divorce was an available ticket to freedom. Single parent families became the norm. Drugs were cool, because feeling good was what mattered most. We actually got to the point where we never considered how the whole thing started – we just knew it was the thing to do.
Remember the bananas and monkeys?
How about if we do this? Take a quiet moment and look back, carefully, at the past. Consider. Think. Examine. Feel the old feelings. Try them on for size. See if there is a way to incorporate the lost respect for our fellow human animals, into the exciting, fast paced, innovative, incredible framework of modern life. What would happen if just one monkey paused at the base of the steps, scratched his hairy, little chin and thought, “I wonder why none of the other monkeys go after that great looking banana? Maybe I’ll just climb up there, pluck it and share it with the group.” Would that change the dynamic of the group in the cage? It might be worth a try.
Maybe some types of entropy can actually be reversed. If you don’t believe me, just ask any well educated, self respecting monkey.
