Politics, Government and Physics. All Tends Toward Disorder.

It’s hard to pass man-made laws when the laws of the Universe are against you…

If you think it’s hard to convince a three-year old to behave like an adult, try convincing a congressman. You might as well try and change how the Universe works… or rather… you’ll have to. The problem is not that Washington is broken. It’s not that tea party obstruction in the House has littered the floor with broken chinaware… it’s not even that all politicians, like the tea cups, are basically broken souls (the never ending need to seek attention and affirmation that’s usually triggered a pity-swelling lack of motherly love and intellectual robustness). No… the real problem with politics is that it’s constantly in the process of being broken by scattering itself into total disorder. That’s its nature. Washington may operate outside the boundaries of human law – with snooty disregard for consequences and constituencies – but it cannot escape the laws of the Universe.

Disorder in politics is sadly a fully natural state of being (human and otherwise). It’s not a result of the Tea Party arriving on the American political stage; raging at liberals and and vice verse… that raging and blocking activity is a result, not a cause. The current state of American politics is just another revealing of the nature of all things. All politics, like the Universe (and a hastily prepared beef stroganoff)  are on the inescapable path towards total and complete disorder. (makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, eh?)

I spend a lot of my time tying to get people to change their minds. I’ve basically decided I waste an awful lot of my time. Even if I manage to steer someone in the desired direction, the house of cards will fall apart eventually anyway, especially when we’re talking about people, belief, politics, ego and power.

Trudging away in pursuit of the pointless as a career choice has been interesting (if not a wee bit frustrating, but so is finding a good table on a Friday night: hope always prevails so we continue the search)… but I think it’s becoming clear as to why educating on belief and political issues is pointless: people, politics, and government aren’t free from entropy. Just like stars and human conversation, it all is pre-destined since the big bang (or swoop of the hand) to pull itself out in every direction into perfectly inert disorder. All of the pushing and pulling and extreme stances are just symptoms of a larger happening that proves humans are just as much a part of the energy of the Universe as our sun is. They’re all part of that large, long, steady march towards total disorder and inactivity. If we can measure entropy in everyday communication, why not follow its effects all the way to complete and total political inaction?

The Physics of Politics

Disorder increases in the world of politics and government. There are some cycles or points of convergence that people can point to (just like climate change) in an attempt to disprove the overall trend – but taken as a whole, the arc of civilization and its discourse tend towards disorder just like everything else in the Universe.

There are hundreds of theories as to why politics and the two dominant political parties in the United States have become ever more polarized. This one claims that the House and Senate, like the Universe, move towards a fully inert state. Most people (whether they know it or not as a concept) believe that since we’re “higher animals” that the things we create are somehow outside of the laws of the Universe… me, however… and for the sake of this particular rant, I believe entropy applies to civilizations and the ideas that created them, just as much as it applies to the galaxies and the stars that make them. Our ideas are part of the Universe so why would they not be governed by the same principles?

How does the ability to change a person’s mind apply to total degradation of government, of civilization, and the Universe? It’s all energy, really. Politics and political discourse are little more than opposing forces pulling at one another. If there’s more energy inside the system, then the two forces are able to increase the overall distance between the two “things” (ideas, policies, corporate donors; it doesn’t really matter what the thing is). Gravity is sucking the two “things” together, energy (passion and money) pull them apart in opposite directions. When the forces balance out, then the bill gets passed in whatever miserable form it usually is by the end of the pushing and pulling of all interested forces.

All Systems Seek Balance.

The inherent issue here is that the Universe (… like it or not science-disbelievers) seeks balance. That “seeking” infects the systems within it; like green eyes being passed from a parent to a child. Each progressive system tries to balance all the systems in it, so on and so forth. The more extreme on one side, the more extreme on the other. Balance, or equilibrium is sought because that state gives the highest odds for long-term survival of each system. Yin and Yang, matter and anti-matter, orbits and gravity, man and woman, republican and democrat, MSNBC and Fox News. They’re all just results of various systems trying to find balance between the pushing and pulling forces whatever those forces may be.

The same is true for systems that have been created by the minds of people within a civilization. At a root level, there’s no real difference between the systems of man and the systems of nature. Whether you admit it or not, we have the DNA of the universe and stuff in us; we inherit its system – we are part of its system, and ultimately seek balance the same way it does. Everything from symmetry defining beauty, to calendars, time-tables, and we arrange our furniture show an inherent need for balance. Politics is no different. 

Politics and Inert Disorder

A big problem when people first see the word disorder is they think some sort of chaos that results in damage. They think riots, breaking glass and burning businesses. They think to themselves, “I need a bunker!” (… well… there is a demonstration of an awful lot of other social and political problems in this country, but that’s for another time).

The sort of damaging disorder to which Americans always mentally default is not what the physics of politics is all about. Entropy (the disorder we’re talking about in our civilization system) is such a pure disorder that it’s inert… its inactive. So much disorder and degradation that it ultimately leads to total and complete inaction.

Sound familiar? Triggers that, “Why bother even voting?” itch, doesn’t it?

For people who point to the Tea Party obstruction as a roadblock, I say it’s just another harmonic in the overall tone of the civilization note of the Universe. The tea party added passion and energy to one side of the political spectrum, that’s all. Now, shortly thereafter, there are groups on the left trying to bring balance to the new energy on the right. Total disorder is not a cataclysmic event. There’s no big bang in this process (dear lord lets hope not, anyway… play nice North Korea). Political entropy is a process. It’s a force of wills, ideologies, underdogs and egos that eventually will be in total disorder. What we see now is just a dangerous disorder that’s a blip in the story, really, that gives a glimpse as each opposing force (left and right) pull so hard in either direction that the entire system comes to a complete standstill. It’s results are the same, but it’s not permanent like the one to which we’re ultimately headed.

As more and more people are born, more and more belief channels get created (closed communities, television, Internet, etc. – any type of information channel that can create various belief systems), the more and more balanced, and diverse each opposing force stretching in different directions will become. Imagine it like having a government with a million different political parties all voting against one another. Total and complete inaction; even making efforts to build a political coalition will be fruitless because there will simply be too much disorder within the system for it to make any difference – not enough votes to bring order and pass a bill. Not enough votes to do anything.

Inert government and civilizations not due to to angry and extreme shouting…. but because that’s just how the Universe works. It’s hard to pass man-made laws when the laws of the Universe are against you.

… that’s my theory. I know I can’t convince anyone I’m right, anyway… but I still hope for that prize table at the local pub very now and again. Hope prevails.