Entropy
Most people today seem to be unaware of nature as a system, and are only accustomed to see it as a small area with planted trees and some plastic grass. This may at first strike many of us as odd, we who regularly spend time in nature and get to know forests - not just as a green space of physical objects - but as a process of life, in which millions of different species struggle to find homes and live quiet lives with their families. But when you return to the city and realize that it consists out of concrete buildings, skyscrapers, cars, supermarkets, and endless streets that never seem to have an end - suddenly, you understand that it is not as strange as it may seem.
In modern society we are disconnected from the natural world. Our lifestyle has become a negative circle from which we cannot seem to escape; the further away from nature we live, the further we want to go, not really concerned with something that seems so distant and far away.
Instead we turn our interest toward the things that we believe can replace the order that prevails in nature; natural selection becomes freedom and equality for all, struggle becomes long hours in front of a glowing television, dedication and peace becomes selfishness and stressing jobs - for every part of reality that seems uncomfortable, we invent a new social "truth," to combat the system in which we live.
This is the entropy of this outlook on life: we cannot escape the inevitable "bad parts" of nature, such as inequality and death. Sooner or later reality will knock on our door and ask to come in. We can either close the door and keep on repeating the same old political slogans we see on TV, or we can open up the door, face the truth, and perhaps try to find a greater sense of meaning and understanding in our life.
Most people don't seem to comprehend this most basic understandig of our world, because our current society has empowered us with a false sense of security, behind media, social attractions, and technological machines. We all love to hide behind these modern trends, because they keep the future problems at bay, and force us instead to operate by things that sustain the illusion on which we feed.
Technology and its industrial system, is not per definition "evil" or "wrong," but if we want to escape the current entropy that plagues our society and establish ideals that we can spend our lives striving for, we need to re-connect our society and culture to reality and nature. We must see our lives and our social commitments as intrinsic parts of something larger and much more important. We must learn to value - not only the "good" and "comfortable" parts of being human - but the "evil" and "ugly" parts as well. For ultimately, Earth is both Heaven and Hell, and thus we need to learn to appreciate both.
by Alex Birch
March 12, 2007
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