Lost In The Funhouse

Welcome to the funhouse!

It seems to me that we have become so dazed and confused by our own razzle-dazzle that we are now lost in our own funhouse. We are searching for ways to exit the maze but at each turn we find ourselves staring at the reflections of our own folly. The harder we try to get out, the more lost we become.

The Second Law of Thermodynamics reflects the universal observation that unless we put more energy into a system than we take out, the system will become increasingly anarchic, chaotic and cold. We call this “entropy“. Yet we have bought into this idea that it is right that we strive to profit, by which we mean that it is natural and good that each of us seeks to minimize our investment and maximize our return.

Most of us would be quick to spot the con-artist who tries to sell us a perpetual motion machine. For example, we would think twice before investing our hard-earned money in a car that we are told creates more fuel than it uses. But we blithely accept the idea that we can conduct our human affairs by taking more and more out while putting less and less in.

In our striving to get more for less — in other words in our quest for more feel-good “fun” — the system of human enterprise is fast becoming more chaotic and cold. Entropy makes no exceptions. In our quest for a perpetual motion machine, we have become lost in our funhouse.

Funhouse reflections in today’s news:

Economic chaos

Senseless warring

Environmental degradation

Reduction of biodiversity

Unpredictable climate

Militant belief

Poverty amidst wealth

Endemic fear and loathing

Perpetual Motion Machine