Social Entropy

Someone on another platform used the phrase “social entropy”, and it has been echoing in my head ever since. It strikes me as perfectly encapsulating what feels like the fraying of our social fabric. I almost wonder if the new millennium blew some of our mental fuses.

It’s hard to know what to make of things now. Is this just another pendulum swing along humanity’s path or a genuine sign of decline. Has humanity peaked, been found unworthy, and slid into a dumb and numb acceptance of our lot?

What the hell is even going on anymore?

I warn you this is just a ramble in hopes of catharsis. I have no answers. I’m not sure there are answers at this point. The train is headed somewhere, and I’m sure it’s unstoppable, so we’ll have to ride it out and hope the final destination isn’t Hell Station.

When I look around, I find the world hard to recognize. Journalism is a joke, politics is an abomination, business is dedicated to squeezing every drop of blood, scammers and spammers are a constant virulent miasma, stupidity and incompetence are everywhere, quality has all but vanished, and no one seems to really care anymore. We’re lost in our own bubble universes.

To say things are better or worse (or the same) requires a judgement call and a decent definition of what one means by “better” and “worse”. There is no question we are — generally speaking — materially better off. Compared to ages past, we’re materially far better off now. There are many indicators of our material wealth.

We’re inundated with a sea of content, and endless supply of books, music, TV shows, movies, and YouTube videos. None of which require leaving our comfy chair. One consequence of this glut of content is that almost nothing stands out anymore. Generations are fragmented and no longer coalesce around single shared experiences.

The fragmentation became polarization and a culture war. Both sides paint the other in the worst colors. No quarter is allowed, the other side is invalid, there can be no compromise. This culture war is all out.

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What disturbs me most is a perception I have going back at least to 2016 that this is largely the fault of liberals and progressives. Through what seems abject stupidity and carelessness, the Democrats started this mess. What we’re seeing now is, at least in part, a reaction to social progress going too far too fast.

I think the biggest part of it is globalization and what it did to jobs, but I also think we’re seeing a reaction to too much social progress jammed down our throats. Too much for some, at least, and I don’t think it’s fair to entirely ignore their feelings. (Golden Rule 101.)

There is a segment of this country that rightfully sees itself as having built America. The workers who built our roads, bridges, buildings, cars, washing machines, and TVs. They took pride in their work. They were part of our strength as a country. They were the core of what we were as a nation.

Globalization devastated them. Progress killed more than just dreams; it killed jobs and wrecked futures. Broken eggs in a progressive omelet. And the part of the country who weren’t laborers, the “elite” liberals, cheered for lower prices and never gave a thought to “fly over” country.

It’s not hard to understand the rage. I understood exactly why Trump won in 2016. I could even forgive it. Lots of conservatives hated Trump, but they hated liberals even more. Supporting Trump is how they get back at them. They love how liberals lose their shit over the things Trump does, and I’ve long suspected some of his behavior is solely to generate that reaction.

That Democrats have failed to understand this disturbs me. If Biden loses in November — and there’s a good chance he will — it will be on the Democrats for never figuring out how to handle Trump, for running questionable candidates against him, and for their reactions to Biden’s age now.

Now is too late. Now is the time to be unified. Do we want someone with honor, intelligence, capability, compassion, experience, grace, and understanding? Or do we want an under-educated convicted felon, adjudicated rapist, and bumbling idiot? How is this even a choice?

If anything hands the election away, it will be the faithless reaction of the Democrats. I’m close to feeling they’re going to get what they deserve. But everyone else is hurt by this debacle of a dumpster fire, this self-induced trainwreck.

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I think the seeds were planted back in the 1960s. Modernism led to post-modernism and deconstruction. Vietnam and Watergate undermined our faith in government. A growing secularism undermined faith in religion. With government, religion, police, education, and science, the misdeeds of individuals, greed, perfidy, or good old lust, devalued those institutions in our eyes (and because post-modernism and deconstruction incline us to view institutions askance).

Increasingly, the modern era seems to cast us adrift in a sea of opiating content (pick your poison) with seas too deep for any anchor. What do we hold on to? What do we believe? What truths are self-evident anymore? How do we find a compass bearing?

It’s all about you! (I mean me, me, me!)

The 1980s — the infamous “Me” decade — seemed to turn us inwards. A self-help book industry offered to fix whatever needed fixing. It was all about you, your needs, your desires, your pleasure. It’s about then that the content glut starts to grow (but not yet spurred on by the interweb). There was an energy and hopefulness. Disco, which had grown popular in the 1970s, became mainstream, part of our happy, if shallow, cultural identity.

In the 1990s the interweb stormed into our lives. I still remember when billboards and ads started having these strange “www” things off in some corner. And, wow, did http and HTML ever take over fast. I was astonished at how quickly businesses began assuming you have interweb access.

Keep in mind the internet goes back to the 1960s, but it was for decades the domain of government, academics, and computer geeks (like me). It doesn’t become a global playground and commerce center until the interweb in the 1990s. (And you can thank the porn industry for figuring out how to monetize the interweb.)

So, we tore down our institutions, our modern gods, and replaced them with a wild, wild west emporium that infests every corner of our lives. We’ve positioned ourselves to be amused to death.

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Studies seem to indicate that there is little harm, and much available benefit, from most of the content on the interweb. But they also suggest there is some harm in social media. (To which my initial reaction was, “Duh!”)

I’ve never really understood why every online article published needs to have a comment section, especially when it comes to news outlets. But comment sections are seen as drawing people to the site (and being subjected to your ads). But we’ve seen that it often brings out the worst in people.

News outlets seem another casualty of the modern era. Cable news is the biggest joke among them. Again, it’s all about eyeballs for ads. Cable news is nothing but a matrix for commercials. The content is designed to appeal to a chosen sector of society.

For a while I subscribed to Apple News, but they disappointed so much that I’ll never willingly give Apple another dime. Lately, I’ve been trying Ground News, but I’m very disappointed in it (for different reasons — I’ll post about it pretty soon).

Suffice to say we lack for Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite and Chet Huntley and David Brinkley. Or even Tim Russert. Now all we have are various kinds of clowns and performing seals.

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The über-conservative Tea Party movement began back in 2009. Why? In part because we elected a Black man as president in 2008. Some reacted the way liberals did about Trump in 2016. With great outrage.

There is also that globalization peaked in 2008, so it was in full swing. Unemployment was down to 4.61% in 2006 but rose sharply to a peak of 9.61 in 2010. Over the next nine years it fell to a long-time low of 3.68% in 2019. It spiked to 8.09 in 2020 but fell to 3.63% (a new low) by 2022. It has risen to 3.99% in 2024 with a gradual rise predicted in the next two years (while still remaining below the 2006 low.

Employment (blue bars) and Unemployment (black line) rate in the USA 1980-present. [Chart from Statista.com.]

Wealthy Americans, it must be admitted, generally do better under Republican administrations. The sole accomplishment of the P45 administration was a big tax cut for the wealthy.

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I’ve long believed Hillary Clinton’s campaign was a misstep by Democrats. While I thought she’d be a fine president, it was hard to ignore all the baggage she came with. A female candidate after a Black presidency may have been a bridge too far for some.

But to the Democrats in power, it was “her turn”, so she was the blessed candidate. On top of the baggage, she had some bad luck along the way, the Anthony Weiner debacle, the emails thing, and, of course, James Comey. Bad luck and bad choices. My question then: was this the best the Democratic Party can do?

The question seems even more urgent this time. I think Joe Biden is an outstanding human being and a fine President but given the inability of people to see straight anymore, I’m dubious of his chances. From what I hear, even Jon Stewart has turned on him.

When his own party turns against him in a clear hour of need, I wash my hands of them. And since the Republican Party is completely bat-shit crazy at this point — Tea Party insanity distilled and refined — there seems nowhere to turn.

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Politics is a reality sport now. Sound and fury. Pick your team and know they can do no wrong, all the bad is on other guy. And don’t forget to pick your favorite conspiracy theory. “They” are definitely controlling the world.

I recently had a back-and-forth with someone who apparently still believes in the 9/11 conspiracy and that global warming is a myth. I didn’t realize either of those was still a thing. The power of people to self-deceive in the face of hard data never ceases to amaze me. (We all visit there occasionally, but some seem permanent residents.)

I want to believe America will follow Europe’s lead in voting for democracy. More importantly, in voting against the creeping decay, this social entropy, we’re experiencing. But I’m not confident.

When debating gun culture, it’s frequently missed that America is unlike other countries. Our country, for good and ill, was won and tamed by guns. And we’re much younger than any European country. We’re brash and often childish. And I fear that the disgruntlement and rage on the Right may be too powerful in the face of disorganization and foolishness on the Left.

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It boils down to whether enough people want to change the course that’s been set by outrage and divisiveness. What’s needed is a resounding vote for democracy and the principles this country was founded on. That requires standing together.

I sure hope we have that in us.

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Stay focused, my friends! Go forth and spread beauty and light.

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