Man & Entropy: The Era of Chaos-In-Man

I once read that:

“Murphy’s Law” — that everything that can go wrong, will — was not initially proposed by him, which further proves the theory.

This statement was made in a scholarly work, the name and author of which, I regret to not recall. Yet, it spoke of a great rival that Man has struggled to defeat. To this nemesis, the following short text is dedicated; to entropy, with respect.

Entropy is a very arcane term insofar as its usage is concerned. Entropy is more often discussed between intellectuals and scientists — usually physicians — as if it is some specialised or overly technical term unreachable to the untrained audience. The truth is, this term is as much technical as it is common and concievable for even the most “untrained” of audiences.

Chaos & Man: The kickstarting of the loop

Entropy and Man have indulged in a timeless fued since they first clashed, when Man encountered the terror of Chaos. Chaos emerged when Man realised that their surroundings where not serving them. Man had to adapt for their survival. They had to fight Chaos, whose beneficiary was Entropy.

Entropy & Chaos Definitions

This briefing begs the question of how are Entropy and Chaos connected. Plainly put, Entropy is the natural tendency of things to approach Chaos. Chaos itself is disorganisation and arbitrary in their purest expression.

Keep this definitional contrast in mind if it appears as if the terms are used interchangably.

Entropy & Chaos’ forms

In prehistoric times, Chaos’s incarnation for Man came in the form of pure survival. In other words, Man was directly and physically endangered predators — other animals or their own kind — and natural phenomena and disasters. If you may, this was the era of Chaos-out-of-Man.

From thereon after, Entropy’s expression departed from outside factors and instead inhabited Man themselves. This led Man to the era of Chaos-in-Man. This meant that, once Man extinguished outside threats, they found Chaos amongst themselves. Feuds were everywhere. Humans fighting humans felt natural and the battles never stop. Sometimes there were wars, others just a subtle mean comment on another’s attitude. Sometimes it was on a personal level, others on country-scale. Anyhow, Entropy managed to revive Chaos in the face of Man, and, this time, it made it wholly more difficult to defeat, as it was embedded in Man themselves. Now, each one Man was responsible for creating the other’s chaos. To paraphrase the famous saying:

One’s Man’s peace is another Man’s chaos.

Entropy & Chaos today

Today, we are still in the wider category of the second case (Entropy in Man themselves), albeit with one pivotal difference.

In the old days of Chaos-in-Man, the “-in-Man” component that human A’s chaos lay in an aspect of human B’s. In other words, at least two humans were needed to create Chaos for someone.

The modern era of Chaos-in-Man eliminates that need. That is, nowadays, one human’s Chaos lies in themselves alone. This is the most worrisome form of Entropy that Man has thus far been exposed to. Ironically, Man considered the early Chaos-in-Man era to be unbearable if not torturous. Little did they know, the Entropic tendency would soon be adopted by not merely Man’s society, but each and every Man themselves.

Chaos’ expression in the modern Chaos-in-Man era

On practical terms, it has still not been clear how Chaos is expressed in one’s self. To respond to this entails to simply look at the definition that was given before; disorganisation.

Man now struggles to organise themselves and be in peace with its nature. Every day, it is a fight between Order and Chaos, Man’s obsession to be in control. Man’s battle with the arbitrary.

Entropy travelled from outside threats, to the very community of Man, until it finally found its way, not merely in Man’s society, but on the individual patient itself. Its force has caused humans to individually become their own Chaos.

Perhaps the even more worrying truth than the above, is that the opposite of Entropy & Chaos, Order may be nothing but a human-exlcusive illusion. It may be that Man conceptualise Order not as Order itself, but only as an opposite to Chaos exactly because it doesn’t know how else to define it. And that, perhaps, may be because it cannot be define. A wonder to which to certain response can be given.