Is the state of the US government at an end – the final entropy? Or is it, with the broiling confusion and unrestrained energy of the electorate, a new beginning – the pains of birth?

As an undercurrent, not often recognized by purveyors of ideas, news and speculation, the question of entropy or birth drives their reports. The choice cannot be answered with a game of darts or a debate fueled by boiler makers. It cannot be answered by overanalyzing nonsensical events or by a twelve-member pundit team on CNN. It cannot be answered by the very Congress that will live or die depending on whether the answer is entropy or birth.

Entropy is a measure of dissonance or deterioration; simply, it is a form of decay. For example, a newly built house has little entropy but as the years roll by, the house suffers the ravages of time and abuse; it can be said that the house has growing entropy as it ages. The idea that entropy can only travel in one direction – the demise of energy and organization over time – is why physicists use the amount of entropy in matter to measure its age. Based on the low amount of entropy in the universe, scientists consider our universe to be young.

In a temporary sort of way, entropy can be reduced by injecting energy or new structure into the object. Continuing the house example, if the owner paints the walls, replaces the roof, installs a new furnace, the owner is reducing the amount of entropy – temporarily. Entropy will continue to grow and as a last, final state of entropy, the house is in disarray and useless.

Returning to the open question: Is the US government in the final throes of entropy or is the amount of energy and commotion the beginning of a new government? Mariner believes we don’t know yet. The present administration certainly is introducing massive amounts of dissonance and disorganization. The present Congress is saturated with entropy.

The measuring point will occur in the 2018 election. If afterward Congress continues in republican hands and, God forbid, the current administration is still around, we can say that the US government is in the final stages of entropy. On the other hand, if the electorate chooses to infuse energy and new organization with the election, we can say the US government is giving birth to a new structure.

Using the Universe mentioned earlier, it has changed dramatically day by day. The US is losing to other nations, economies and concepts of global government.

Care to live in a ramshackle house?

REFERENCE SECTION

Just to point out the cultural confusion that reigns in our nation, the Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, is an advocate of profit-based education. Meanwhile, the State of Tennessee, a no income tax state, has built a community college free to all comers regardless of their educational status or age. So which is it? DeVos sponsored or state sponsored?

Ancient Mariner