On Entropy & the Ability to Self-Define
This article expresses partial thoughts on the "Doctrine of Radical Separation". A concept that's been in the works for a while. A patchwork of different modalities I want to form into a coherent whole.
I believe Buddhist techniques and philosophy offer potent practices that allow one to exist in the modern world more effectively. I reject Heidegger completely in his assertion that Buddhism offers only entanglement in Nihilism. I assert these techniques offer means for nothing short of the "self-overcoming Nihilism" - though this is perhaps a misguided statement in a strict Buddhist sense. Thus, all this is useful if you're a Buddhist or not.
I define self-overcoming in the following way: How to be in the world and yet not of it. An excellent way to view these ideas is through the thermodynamic prism.
As you probably know, the Second Law of Thermodynamics refers to the entropic force. A term describing the idea that higher levels of decay and disorder are built into the fabric of the universe. Closed systems are ultimately subject to these forces. This includes us as an energetic system.
The mental models and patterns we use to make sense of a complex world are, after only a short while typically, ineffective in granting us optimal freedom of action within a given set of variables. Such variables constantly reach higher levels of disorder; we see this in our civilisation. We see this in our own bodies. And we also exist in the context of civilisational entropy. None of this is separate; it all persists as an energetic continuum.
Many of us are defined in our totality in terms of our internal models and how we interact with the world, by the system or systems, with very little creative input on our own behalves.
This current paradigm has been defined by the sum total of individuals, past and present, who lived or live within it. Dealing with entropic pressures, however, ineffectively.
If the system is in such bad shape and can no longer account for the higher levels of disorder with its own institutions and models, we as citizens, whose personas are forged by the system, should be concerned. One could assume these same psychological and cultural-existential models are insufficient to contain increasing entropy levels within and without us. We require some kind of mental technology to account for expressions of higher levels of disorder.
We all know this instinctually. We see it in the humans around us, after covid, for example, with the destruction of our economic systems. Simple processes not working anymore as a feature of declining general intelligence and large-scale immigration from low IQ populations.
Silly models cannot account for what is happening around us, and as a result, they become subject to complete disorder and decay. As creatures of habit, it appears that we only change if we are forced to by externalities.
This is usually painful, violent or unpleasant for the majority. Internally we cannot account for the external change; our models of reality failed. It also means we are subjected to the environmental effect without any sense of personal consent. Our model failed to account for external disorders. Part of selves must therefore collapse, or persona collapses. It breaks us as much as we are a product of the failed externalities that shaped us initially.
As a "closed system", we subject ourselves more firmly to entropic force. And we can become stuck due to stultified patterns of action as a dogmatic and closed informational system.
In art, it reminds me of the Darren Aronofsky film "Requiem for Dream". Through her inability to sufficiently model, understand and account for her own internal experiences and external problems, the main character's mother is ultimately destroyed by them. What is truly disturbing about the breakdown is that she cannot understand what is happening to her. This is an excellent way to summarise what I am trying to get at. She is a closed informational system, and she was being lived by the disorder around her. She was destroyed by it.
Creation & Destruction.
By recognising that entropic forces are a constant, we can start to live better and in accordance with this reality. To constantly engage in the balancing act between creation and destruction in ourselves.
Buddhism offers a system where, through strong internal reflection and similar practices, we can physiologically and psychologically break down old and outdated models of reality more efficiently. We can learn to begin again whenever we please, at any moment.
We realise that almost all about our self-conception is illusory, and that there is nothing to really fear losing. But more on this later.
I see this then as utilising psychological freedom of action through becoming an open system instead of a closed system. An open system focused on integrating information and creating new models to account for greater levels of disorder and information in the environment around us. This requires extreme mental agility. This is not a natural feature of the modern man.
Modern civilisation makes us overly complex, with excessively complex ideas regarding ourselves and what is happening. We retain all manner of outdated models and inheritances of the past. The thoughts of old men who lived in entirely different times and contexts. I often (used to) tweet that the men of the present cannot carry the future; this is more precisely what I mean by that.
By no means discounting all that has been said before, as a matter of discarding tradition. Authentic tradition is dynamic. It is a constant. It is vibrant and ever-living. It expresses itself in different forms for different times. Tradition is the manner of synthesising, as opposed to the stultified former synthesis.
A key to being an open system is to see new information and what is of value as clearly as possible. Once an observation has been made, one can orient and act according to it without bearing a stone of mere habit.
Action is determined wholly by free conscious engagement with the new raw information observed. There must be a quality of clear and present observation. This requires work. Mahasattiphatana work and other Buddhist modalities effectively increase the quality of momentary observation free from habitual burden.
The philosophy of Buddhism is contingent on deeply experiencing reality as an impermanent system. The ability over time to see yourself as this is a potent action or method.
I see the neurologically "free individual" as necessary in this respect. A requirement to be constantly self-defining in the face of new information. And through being able to self-define, also achieves as much freedom as is possible in this world-conglomeration.
Psychological freedom of action through proper mindfulness training, in some way then, staving off the forces of entropy. This type of freedom is also the ultimate act of rebellion against nature. Perhaps we offer ourselves the chance to live and not be lived. In a noisy system, this ability to classify new information effectively into a useful self-serving model is complex, undoubtedly.
By utilising accurate observation and information of an environment in flux, the mind becomes open to constant refinement. This leads to greater flexibility and freedom of action within an environmental context.
If one were to remain closed and dogmatic, only able to integrate new information through outdated models and entrenched patterns, as an isolated system, one would subject themselves more entirely to entropic forces.
In the way I define psychological freedom, this way is not the way.
This is acting compulsively through models that, for the most part, one did not even create - and in all probability, can't account for the world as it is. Thus, this way is by definition not self-defining. Any valuable view of the world must consider this; it cannot merely grasp the past. It must be defined by a vibrancy of integration and model to account for new disorders.
Power then refers to the efficiency of the ability to self-define. If one can observe effectively and act with a degree of high psychological and physiological flexibility in any given set of circumstances, I would say then that this is an expression of power.
In a system in the final stages of entropic dissolution, the ability of the individual to self-define and express power will become of paramount importance.
Even for a non-Buddhist, Buddhist practice assists us with this great task. We know that meditation allows us to "rewire" our hardware. We know that radical self-introspection enables us to take the hammer to silly notions or self-defeating ideas, behaviours and models. Whether it was our parents, society or whoever else that imposed these neural structures, we can change them by what is (apparently) our own will.
These practices allow us to become the ultimate observer. As John Boyd said, the ability to "observe - classify - model - act" is our most potent weapon against entropic forces.