Why Do Bad Things Happen?

Since the beginning of time, bad things have happened. They happened in nature, then Man came along and invented many more.  There are hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, droughts, volcanoes, lightening caused fires and predators hunting, frightening and killing their prey.  There is also illness, aging, terrible physical pain and death.  All these natural forces cause suffering and pain.

With human acts there are so many more varieties of bad things.  There are all of our favorite “sins” like murder, rape, theft, dishonesty, envy, jealousy, laziness, and arrogance and there are all the specific kinds ranging from individual to group to culture.  There are the people cheating on their spouse, there are the businessmen deceiving their customers, there are the adults abusing children, there are the politicians lying openly to further their limited cause and there are those who live off the work of others while contributing nothing themselves.  There are the groups and organizations which condone acts of cruelty like hazing, discriminating and  causing physical and emotional damage to others.  Then there are the cultural cruelties like bull fighting, capturing rare animals to use parts of their bodies for aphrodisiacs, boxing, tyranny, fascism, mistreatment of women, wars, corruption and injustice.

The eternal question is why?  Why is there so much suffering and loss?  If there is a G-d and if He is infinite, omniscient, omnipotent and benevolent, why does He allow this to go on? 

Our Judeo-Christian teachings explain it as caused by original sin committed by Adam and Eve, our first family.  The thesis is that an angel, almost as powerful as G-d, revolted against Him and formed his own kingdom based on evil and sin.  This fallen angel convinced Eve to partake of the forbidden fruit.  She did and convinced Adam to do the same. The forbidden fruit has been assumed to be a real fruit, like an apple or orange.  It was most likely Eve herself who was the edible.  G-d had warned that if they partake, they will die.  Since they didn’t die immediately, they thought it was a false threat.  What G-d meant was that they would die, eventually, instead of being eternal.  Adam was given one of G-d’s day to live.  That equals 1,000 years in human terms.  Adam gave up 60 of these years so that the future Abraham could live longer.  Or, at least, that’s how the story goes.

So because Adam and Eve partake in their forbidden fruit, they created original sin and the mortality that came with it.  The question arises “why did they disobey G-d, their creator and provider?  If anyone ever had free will, you would think that they had.  They were not influenced by the media (this was before T.V., radio, the Internet or even newspapers), it wasn’t peer pressure from some outside group, because there was none, it wasn’t financial considerations because there was no money and no place to spend it, it wasn’t the result of a poor upbringing because they weren’t brought up and their only father figure was G-d himself.  

And if they hadn’t disobeyed and became immortal, they would have had no offspring and there would be no you reading this and no me writing it. But there would also be no children, no culture or civilization.

So if it wasn’t due to original sin, then why do bad things happen?  Could there be a single cause, a simple explanation?  Yes.

Entropy.

Entropy is a basic law of physics.  It is the disorganization of energy.  It is the agent of change.  Einstein realized what mystics knew for thousands of years - that all matter is energy and that it cannot be lost in the universe.  If nothing can be lost then it must be changed into different forms otherwise life would be static.  The mystics realized further that all energy is consciousness. Physics is slowly coming to this realization.

So when Adam “chose” to create new life, he chose to have life not only begin, but also to end.

Most physicists would agree with this description of entropy but few realize its wide implications.  I asked the wife of a famous American physicist if he ever talked about the impact of entropy in everyday life. She said that he says it every time he sees his son’s messy room.  Yes, messy rooms are a perfect example of entropy - a clean and neat room can quickly become disorganized and messy.  Physicists see it in sand castles when the tide rolls in and disorganizes the structures returning them to lumps of wet sand.  But entropy is much more pervasive and ubiquitous.

I see entropy as a constant force, much like gravity, pulling at every finite thing or activity. It is the reason we age, get ill, die as well as the cause of mental disorders including Alzheimer’s, machines breaking down, errors being made and everything that we think of as sin like lying, killing, stealing and even adultery.

Does this mean that humans have no free will but act only because of the effects of entropy?  I think that the answer is both yes and no.  No matter what our will is, we will grow old and die.  No matter what we do, our cells will die and be replaced by others.  No matter how hard we try, we will make mistakes and we will never be perfect.  And it is because of entropy that Man has created cultures and civilizations  with laws and mores reinforced by peer pressure be they social, economic, political, spiritual or physical. Each culture is a different approach to dealing with the entropy that surrounds and penetrates our being.

Entropy causes humans and other animals to get sick and so each culture has its own system of cures and remedies. People and other creatures can harm others so each culture develops laws and enforcement policies to minimize this tendency. Societies set up systems to protect private property and personal well being.  Cars break down because of entropy so we have organizations to repair them and others to replace them with newer models.  Entropy makes us grow tired of the same thing so we produce new varieties and models.  Entropy makes one culture want to dominate or destroy another and so each country sets up defenses again being disorganized by their enemies.  Entropy causes the mind to be disorganized leading to various mental conditions.  We create different strategies for dealing with this from psychotherapy to meditation to organized religion to medications to tribal dances. Entropy causes us to die so we seek different ways of extending life and cheating death.  

So entropy can be seen as a necessary evil that destroys in order to create. It is the cause of all our virtue as well.  If there were no entropy, there would be nothing to fear and so courage would be unnecessary. There would be no poverty and so there would be no need for compassion or charity.  We could not get sick and so there would be no need for medicine, healing or even healthy food and exercise. If there were no entropy we wouldn’t age and die so there would be no need for children, sex or even physical attraction.  If there were no entropy, we would have little of use to do or be.  If there were no entropy it would be hard for us to remember anything because there would be no cause to.

It’s some consolation to know that although we cannot rid the world of entropy, we must continue to battle it in all of its painful forms knowing it won’t disappear, (unless there is a messiah, savior or final Buddha) but that our efforts will help develop us as individuals, groups and cultures.

But it is little consolation to those of us witnessing the brutality of entropy in our personal lives.  It does not relieve the parent whose grown child has been maimed or killed in some unnecessary war.  It does not comfort those of us who see an elder loved one losing his ability to hear or see or walk or think or remember.  It is of little solace to a person whose 15, almost 16, year-old dog drags his hind legs as he walks now and collapses unexpectedly.  Knowing that it is entropy, life’s planned obsolescence, that will force the lifelong companion to put his canine friend to his final rest does not diminish the heartbreaking pain.

Life is brutal because of entropy without which there would be no life at all.

Is America Still Great?

I have always been told that America is the greatest nation on earth. Our economy is the richest, our democracy the oldest and our armed services are the best. Our country was a place where people took responsibility, were hard working, honest and self reliant. Our education was the very best. We made some of the greatest cars from the 1940s with 16 cylinder Cadillacs, the Packard, and Piece Arrow to the 1970s with a wide variety of great cars. Our crime rate was low and there was little racial disharmony with some notable exceptions. We could leave our doors unlocked because people respected private property and their owners.

How are we now?

Our economy is still the richest, with China catching up. But we have a projected $1 trillion budget deficit this year and are $20 trillion in debt.

Our democracy is still the oldest, but it has become more extreme and divisive. Members of Congress  seem to have lost their capacity to be civil and to find common ground with the opposition. Our federal judges have been less objective with rulings lately that can only exaggerate this bias. Judges seem to file objections to everything they don't like. Lately one judge ruled that the expiration of DACA, a temporary program created by presidential action and scheduled to expire March 5th, can't expire. A judge ruled against ending the program because he didn't like candidate Trump's remarks while campaigning. The judge said that he had to consider those remarks in making his ruling even though letting the program end has nothing to do with anything said a year ago instead of being based on the case before it now and not the judge's objection about the past. It will go to the Supreme Court which will quickly rule against the lower court judges. It is obvious that the current president or Congress can let the temporary program end.

Our military is still the best but it got bogged down in Vietnam, a civil war that had nothing to do with us. Our troops went to Iraq even though it was not in our national interest. It cost billions or even trillions U.S. dollars and thousands of American lives and it seems that we can never leave. We see the same in Syria, Yemen, and Afghanistan. We are stuck in these battles that could go on forever. We have more than 800 foreign military bases so we can defend Europe against the USSR that no longer exists. We have been in South Korea for 65 years to protect them against the million man army of the North. We just can't leave, leaving 30,000 service members defending a country that has not been attacked since 1952.

Our great military is not sacrificing lives and spending billions, to keep America free; we are trying to make other countries free and are not succeeding. Did Vietnam and Cambodia avoid going communist? No. Now that we helped depose dictators in Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Yemen, are the people there better off? It's much worse, with most countries becoming failed states.

Are we still hard working, honest and self reliant? Leave your front door unlocked and you will soon get the answer. Are we all self reliant or do many of us depend on government support. We feel our condition is not our fault, it is society to blame, we are innocent victims. While some of us are hard working, doing very best we can, too many of other fellow Americans seem to take a more leisurely approach to work. We don't need to answer our phones at work because we have voice mail and we don't have to respond. And are we honest? Watch or read the news. Less honest it cannot be. It has become totally biased and tells us half the truth which is on a par with lying.

Our public education is not great anymore. Since the 1970s, standards have gone down. In our efforts to be all inclusive with students from several countries and different capabilities, teachers have had to insist on less and have gotten what they expected. It's not the students' fault or responsibility, it's because of their socio economic condition or cultural background. We blame the teachers for low test scores, never the students or their families. We no longer have the best education or the brightest students. We have fallen from number one to being far down on the list of countries with the best education.

What has happened to America's automotive excellence? I have written in previous columns that it looks like American car makers have given up producing passenger cars including station wagons. The Wall Street Journal just had an article about this situation. All three automakers are discontinuing many of their car lines with more to come. Chevy is getting rid of the Bolt and the Impala, which has been around since 1958. That would leave just the Volt and the Malibu. Chrysler is almost completely getting out of the market. It got rid of the Dart and the 200 with the 300 to be next. it is now depending on Jeep sales. Jeeps haver been rated less reliable and are not recommended for purchase. Ford is dropping most of its passenger cars, which have also gotten terrible ratings. The Lincoln model has been terrible for years. No one is buying Lincolns meaning it too might be on a future chopping block. The Cadillac is no longer the gold standard of cars. It is mediocre and not luxurious. An Audi A4 is even a more desirable car for much less the price. Cadillac sales are down as are their resale values with many auto reviews telling people not to be one. The companies say that with low gasoline prices, people want big SUVs and trucks, but we are still buying German and Japanese family cars, with great success.

Life today seems much more violent than it used to be. We have gangs in Chicago and Baltimore that are breaking all records for murders and other gun violence. Part of the reason might be a lack of jobs for the less fortunate. We used to produce 90% of our goods and services; it is now down to about 2%. We have outsourced our factory jobs abroad to countries like China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India and  Indonesia and then blamed automation, but these foreign factory workers are doing the job without automation. We have in-sourced our entry level jobs to our millions of undocumented workers and recent immigrants. We are told that Americans don't want the jobs. They would if they got at least a living wage and benefits like healthy coverage. We have 300 million privately owned guns including the assault rifle, a big seller. We have violent video games, violent T.V. shows, even what used to be news magazines like 2020, 48 hours and dateline have become reenactments of violence. We watch the violence of football and boxing without thinking that they should be discontinued

Maybe America is still great, but in need of many improvements. We can all do our parts with elected officials caring more about the country than about their party; with the media being more concerned with objective, and unbiased reporting, even if the stories aren't as sensational; and with us doing our best to change our country for the better.

An Appeal to America's Mainstream Media.

Examples of the mainstream media (MSM) are NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, The New Yorker, the Huffington Post, and the Washington Post.

Journalists who work at these institutions are no doubt bright and caring people. They know how to report the news. They have two main problems: sensationalism and lack of objectivity, also known as integrity.

The first problem is seen every time something bad happens. If there is a natural disaster we hear about it again and again. We also see many interviews with those on the scene. The victims usually say "we have lost everything, but we haven't lost any loved ones." Inspite of the disaster, many will say that they will stay and rebuild mindful, that this could happen again. It's as though the media can't get enough of this sensational coverage and will continue way past the time it becomes boring.

If there is a demonstration or riot, the MSM is all over it. We see the footage again and again for days. What is the demonstration about? What do they want to accomplish? Can we interview key figures in this situation as much as possible? Could we have them join T.V. talk shows? Is what they are doing going to change everything or even something? The latest example is the protests by students over gun violence in the schools. At least one of the protesters is on T.V. almost every day. He is all of 17 years old but knows what should be done.

We had Vietnam protests for years before our involvement there ended for military reasons.

We protested the plan to invade Iraq. The U.S. invaded anyway. More recently, some of us went to the D.C. on Inauguration Day. First a group protested on that day destroying as many parked cars as they could.  The next day the women marched. Some of the participants were interviewed and they basically said that they didn't want the elected president to be one. Neither of these much reported events has changed anything except for giving the police patrolling the protests a lot of overtime pay.

If there is a political scandal no matter how small the MSM is there to share the details                                                            they want to share. Each night we get to hear lurid details of the scandal.

The other major problem with the media is that they are clearly biased. The most naked example is their treatment of Trump. It seems that every reporter is a liberal Democrat and can't stand the fact that after all their efforts to keep him from winning the election, they failed. They seem now determined to ridicule and obstruct whatever they can about him.  Anything is fair game for ridicule. It was Mrs. Trump's shoes or his son's possible mental condition, or something he said in jest or the endless Russia collusion investigation with its lead investigators desperate to find something against Trump. The special counsel should be asked how he'd feel if he turned out with nothing against the President and how would he feel if he did.

At the same time, the media is covering for Trump's Democratic opponent. They won't show her recent falls, they interview her and let her find new reasons for her loss. The media knows that millions of people voted illegally and they all voted for HRC. The media could have suggested that the state of California conduct its own audit using random sampling. It doesn't seem likely because they wanted to give HRC a reason to downplay her election loss. The media won't report on all the allegations made against her or the DNC, but will find any excuse to share anything that the President did and he actually gives them juicy quotes which shed a bad light on him.

I am appealing to the Media to regain their integrity and cover stories that even go against their personal biases and cover them fully. If someone is shot and killed, please tell us everything that happened before the shooting.  If a tragedy or demonstration, it should be covered fully for at most for a few days, not weeks or months. They covered the misinformed riot in Ferguson daily for four months. The MSM forgot to mention that the unarmed, six foot five inch former high school football player was trying to kill the officer. It was ruled self defense. The victim was not an innocent fallen hero.  The same happened in what was inaccurately called a "stand your  ground" murder. It was known to police, the media and the district attorney that the young man was killed while trying to kill a truly innocent victim. It was a "lying on the ground and being beaten to death" defense.The Media was on this story for months, knowing that it was wrong. They even showed us pictures of the young man when he was 12 and the shooter as an big, overweight convict knowing that neither picture was of the people just before the attack. Though found innocent by a jury which included six mothers and then by the U.S. Attorney General, the shooter was vilified and made a pariah.

When even one is too many. We are not reminded that the majority of all homicide victims are black as are their murderers. Many of the victims and their assailants live in Chicago, the murder capital of the U.S. We are not reminded that this city forbids the ownership of guns in order to keep Chicagoans safe. How well is that working?

Members of the mainstream media, I am begging you to do responsible reporting without dragging stories out past their time. Please help us get the accurate and unbiased news that we so badly need.