Entropy and Alchemy

Chapter One:  The Decline of Individuality
1.  Water Bearer on the Bridge

The freeway is choked with stop-and-go commuter traffic, and there I am, praying for deliverance from this daily dread, this gnashing of teeth and mashing on the pedals, this wear and tear and swearing in vain.  It doesn’t help that many of the other drivers look fairly comfortable in their climate-controlled compartments, listening to soothing music, when those of us in the older cars must listen to the noise and smell the fumes.  How sweet it is.  As we creep forward, my gaze is fastened on the brake lights in front of me, but suddenly I am distracted by a young man on the pedestrian overpass just ahead.  He is leaning against the screen and urinating an impressive stream down onto the fast lane.  I stop praying for deliverance and start praying for a gun.  Then I think: Wait a minute.  Maybe he’s trying to tell us something, something we should know?

I’ve had a frustrating day at work, swallowing my pride and suppressing anger at my boss who is a fool.  I give in to the temptation to wait out the rush hour and relax with a few drinks at a nearby bar.  On the way home, I'm pulled over by the police for having a cracked windshield.  (The state police were asked to patrol the city expressways, after several incidents where a stopped motorist was robbed or raped, and of course they immediately started giving out many tickets for minor traffic infractions.)  In the glare of their spotlights and flashing red lights, I produce various documents, have my breath analyzed by a device which determines me to be "under the influence", and suddenly I'm a criminal.  I try to console myself: Well, if society says that I'm a criminal, what does that say about society?                                                  

One morning I'm running on Detroit's Belle Isle and I notice the island is swarming with police.  At a certain location I've passed once already, one of them tells me to stop and turn around.  When I approach to ask him what is going on, he pushes me roughly against a car and frisks me, even though I'm wearing shorts and a T-shirt.  I find out later from another policeman that they’re using the public park for a terrorist training exercise, and I could have been one of the "terrorists" disguised as a jogger.  That makes me wonder: What if real terrorists had been trying to take over the park for some insidious purpose?  How would the rude officer have dealt with me in that situation?

I move to Fort Wayne, Indiana, which I figure will be a low-keyed, easygoing place to live.  Shortly after my wife starts waitressing at a new restaurant in town, I receive a call one morning from the restaurant to find out if she can come in and get-- what sounds like-- "zonned".  I tell the young woman that my wife isn't home and then add, "You want her to get what?"  She nonchalantly explains, "It's this lie detector thing we have here."  I express doubts as to whether such a procedure is completely legal, and she assures me that its legality has been verified and that it's not compulsory.  When my wife comes home I give her the message, but she doesn't seem very concerned.  I decide to call the Indianapolis office of the ACLU, since there is no local branch, but the person who answers informs me that they're all in a meeting and she doesn't think they would be able to help me anyway.  I start asking myself: If the ACLU doesn't care, if my wife doesn't care, why should I care?

I'm going to describe the direction I think society is headed in, based on such glimpses as the above incidents provide (the second of which did not really happen to me), and if I exaggerate to a certain degree, you'll have to excuse me.  I'd rather cry "wolf", even though it may only be the sheep dog, rather than see us meekly herded to some purpose or destination we're not fully aware of.  To start off, the little preceding sketches might be interpreted by captions that would go something as follows:

1.  There are too many commuters, too many cars, too many of everything, and too little room.  Everyday we see all these people whom we know nothing about and they know nothing about us.  We may not even pay any attention to them, unless they get in our way or do something else to make us notice them.  We think of ourselves as individuals and each of them as just one more nameless face in the crowd, but to them, it's the other way around.

2.  We have certain social problems that are often misdiagnosed and treated as criminal problems.  In the case of drinking and driving, for example, we single out as the culprit the condition of having a certain percentage of alcohol in one's blood, something which is neither a necessary nor sufficient condition of hurting someone with a car, and worse-- is not even overt behavior.

3.& 4.  Our huge, anonymous society has a high rate of crime in which the criminals come in so many shapes, sizes, and guises that all of us must be watched, checked out, and regarded suspiciously.  The worst is terrorist type crime,