Entropy and fighting the universe
Reality is evil. Everything eats and is eaten. Everything destroys and is destroyed. It is our moral duty to strike back at the Universe is a smashing article from Aeon about philosophy reckoning with thermodynamics.
Reality is not what you think it is. It is not the foundation of our joyful flourishing. It is not an eternally renewing resource, nor something that would, were it not for our excessive intervention and reckless consumption, continue to harmoniously expand into the future. The truth is that reality is not nearly so benevolent. Like everything else that exists – stars, microbes, oil, dolphins, shadows, dust and cities – we are nothing more than cups destined to shatter endlessly through time until there is nothing left to break. This, according to the conclusions of scientists over the past two centuries, is the quiet horror that structures existence itself.
Life is a moral catastrophe, it says. I love the idea it is our moral duty to strike back at the universe. I'm not a scientist or a philosopher and I am ready to fight the universe. Sign me up. I guess I was already signed up, by existing.
If being complicit in the destructive flow of the Universe is evil, then goodness might be redefined as that which resists the nature and structure of reality, however futilely. Goodness could consist in any act that seeks, however briefly, to bend the entropic thrust of existence back upon itself – holding it at bay, even if only momentarily.
I'm ready to put on some battle music and lead forty thousand orcs into war.