Scarcity Defines You

 

Scarcity Defines You

“In an isolated system, any natural process in that system progresses in the direction of increasing disorder, or entropy, of the system." 

2^nd Law of Thermodynamics

 

The Second Law of Thermodynamics is perhaps the most consequential physical law that influences human existence.  It states that everything inexorably moves from order to disorder – from order to chaos.  It is the fundamental reason for all of human suffering.  And it is the fundamental reason that we will never rid ourselves of suffering.  In fact, the Second Law of Thermodynamics means that we are literally designed to suffer.

There is no antidote to the Second Law of Thermodynamics.  All things decay.  Because of this law, all things that we find useful and necessary for human existence need to be constructed, built, or harvested. All the things we need to exist requires energy in order for us to extract their utility.  This is called entropy and it is fundamental to how our universe functions, and fundamental to the workings of life itself.

Consider that scarcity is a direct function of the Second law of Thermodynamics.  The things we need to survive are scarce directly because we are required to expend energy to get them or to create them.  Water needs to be drawn.  Food planted and harvested.  Houses need to be built.  Clothes need to be made.  None of these things spontaneously avail themselves to us.  And once we expend energy to create them, they immediately begin their inevitable slide to decay.  Steel rusts, houses crumble, food rots, and clothes wear out.  In order to preserve them, we must expend energy and effort to maintain them.  Eventually, they can be maintained no longer and we must expend energy and effort to replace them.  It is this dynamic, a universe of scarcity, that sets the stage for all of human suffering.

Life evolved to exist in a universe defined by scarcity.  Everything about your evolution has been fine-tuned to exist in that universe.  How you feel and how you respond to the world around you has evolved to live in a world of scarcity.  Consider basic human emotions and conceptions like jealousy or justice.  These are evolved emotions that are useful to your survival in a world of scarcity.  The idea of justice or fairness is hard-wired into the human psyche.  Even animals and babies inherently understand concepts of fairness and justice.  These concepts do not have to be taught or socialized.

One might ask, why would justice be a useful conception in a world defined by scarcity?  The inborn conception of justice functions as an innate motivator to either ‘get that which is yours’, or to ensure equitable distribution of scarce resources to maintain group cohesion.  Both of these functions are extremely important in a universe of scarcity.  If we did not have justice, then we would be less motivated to get resources for ourselves.  We would also be less motivated to seek the equitable distribution of resources in our group so that it can continue to thrive.  In a scarcity environment, the group is often critically necessary for the survival of any one individual.  It is therefore important that resources be distributed in ways that allow for the continuation of the group.

The inverse is also true.  Consider that in an abundance environment, the concept of justice would be unnecessary.  In a world where anything you want is easily obtainable, it wouldn’t matter if someone stole your food.  You could simply just grab another bushel.  If everything you need were easily obtainable, the equitable distribution of resources would similarly be unnecessary. 

In this example, it is easy to see how, in a world of scarcity, that the concept of justice is a useful and necessary evolutionary feature.  But there is a deeper element to our evolution in a scarcity environment.  We are evolved in such a way that we cannot even be happy without suffering. 

In a universe of scarcity, suffering is a constant.  If there is one thing you can count on in the universe, it is that you will suffer.  Entropy requires it.  How then would you create a being in such a way that it will flourish in such an environment?  Simple, create them so that suffering provides them with happiness.

It is weird to me that people often need some form of suffering to be happy.  Suffering for its own sake is probably not a way to happiness.  But suffering to accomplish something probably is.  In a world of scarcity, the accomplishing of ‘things’ is necessary.  Clothes need to be sewn, food planted and harvested, and shelter built.  Doing so, in its way, requires some amount of suffering; some amount of effort and ‘pain’.   But in the accomplishment of building a shelter, we are rewarded with a sense of achievement.  We are rewarded in a way that doing nothing cannot provide.

And so, it is in the doing that we find happiness.  Not in the ‘not doing’.  And yet ‘the doing’ is difficult and painful.  What better way for evolution to ensure that you ‘do something’ rather than ‘not do something’ than provide you with a sense of happiness that you suffered to do that thing you did.  In this way, we are wired to suffer, and we cannot find happiness without it.

We often question why there is so much suffering in the world.  The simple answer is that we need it to be happy.  And by extension, this is the reason we will never be rid of it.  We may be able to rid the world of ‘unnecessary suffering’.  But we will never get rid of suffering entirely.  We are hard-wired to need it.