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Can political coups be considered a good example of Entropy?

Viraja

Jaya Jagannatha!
I see the parallel as coups are ongoing and lead to disorderliness, the destiny for the world as per the dictates of Entropy.

I'm writing a story wherein a military coup is compared to marital entropy.

As part of the preface, I'm describing the coup itself. Then comparing the results with someone's failed marriage.

Does this sound convincing for a plot?
 

Brickjectivity

Turned to Stone. Now I stretch daily.
Staff member
Premium Member
I see the parallel as coups are ongoing and lead to disorderliness, the destiny for the world as per the dictates of Entropy.

I'm writing a story wherein a military coup is compared to marital entropy.

As part of the preface, I'm describing the coup itself. Then comparing the results with someone's failed marriage.

Does this sound convincing for a plot?
I had to look up what marital entropy meant. Whether your theory is right or not it might be interesting.

Maybe! I recommend looking up marriage statistics to find out what successful marriages have in common...assuming there is anything in common. It might be useful in your book.

Sometimes marriages and governments don't fail, and it can be for strange reasons and serendipity. Maybe a marriage was going to fail but was accidentally be saved because one spouse went out of town for a while.
 

beenherebeforeagain

Rogue Animist
Premium Member
It sounds like a different formulation of the Red Queen effect...

Wikipedia: "Leigh Van Valen proposed the hypothesis as an "explanatory tangent" to explain the "law of extinction" (known as "Van Valen's law"),[1] which states that the probability of extinction does not depend on the lifetime of the species (or higher-rank taxon), instead being constant over millions of years for any given taxon."
 

exchemist

Veteran Member
I see the parallel as coups are ongoing and lead to disorderliness, the destiny for the world as per the dictates of Entropy.

I'm writing a story wherein a military coup is compared to marital entropy.

As part of the preface, I'm describing the coup itself. Then comparing the results with someone's failed marriage.

Does this sound convincing for a plot?
I like very much the idea of making an analogy between a failed marriage and the conditions that precipitate a coup d'etat, or those that result from one. But the idea of trying to make a strained analogy with thermodynamics makes me wince. It seems potentially pretentious and could, depending on how you use it, open you to the charge that the writer doesn't understand the terms he is using.

I'm not sure what "marital entropy" is. A fancy way of saying that you need to work at a marriage, perhaps?
 

Viraja

Jaya Jagannatha!
I like very much the idea of making an analogy between a failed marriage and the conditions that precipitate a coup d'etat, or those that result from one. But the idea of trying to make a strained analogy with thermodynamics makes me wince. It seems potentially pretentious and could, depending on how you use it, open you to the charge that the writer doesn't understand the terms he is using.

I'm not sure what "marital entropy" is. A fancy way of saying that you need to work at a marriage, perhaps?

Oh, no, no, my analogy stops very well at that meaning of Entropy that refers to disorderliness and has nothing to do with Thermodynamics. I know, "marital entropy" sounds complicated, but what you have said about it, is precisely what I mean.

Essentially my character is a doctor who is trying to convince his adolescent son on why his mother (the doc's estranged wife) left them.

The doctor and his son are travelling amidst riot-torn lands which are in a transitionary phase of peace. It seems colonists have won over the natives in those lands, which is not the picture-perfect way coups should end, at least in stories, but that's how it has been.

Speaking of the lady who left her family behind (and is estranged now), the doctor convinces his son, that is the nature of life, which is that where expectations are, changes are mandated, which is why Entropy is the order of things in the world. Speaking of the riots, the analogy ends when the dad declares to his son, even though the colonists seem to have won, it is all but temporary, and there is no eventual winner or loser anywhere in history of the world, because change is the way of life.
 

Viraja

Jaya Jagannatha!
I am unable to explain the scenario further because then I have to really type in the whole story to really make sense.
 

exchemist

Veteran Member
Oh, no, no, my analogy stops very well at that meaning of Entropy that refers to disorderliness and has nothing to do with Thermodynamics. I know, "marital entropy" sounds complicated, but what you have said about it, is precisely what I mean.

Essentially my character is a doctor who is trying to convince his adolescent son on why his mother (the doc's estranged wife) left them.

The doctor and his son are travelling amidst riot-torn lands which are in a transitionary phase of peace. It seems colonists have won over the natives in those lands, which is not the picture-perfect way coups should end, at least in stories, but that's how it has been.

Speaking of the lady who left her family behind (and is estranged now), the doctor convinces his son, that is the nature of life, which is that where expectations are, changes are mandated, which is why Entropy is the order of things in the world. Speaking of the riots, the analogy ends when the dad declares to his son, even though the colonists seem to have won, it is all but temporary, and there is no eventual winner or loser anywhere in history of the world, because change is the way of life.
Oh I see. So entropy is embraced as an inevitable feature of life, that one has to expect to cause everything to run down in the end? Yes, I think that's sound. In fact it is something I often reflect on myself, as I age;).
 

Viraja

Jaya Jagannatha!
Oh I see. So entropy is embraced as an inevitable feature of life, that one has to expect to cause everything to run down in the end? Yes, I think that's sound. In fact it is something I often reflect on myself, as I age;).

In many ways, that is true.

In my story, the doctor conveys to his son that where expectations dwell, changes and eventually entropy, become inevitable. A political coup mandates that expectations of a certain sect of a society be addressed where it was neglected earlier. In matrimony, entropy results where expectations of either partner is not met.

And eventually the doctor shows the medals and certificates his ex-spouse has won since the split.

I'm just getting little bit clouded and unclear, whether to present the above message in the narrative style (as if giving a sermon) or to creatively include some incident that conveys this message in a subtle manner.
 

exchemist

Veteran Member
In many ways, that is true.

In my story, the doctor conveys to his son that where expectations dwell, changes and eventually entropy, become inevitable. A political coup mandates that expectations of a certain sect of a society be addressed where it was neglected earlier. In matrimony, entropy results where expectations of either partner is not met.

And eventually the doctor shows the medals and certificates his ex-spouse has won since the split.

I'm just getting little bit clouded and unclear, whether to present the above message in the narrative style (as if giving a sermon) or to creatively include some incident that conveys this message in a subtle manner.
If she succeeded in achieving a lot after the split, that suggests a more subtle message than mere entropy, though. She would have seen the split not as entropy running down the order in her life but quite the contrary.

Or maybe, to pursue the thermodynamic allegory, since net entropy (in an isolated system) can only increase, the decrease in entropy in her life can only be achieved at the cost of increasing the entropy elsewhere in the system, viz. the life of her former spouse!
 
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