Humans combat entropy.
We're familiar with the concept of entropy, laws of thermodynamics and all that. Systems tend towards chaos, or disorder. Your room has never cleaned itself up (okay, scientifically bad example.) But, things in nature tend towards chaos.
We fight that, and we fight it fiercely. Sometimes I wonder why. Why was the human race emboldened with such an intense desire for order? We certainly have it. Look at our cities, our laws, the history of the human race is a history of a tendency towards order. Certainly we've had our little breakdowns, but I think that's part of the grand balancing act that is the world, sometimes the entropy beats our systems for a while.
This thought occurred to me at the theatre the other night. I was sitting there, with about 49 other people, and the show ended. Applause ensued, and slowly, but inexorably the din of applause became rhythmic. Everyone began to clap together on beats. Random freak occurance? I don't think so. I think 50-100 is about the threshold where that can spontaneously occur, but I'll be it does more often than not in groups that size. Am I a freak because I want to study that?
So, what do you think? Why do we fight the chaos? It seems instinctual...would it be easier to just relax? I suppose if you look at my bedroom, you'll see my common answer.
~J