Where Flags Are Graffiti and Entropy Wins

Around the Waldorf school on Brady Street, there is always some graffiti scribbled on buildings and signs. In the bathrooms of certain coffee shops, the walls are often covered with more writing than blank space. Sometimes graffiti is even layered on top of other graffiti. The graffiti near Asher’s school isn’t overwhelming, but it constantly reappears no matter how many times it’s erased or painted over. Eventually, the words and symbols fade into the background for passersby—unless they are thought-provoking in some unusual way.

Most graffiti is boring. Cryptic gang symbols mean little to most people. A Catholic Worker friend once told me that national flags are just glorified gang symbols, and I think he’s right. A flag is a kind of graffiti. It sends a message—or at least tries to. For some, a flag carries deep emotional meaning, but for others it’s just a colorful rag flapping in the breeze. A couple of houses in the area fly Palestinian flags. To the residents, those symbols clearly matter, but to others walking by, they may offend—or mean nothing at all. The same can be true of the American flag.

Sometimes graffiti is political. On the Brady Street bridge, protesters often scrawl chalk messages on the concrete. I’ve seen “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free,” and “Israel: your victim card has expired.” These slogans are eye-catching, but they tend to resonate only with those who already agree. Luckily, chalk is temporary—a good rain washes everything away, clearing the slate for the next writer.

Graffiti can also take on religious tones. “Jesus saves” is a common example. I’ve even seen entire Bible verses written on sidewalks. Such messages can inspire or repel, depending on the reader’s perspective.

Too often, though, graffiti is obscene. That seems to be part of our culture. Once upon a time, if someone wrote the word “fuck,” it demanded attention. Now, it barely registers. I, at least, am too jaded to notice.

There is one unique piece of graffiti I see every time I pick up Asher from school. It simply says:

“Entropy will triumph!”

That always makes me smile. It reads like a radical manifesto from a science nerd. And of course, the statement is true. In the physical world, things tend to move from order to disorder. Not in every case, but in the long run, the universe will probably end in heat death—a state of complete disorder where only thermal energy remains. The universe won’t go out with a bang, nor even with a whimper. Whoever scrawled this with a Sharpie clearly knew something about thermodynamics, and had a dry sense of humor.

Thermodynamics has three basic laws:

1. The first law, also known as the law of conservation of energy, states that energy cannot be created or destroyed—only transformed from one form to another.
2. The second law states that the total entropy of an isolated system can never decrease over time.
3. The third law states that as the temperature of a system approaches absolute zero, the entropy of a perfect crystal approaches a constant minimum. This implies it is impossible to reach absolute zero in a finite number of steps, while also giving insight into how systems behave at extremely low temperatures.

(Note: these laws were found on Wikipedia.)

What does all this mean? I once saw the three laws translated into layman’s terms:

• You can’t win.
• You can’t break even.
• You can’t quit the game.

That, essentially, is what the graffiti artist was saying. And I like that.

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Frank (Francis) Pauc is a graduate of West Point, Class of 1980. He completed the Military Intelligence Basic Course at Fort Huachuca and then went to Flight School at Fort Rucker. Frank was stationed with the 3rd Armor Division in West Germany at Fliegerhorst Airfield from December 1981 to January 1985. He flew Hueys and Black Hawks and was next assigned to the 7th Infantry Division at Fort Ord, CA. He got the hell out of the Army in August 1986.

As the Voice of the Veteran Community, The Havok Journal seeks to publish a variety of perspectives on a number of sensitive subjects. Unless specifically noted otherwise, nothing we publish is an official point of view of The Havok Journal or any part of the U.S. government.