The article reflects on the theme of entropy as depicted in Woody Allen's film *Stardust Memories*, specifically through the character Sandy Bates who laments the breakdown of matter and existence. The author draws parallels between physical decay, exemplified by a deteriorating split-rail fence surrounding their property, and the slow deterioration of political ideals. The author highlights that just as physical structures can succumb to decay over time, so too can the principles and frameworks that govern societies, emphasizing a broader worldview on impermanence and vulnerability.
In the past, when I have watched Woody Allen's wonderful movie Stardust Memories, I have generally laughed at, but not necessarily with, the bleak pronouncements of the psychologically tormented character Sandy Bates, played, with a potent mixture of dread and depression, by Allen.
Hey, did anybody read on the front page of the Times that matter is decaying? Sandy says early in the film. "Am I the only one that saw that? The universe is gradually breaking down. There's not going to be anything left."
Sandy is mistaken to limit his diagnosis to physical matter. Nonphysical things, like political dogmas that purport to oppose forever wars, are also susceptible to something akin to entropic rot, but more on those in a moment.
I have known for some time that several of the rails have warped, but earlier this month, I noted that one of the rails had become warped to such a degree that it had dislodged from one of the posts that had been holding it up.
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