I was reading
an article about the OODA Loop, (A theory that pertains to many things including magic), and in it there was a talk about the
2nd law of Thermodynamics". While technically this refers to mechanics and whatnot, it can also be applied to people. For you lazt bastards who don't want to read it, here is a line that jumped out at me: "
The more we rely on outdated mental models even while the world around us is changing, the more our mental “entropy” goes up."
Doesn't that sound a lot like most of the magicians we know?
Magic doesn't like to evolve with the times. To be fair humans in general resist swift change but we are one, if not many, decades behind the times. We have jumped ahead a bit here and there with the advent of the internet, but let's face it, we are still giving people books printed in the 30s and 40s back when tricks were titled
"To magically procure a selected card from a borrowed gentleman's bowler hat".
In some cases, magic is collapsing in on itself because they believe circling the wagons is the best option. The SAM, IBM, Magic Castle and even forums like the big soylent green refuse to look at the world around us and accept there might be people who view entertainment different from them.
Don't agree with me? Here is another bit of text from that article...
"Individuals or organizations that don’t communicate with the outside
world by getting new information about the environment or by creating
new mental models act like a “closed system.” And just as a closed
system in nature will have increasing entropy, or disorder, so too will a
person or organization experience mental entropy or disorder if they’re
cut off from the outside world and new information."
Now if that doesn't sound like a bunch of old white men with decks of cards I don't know what does.
