There is an old scientific experiment that I vaguely remember from high school that demonstrated the principle of diffusion. You remember these exercises. They usually smelled bad, seemed slightly dangerous (even if they weren’t) and were, generally, entertaining not to say educational. It went something like this:

The experiment required a wide glass tube, two corks that perfectly sealed the tube, a cotton ball soaked in ammonia and a piece of red litmus paper. One secured the glass tube in the vertical position with the cotton ball soaked in ammonia at lower end of the tube, resting on the inner surface of the cork. Next, one suspended the litmus paper with a string from the inner surface of the uppermost cork.

Depending on the length and diameter of the tube, the temperature of the air in (and surrounding) the tube and the concentration of the ammonia on the cotton ball (among other factors), over time, the red litmus papers turned blue. This is because the ammonia molecules traveled by diffusion from the higher concentration in the cotton ball to the lower concentration in the rest of the glass tube. Since the ammonia solution was alkaline, the red litmus papers turn blue.

All this is described by Adolph Fick’s Law of Diffusion, formulated in 1855. The formula has been amended and advanced by minds as great as Einstein but remains a good descriptor of how gases will move from areas of high concentration to those of lower concentration. And, since particles suspended in a liquid behave much like gases, some of Fick’s Law can be applied to diffusion of liquids, in general, from highly concentrated to lower concentration.

If one ever thinks of this chemical behavior in a political sense, one cannot help but attempt to adapt Fick’s Law to the behavior of government. If Washington, D.C. is the cotton ball and "we, the people" are the litmus paper, I would think that, at this point in history, we are a decidedly deep shade of blue. I know that I, as an individual, feel empathically azure.

Government, in the creaky crevices of my deteriorating and weary mind, is like a suspension of toxic particles (which makes ammonia look like a breath spray) which, day by day, week by week, year by year, increases in concentration in that great cotton ball that is Washington. Every four years or so, the cotton ball gets its quadrennial dosing of new toxins (in the form of Presidential promises, pork-barrel deals for Congressional supporters, giveaways, useless attempts to alleviate the human condition, handouts, "Wars on _________", etc.) and the "steady state" tenuously established over the previous four years, is disturbed anew. The pungent scent of new particulates slowly and insidiously seeping out from their source into the litmus paper - that is, us - exponentially increases.

Our eyes may burn, our throats may tighten and our breathing may become more labored but, when all is said and done, physics is physics and politics is, as always, politics. While the government wants us to focus on global warming, fixate on our carbon footprints, feel personally guilty for our selfish fossil fuel pollution and, of course, convince us we desperately need alternative energy sources no matter what the cost, no one along the Potomac seems to be pointing out the most lethal source of pollution facing America: in brief, the diffusion of government deficit spending, intrusion and control. That - not greenhouse gases - are what will ring the death knell of this nation.

Since the federal system reached its tipping point ⁽¹⁾ many years ago, I am lately convinced that nothing can currently be done to stop the effusion of hazardous waste from that reeking cesspool across the river from George Washington’s cherished Mount Vernon. There are, to coin a phrase, too many snouts in the trough for anyone to turn off the spigot. When a true conservative does attempt to cry out "Enough!", he is quickly and summarily shouted down (or, equally effective, ignored) by the popular - which is to say, liberal - media, labeled a zealot and dismissed to cry alone in the wilderness. The decreasing frequency with which such brave souls attempt the feat should serve as a measure of how hopeless the cause has become. The nation has fallen under the spell (actually, the curse) of a two-party system, neither party currently holding to the principles of a limited federal government envisioned by the Framers of the Constitution. To hear leaders of either party, at this late date, suggest that "their party is the party of the U.S. Constitution" is beyond ludicrous; it is merely pathetic.

George Washington, John Adams, James Madison and the others who deeply feared the end result of the form of democracy they were setting in motion (and tried their best to limit it by establishing a republic, instead) are, undoubtedly, convinced of their worse fears at this point in our nation’s history. A government that is the source of succor, exorbitant salaries, usufruct, payoffs, gratuities and commands the blind support of large blocks of the voting populace has little to fear from "we, the people." As long as the checks arrive in a timely fashion and everyone can be convinced that they are getting their rightful share of the booty, no one will ever question the choking, stifling and blinding effluence coming from our nation’s capitol.

As we approach the coming "re-impregnation" (sounds like the beginnings for a joke about Sarah Palin’s daughter) of the cotton ball that is the Washington bureaucracy, there is no need to take any particular precautions. While the haze will, indeed, be pungent and bothersome, we should be quite adapted to it at this point. The damage to our eyes and lungs, long pass the point of concern, is almost tolerable, virtually anesthetic, to those of us sufficiently advanced in years to have lived through decades of exposure. For our younger citizens, our children and grandchildren, we can only hope that they, like us, can adapt. Maybe they can develop double eyelids like some reptile and breath through gills. Theirs will be time of horrendously toxic loads but, as I have noted, little can be expected as a solution at this late date. Perhaps, as more and more of them are accommodated at the Great Trough, they, too, can be content with their plight and, like their parents and their grandparents, ignore the fall of their nation.

And for those who continue to swell the ranks of the federal machine and offer up the "Nanny State" as sound political theory, there is also little cause for concern. A corollary for the law of diffusion holds that the process, itself, increases the entropy ⁽²⁾ of the system in which it occurs. This simply affirms that diffusion is an irreversible process. Something can spread out by diffusing, but it won't spontaneously "suck back in". As long as the process of diffusion of government continues to be fueled by the "spoils system" in place, there is no danger at all of government retraction. Further, even if energy input into the system were to cease all together - about as likely as someone in Washington actually reading and comprehending the U.S. Constitution - the smelly fog of ever-intrusive government will never, ever, suck back in.

Unlike love, youth and fame, government creep is forever. Physics declares it so and who is to argue with Einstein?

___________________________

1. It is my personal opinion that the actual tipping point dates to the period 1933-1945 and was under the auspices of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Some would date it earlier, perhaps to Woodrow Wilson, others much later, perhaps to the Presidency of Lyndon Johnson. It really doesn’t matter precisely when but only that is has occurred.

2. For those of you, like me, who were asleep through most of your physics classes, let me refresh your mind since it is extremely relevant. Entropy (S) is the amount of energy in a system that is useless or unavailable for work. The relevance becomes clear when one considers that the more diffusion of bureaucracy there is, the less energy there is available for actual work. Anyone who is paying attention sees this effect in practice every day: to wit, how efficient is government in doing any task or job when compared to private business? Postal delivery? Mass transportation? Management of mandated retirement funds (Social Security)? Income-based medical insurance (Medicare)? Age-based medical benefits (Medicare)?