This quote has just shown up on the "Intelligent design" thread. It seems very appropriate for the Canonical system and its neighbours, although I would have reversed the underlined statement.

"...if order is to increase, there must be some means of conserving the order already gained. Otherwise order accidentally arising will be accidentally lost again. The experience of physical science shows that order fluctuates over a very small amplitude about a state of disorder. In all our experience, we find that, left to themselves, complex stuctures tend to disintegrate and revert to simpler forms. On principle, therefore, the spontaneous arising of a very high degree of order by random processes is highly improbable."