old thoughts: Free will

They say that people have the freedom to choose. Does that mean that people are free to do whatever pleases them? Are cats being free when they choose to become tigers instead of rabbits? Well, if we see family as a social institution, then each one of us already has a specific number of data around us when we are born. Of course, this data is not the same for everybody. Each family's data is that family's truth. Truth, which includes values, rules and behaviour patterns. One's truth can also include myths. Myths about one's self, others, or the world. When a child is born in the social institution called family, he or she starts to learn the family's truth. The baby has no freedom to choose what to believe. If mom says to the baby ''i love you'', the baby believes that he or she is being loved. In the same way, if mom says, ''i love you when you are not being naughty'', the baby believes that he or she has to be kind in order to be loved. The baby has the freedom to choose whether he or she will behave in a good or a bad way, but not whether he or she will believe whether things truly are the way mom says they are. Therefore, this is where our free will has been confined for the first time.

Free will cannot mean that I am free to do whatever pleases me, firstly because of my confined data, and secondly because it is impossible to do whatever I want: there are only a number of choices for each person, depending on who this person is. In these terms, free will means freedom to choose among a specific number of choices. Would freedom of choice mean though, that the person choosing to do something should be in a particular state of mind, where he or she can examine their choices without being influenced by something? If that is the case, then is it ever possible for a human being to have an influenced-free judgement? In addition, if the answer to that is no, then wouldn’t it be true that a person’s decision would always be dependent on the influences he or she had while making the decision? And finally, what could those influences be?

People can either make decisions based on their logic, or based on their emotions. When we think logically, we think we get to that state of mind where we are not being influenced by emotions and the outer world. We are not however able to freeze our feelings. They always exist. And our logic is influenced by our feelings. We are free to choose what we feed our brain. The information we receive not only affects our feelings, but our thoughts as well. If someone is not aware of that fact, or tries to ignore it, he will probably find himself in a situation where he makes logical choices according to him, but in reality, he is unconsciously being influenced by his feelings. Therefore, balance between logic and feelings, helps a person be more conscious while making a decision, without his judgement being ‘’secretly’’ sabotaged by his feelings.

Often people say things like ‘’if I could go back, I would have done everything differently’’. Mistakes done in the past influence our present decisions, or at least to some point they do.

The influences we get from the outer world are like drugs. I can choose what kind of music I am going to listen to, but I am not capable of choosing how I am going to react to it. No reaction of mine is sent to me from heaven. Reaction has to be the expression of something already existing on the inside. For each one of us, there are different kinds of stimuli that trigger specific emotions, which then make us react in a specific way. This is the reason why on my opinion, we can only react one way to a certain stimulus in a certain moment of time. For example, if a dog bit a baby girl, she would later on feel terrified whenever she would walk across a dog. Therefore, by examining our reactions we gain consciousness of ourselves and can start focusing on solutions. Reflecting on our experiences and ourselves is something we are always free to do.

We are also free to doubt. The beauty about doubting is that it is the only way for us to start changing our data or expand it with new. It is way too easy for people to just sit back and accept the truth they were taught to be truth, as truth. I believe fear is the enemy of freedom. If I want to be free, I must be willing to admit what is true and what is not. Maybe the reasons that would keep me from doing that are not so significant after all. Maybe freedom of will is all about making questions. And maybe, not making any questions, is a choice too. Once we accept the fact that each and every one of our decisions has certain consequences, and are aware of what those are, we cannot complain about not being free to choose.

23.1.2006