The Limits of Individuality and an Alternative to Resignation, Powerlessness and Alienation
Written by: Jason Lavery
A challenge to the idea of free will is what I’d like the reader to consider. Or to be more specific the free component of that claim. Freedom seems to be something we all cherish but upon close examination do we in fact find anything to be free in our experience? This is to say that all things have a cost, and some costs are worth paying while others are not. And so, when we speak of freedom, I suppose we really mean to say getting more of what we want and less of what we don’t want!
That aside, let’s examine the free component of the claim. As a matter of your first-person experience is there anything you can imagine outside of your causal existence that has placed you right here, right now, reading this? That is to say, can you somehow extract yourself from everything that has brought you to this moment and create something outside of your experience, i.e. a truly original thing? Are things not always in relation to other things and whatever you have to offer a continuation (albeit different but nonetheless connected) to everything that has been before?
This brings us to the matter of your will or more personally stated your sense of self. Do you find yourself difficult to motivate, unpredictable, tired, hungry, bored? Whatever it is that we are it is “no thing” it cannot be captured by objectification. Hence the challenges we have with motivating ourselves along linear lines. One aspect of your psyche decides on a path of action and then the others, whether conscious or unconscious chime in to offer their contributions! I’m not making the case that there isn’t something to be valued in goal-directed behaviour. What I am saying is that the ‘free’ component of the puzzle is an illusion. Worse, it is an illusion that causes unnecessary suffering. Consider the Buddhist principle of the first and second arrow. The first arrow is unavoidable and represents the inherent pain of human life. While the second arrow (our response to pain) offers a more optional type of suffering manifesting as our tendency towards confusion, projection, shame and othering.
What I am offering here is another option. Whatever has brought you to this moment is exactly what was meant to be in that you are in fact here. This is an inescapable reality and refusing to accept blocks progress. If you’d like to improve upon this current situation the most empowering stance you can take is first and foremost acceptance. It must be said however that acceptance and resignation are not the same thing. The acceptance I speak of here has at its core a quality of gratitude. While resignation is at its core a rejection of what is (an assumption that there is nothing of value to be redeemed/ harnessed).
You are in relation to things (people, culture, yourself, nature, etc.) and you have inherent value and so do the things you relate to. What might there be to learn when considering that reality? Assuming that there is nothing to learn from yourself and others blocks progress and builds polarization. Its opposite builds compassion for self and others which arises from the recognition of connection and that recognition is the necessary precondition for any sustainable change. Its alternative devolves into villainizing both self and others. So next time you make a ‘mistake’ consider who is this self that has made this mistake? And be on guard against the tendency to want to smuggle today’s insights into the past, as if they were somehow at hand then. Instead bring true curiosity, a defining feature of any unproductive conflict is a lack of curiosity. Whatever action arises from this attitude of curiosity and gratitude connects rather than divides and it seems we are in dire need of connection currently.
References
Sapolsky, R. M. (2023). Determined: A science of life without free will. Penguin Press.
Jung, C. G. (1958). The undiscovered self. Little, Brown.
The Buddhist Parable of Two Arrows. https://dianapartington.com/portfolio/dbt-group-notes-the-two-arrows-of-pain-and-suffering/
Brach, T. (2003). Radical Acceptance. New York, NY: Bantam.
Schwartz, R.C. (2020) No bad parts. Louisville, CO: Sounds True.