What did you do to deserve where you were born? Did you choose the U.S. over North Korea? Paris over Riyadh? What did you do to deserve the parents whom you were born to? What about the school you attended or the teachers you were subjected to?
The answer to all of these factors is an emphatic, ‘Nothing’.
Let’s wade a little deeper into the muddy waters of free will. Did your family remain in one city and one culture throughout your childhood or did you experience multiple cultures as you moved from country to country?
Did you first discover foxes through a flickering screen accompanied with the narration of David Attenborough or while tending to your father’s flock, looking down the barrel of a gun in the great Karoo?
Did you truly choose your faith or was it a mere eventuality based on the beliefs of your parents? And if it was the only faith you ever had an opportunity to objectively evaluate, was it truly a free choice?
“Were you free to choose that which did not occur to you to choose?” [1]
During your childhood, almost every possible environmental influence happened to you, as opposed to you being the author of your environment.
What’s more, you did not choose your genes and if you believe that you have an immaterial soul that acts independently of your environment, nor did you choose your soul.
You may respond and argue that, at least when you became an adult, you became an independent free agent, free to choose your experiences, but the totality of the factors mentioned above conspire to determine who you are in this present moment and who you will be in the next. By now, they also determine your proclivity to be open or closed to the ideas I share in this post.
How does this make you feel? Are you intrigued or outraged? Now, this thought, did you select this thought or are you a mere witness to this thought, which arose in response to my writing? And if you were not the author of this thought, can you claim free will to choose the next action as inspired by this thought?
In the world of business we tend to venerate those that appear to be self-made men or women, but by now, it should be clear to you that there is very little evidence for such a claim to stand up to scrutiny.
I do not wish to incapacitate you with the knowledge that “everything you think and do arises as a result of this ocean of prior causes.” [1]
But what I do wish to bring your attention, is that your ability to read this email, to ponder the meaning of life, is a great privilege that you did not earn. Almost a billion people, who did not choose their fate are, so to speak, incapacitated. They do not have access to food, safe drinking water, shelter, education or information.
Later this morning, when you walk out your front door, instead of taking pride in your ability to provide for yourself, be grateful.
[1] Neuroscientist, Sam Harris.
About the photos:
Italian actress, Christie Peruso.
Cape Town 2018