The Human Condition

My friend and I had the following conversation tonight:

Them: I have come to the realization that truth is choice.

Me: Both truth and choice, I would argue, are illusions :).

Them: Normally, I would agree, but I've since decided that if choice isn't a part of the game, somehow, then I'm unwilling to continue playing.

This, I think, sums up the human condition quite nicely.

I'm reading (and enjoying) a book by Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes From the Underground, and it explores this idea in greater detail. In the first few chapters, the narrator talks about something similar; he says that nothing drives him more insane, as a thinking man, than the laws of nature. He says that anyone with a brain will come to the conclusion that we have no choices, that free will is an illusion, because the path of our lives are dictated by things completely outside of our control - biology, gods or greater powers (if you're into that sort of thing), the laws of physics, our culture - in short, all of the external influences that shape who we are, and determine the courses of our lives. All of the things that put life outside of our control. This idea drives him insane.

He goes on to explain that man needs the illusion that he has choice, that he has a say in what he does and what will happen to him. He needs to feel like he matters as an individual. And this, he says, is what causes people to defy logic in every possible way and do things that make absolutely no sense at all, even to them! He says that sometimes, our best interests don't interest us at all, and that sometimes we will do the exact opposite of what we know is best for us, simply so that we can have a choice. Just so we can regain some measure of control.

And this, I think, is totally true. I've done it, lots and lots of times. Put off an important homework assignment that I knew I ought to do, avoided making an important appointment, or perhaps made a stupid, stupid purchase on impulse despite knowing that I needed money to pay for groceries. And after the fact, I often ask myself 'why on earth did I do that? I know better!'

But now it makes a bit more sense.

Human beings are magnificently stupid creatures, aren't they?