Free Will is the ability of someone to make decisions without restraint. Restraint exists in many forms, physical, mental, legal, economical, etc. Free Will means the Will is Free. All will is free however. But what is Will? Will is a voluntary act made with full intentions. Aristotle said that virtue and vice are self-defined, and Self-Mastery is the difference between what people decide to do and what they actually do. It is both restraint and discipline. Someone in control of themselves. Someone who is in control of themselves is free, by condition of not being enslaved to desires.
Thomas Aquinas made the following observation on will. The will desires something, but it does not desire all. It is not greater than the intellect, but it does influence the intellect. Can free will exist in the first place? Free actions, argued by Spinoza, cannot actually be free. The concept of freedom is based on internal beliefs caused by external events. There is no objective freedom according to him. We are free by just being alive. We can do whatever we want, unless oppressed physically or mentally. We have boundaries assigned to us by nature.
However, within our limitations, we are free. Things exist because as we decipher through our own bodies. I definitely exist. I must create my reality based upon the one true fact, that I exist. Cogito Ergo Sum. The single greatest phrase ever coined. It is the only thing that can be objectively true. Descartes must have ravaged his brain to come up with that simple phrase. The simple meaning is that doubting one’s existence, in and of itself, proves that an "l" exists to do the thinking. I know I exist. Everything else could be a deception. But if I am being deceived, I must exist in order to be deceived. Physical manifestations can be false. But the simple fact remains that I do exist. I cannot build off of this, but I can use it as a foundation in the case of doubt. When we become conscious of ourselves, we realize that our essential qualities are endless urging, craving, striving, wanting, and desiring. That is will. It is what we desire. We are subject to our will however. Freedom is freedom from the will, a.k.a. freedom from desire, from need. Something not possible in the physical world, but possible in the mental, or dare I say, spiritual world.
What is the intrinsic motivator of the will? The will is motivated by the human desire to place itself in what it perceives is the best possible position. The best possible position is ultimately determined within each of us. I lean more towards a will-to-power psychology, although all major theories are essentially valid. By this logic, freedom from any power/sexuality/physical desires whatsoever leads to true freedom. So all this time, all we had to do was die to be free.
Thursday, July 25, 2013
I Love Failure
First of all, I deleted all of the journal entries. I decided that is too personal, and for future reference if something happens that needs to be shared, I will recount the story to the best of my ability (100% accurate). It will still be under the "Dear Diary" category. The obscure reference comes from the refrain in the song Free the Robots by the late Capital Steez, the musician who primarily influenced both my interest in improving myself and in the spiritual. The Original Sample isn't too bad either.
Failure is the greatest thing that can happen to me. I love it. I crave it. It gives me such a high, although of the negative kind. Don't misunderstand me, I don't feel a sense of elation, and I'm not some masochistic/attention-deprived (depraved is more like it) freak who cuts myself either for the pain or the attention. I despise the criticism that accompanies failure, and the harshest criticism often comes from yours truly. However, it is from this failure in which I find the motivation to never fail again. The searing memories of the most intimate moments of my life, the times in which I felt utterly barren and exposed, unworthy of existence itself, those are the memories I draw upon when pushing for another rep in the gym, when I force myself to practice an extra thirty minutes of guitar, or look over a song I've just written, analyzing every line to improve the art by the smallest of margins. And while none of this shows up now, it will one day. And one day, failure will turn to success. And it's just that much sweeter when you have to work for it. Failure motivates a man. And failure is what can bring a man to reach his full potential.
Monday, July 22, 2013
Friday, July 19, 2013
Past, Present, Future
We work in the present to create a better past. Our past determines our future.
The Religious Life
I write these thoughts down for a simple reason, one I just realized. In the case something happened to me, there's the hope that I don't die. I live on in some form. I would've. I hate for my experience here to be a waste to those living now. We build a better today in hopes of securing a better tomorrow. We are all products of our past, and our past determines our future. What they don't tell you however is that we create our past by the decisions we make in the present. We determine our future by making better choices now. Hard work pays off in the long run. Anyone who thinks they can glide through life without a care is screwed one day in the future. You're a fucking loser if you're not actively trying to build yourself up. What is your goal? This is a personal question I cannot answer for you. What is my goal? To be the person everyone else wants to be. To improve myself to such a degree that others proclaim me a winner at this game called life. Is it the right pursuit? Absolutely not. The Buddhists are the ones who got it right. Or even the Christians, the smart ones at least. That God shit is bullshit. We may have a creator. We may not. There may or may not be a greater force than a human being. It does t matter, we do not understand it if there is one. We are created in the image of god nonetheless, and we create our own realities. We shape the life we live. We choose what we want. There of course is the issue between what we think and what we do. Half the battle is realizing what we need, the other half is doing it. But I digress, these religions have the right philosophy. It's life. Enjoy it. Experience it. Work to help others. Don't let it pass. This is the way to live. Be someone you would be proud to be. That is all.
Staying True to Yourself
Life is full of lessons, there's such an inane amount of knowledge to be acquired and stored in our feeble minds that it is foolish to try to remember it all. Unless we luck out with a photographic memory, we're left with a limited capacity with which to store our foremost thoughts. We have the ability to remember more, but most of it will be stuck somewhere in the Netherlands of our minds, never to resurface without a deep excursion. Out of the knowledge we have remaining, we must learn to prioritize what's the most important, and grow as humans to fulfill an identity we must create for ourselves. In this pursuit, sometimes we may lose sight of the most important thing of all; our own self. Embrace the inner value found within yourself, and shun the desire to seek outside validation. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but it makes a good servant, and a bad master. Acceptance is something we allow ourselves to become a slave of, much in the same way an alcoholic craves his poison, or how a gambling addict continues to prod the thrill of the risk, to his own downfall. If you have a belief, stick to it. Don't force it down someone's throat, but don't allow others to spit on your ideals because you fear the repercussions. If you desire something, speak up. You may be ridiculed and rejected for it, but there is no chance you'll get what you want if you don't make an effort for it. And most importantly, find motivation within yourself. Find what you enjoy, and do it. That doesn't mean smoke weed everyday because "it feels good." In fact, living a life based loosely on unrestricted hedonism is a recipe for disaster, both in a country and in an individual. Do what makes you happy, and you will be happy. Don't fall prey to societal pressures to do what others think will make you happy. Love (note, not like) fishing but don't live near water? Move somewhere where you can fish. You may be pressured by others to revoke your decision, saying you can't do it, but in all honesty, you can. Do you party and act a player because your friends do, but feel empty inside? Then don't party as much. You can even stop partying whatever. Don't feel pressured to do something you don't want to. Grow a backbone. Because you're the only one who can know what you want until you decide to speak up and communicate your desires to others. And that won't happen until you make it happen.
On this topic, I'd like to mention the law of sunk costs. Whether it's actually an official philosophical concept, I don't know. If something is a sunk cost, ignore the cost of it. If you buy tickets to a concert and come concert time you don't want to go and can't find anyone to take the tickets, don't feel like you have to go because you paid for it. It's a sunk cost. Whether you go or not, you're not getting that money back. So don't let the price you paid for something influence your decision surrounding it.
Monday, July 15, 2013
The Value of Logic
Now he'll outstare the lightning. To be furious is to be frighted out of fear, and in that mood the Dove will peck the Estridge; and I still see a diminution in our captains brain restores his heart. When valor preys on reason, it eats the sword it fights with.
Sexual Depravity
Tramps are disgusting when on this subject, because their poverty cuts them off entirely from women, and their minds consequently fester with obscenity. Merely lecherous people are alright, but people who would like to be lecherous, but don't get the chance, are horribly degraded by it. They remind me of the dogs that hang enviously round while two other dogs are copulating.
Entitlement of the Wealthy
The result of long training in this kind of thing is that whereas the bourgeoise goes through life expecting to get what he wants, within limits, the working man always feels himself the slave of a more or less mysterious authority...it is for this reason that in countries where class hierarchy exists, people of the higher class always tend to come to the front in times of stress, though not really more gifted than the others. That they will do so seems to be taken for granted always and everywhere.
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