Right now you are reading yourself’s blog post. How? Well it’s simple but complicated. Although I am you, I am you with a different brain, genes, life experiences, and influences. Basically, I am you if you were born as me. So you wrote this blog post, or at least you would have if you were born as me. Understand? Of course you do or don’t, depends on what version of me you are. For the versions of me that don’t, let me give you an example. Let’s say you turn on the TV which just happens to be on the local news station. The headline reads “prolific rapist and murder admits to 100 kills”. You think to yourself “What a terrible person! Who could do such despicable things!” The answer is…you. Why? Because at the core of our being we are neutral and emotionless, remember without your brain you have no emotions or sense of self. We are essentially nothing, play doh that’s yet to be taken out of its container. What creates the difference between you and I are the brains, genes, and life experiences we have been gifted with no control over. These things shape us into the individuals we are today. So back to the rapist/murder, their unique brain, genes, and life experiences made it so that what they are now was inevitable. How is it inevitable? Well its simple but hardly realized, we don’t have as much free-will as we think.
Free-will is the ability to act on our own discretion. So how do we lack it? Well for more in-depth information I would advise me(you) to look up determinism. Determinism is the belief that what we do is based on our genes and the environment. Another way to look at is we are all apart of a continuous butterfly effect. Our genes effect how our brain processes and reacts (emotionally) to the environment, how we process and react to the environment emotionally affects our actions, and our actions contribute to the butterfly effect which will affect humans around us who will effect other humans and so on and so forth. Sometimes the effects of a single event in the past comes back to help or haunt us. You can see an example of this in most criminal cases. For example, in cases involving rape or sexual assault, the perpetrator almost always has a history of childhood sexual abuse.
At the end of the day, we basically all started out as play-doh. When we came into this reality we were given lots of things we didn’t choose or have control of that squeezed and pulled our play-doh. As we grew, we were met with influences and experiences that further manipulated our play-doh. We lost our original form and became the people we are today. Although it’s not our “fault” it is our responsibility to use what little free will we have to put ourselves on the right path. If the versions of me can comprehend behaviors that are good and beneficial, then we can certainly will it into existence.
Obsidian God 