“THE BAD GUY”
We are all products of a whole range of factors. Our genes, our environments, our society, our conditionings, our mental set ups, our perception, our emotions, our pasts, and our current situations.
We don’t get to pick or choose any of these factors.
I mean if we really could choose, no one would want to be the thief, or the murderer, or any of the various other bad guy tags.
Which is why I think free will is a myth but that’s a whole different conversation for a different topic. But going by that, no one has control of what situation they end up in or how they end up in the situation.
We are just born and boom!
So if these factors that we have no control of shape us, how do we administer blame?
How do we not empathize with every single person?
At what point should we cast a person as “the bad guy”?
I wanna ask what even determines who “the bad guy” is but that’s also a whole different conversation.
Reading this I’m sure you’re starting to wonder what my point is. You’re probably thinking “so what? should they be excused because we don’t get to choose?”
I totally understand accountability, and I’m an advocate for it too.
But I also understand that free will is a myth and that just makes my heart break for every single person because we all have our stories and they shape us.
And as much as you may think you’re writing your story, the fact is your story is connected to and determined by various other stories that may have been completed before the beginning of your story OR are still being written at the time you’re writing yours.
If we could all divorce ourselves from all the factors I stated above, then maybe we’ll write better stories for ourselves. Or if we could at least determine how those factors shape us or even just what the factors will be, then maybe our stories won’t be so distasteful.
But if we could choose, that would mean we do in fact have free will….but you already know what I think about that.
