The other morning, OPB (Oregon’s completely awesome NPR affiliate) ran a piece on The Other Wes Moore, a fascinating story of two people. One is Wes Moore, a black man born and raised poor and fatherless in Baltimore, now an investment banker, Rhodes scholar, and author. The other is Wes Moore, a black man born and raised poor and fatherless in Baltimore, now in prison for murder.
The context of this particular piece was author Wes Moore at the Multnomah County Library speaking with high school students, and one made a particularly astute statement about the imprisoned Wes Moore:
I’m not sympathetic to his choices. I’m sympathetic to the lack of choices available to him.
This statement got me thinking about something that’s been in my mind for a long time.
Just How Few Choices Were Available?
I don’t think the student went far enough. I think a more accurate way to phrase it would have been, “I feel sad that murder was the only choice available to him.”
You might say, “Hogwash! One may be inclined to make a decision, but they always have the freedom of choice.” But if we follow the causality change a bit further, don’t the events in his life dictate exactly how inclined he is to make one particular “choice”, and don’t those events also dictate how willing he is to play against the odds in a given circumstance?
I’m not treading any new ground here. Wikipedia defines determinism thusly:
the concept that events within a given paradigm are bound by causality in such a way that any state (of an object or event) is completely, or at least to some large degree, determined by prior states.
And I think I fall in the completely camp. Not just because I’ve seen The Butterfly Effect, but because it’s easy to imagine that our minds run constant, tiny equations, and the only input they have is what they know, and the only output they have is what we “choose”.
A Valuable Illusion
This is offensive to some. Maybe many. But there’s some good news, too. Free will doesn’t matter. Only the feeling that something was an act of volition matters. If we feel like something was an act of the will, that’s good enough.
I believe this, at least in some part, because of a conversation I had with a friend in his dorm room 7 years ago about whether computers can actually generate completely random numbers. A conversation that I dismissed with a, “Huh, interesting.” and thought it didn’t matter at all. And I’m sure there are a number (a number approaching infinity, no doubt) of other reasons I believe this. But I don’t think, given the circumstances, I can believe anything else.
But computer-generated random numbers truly seem random, and that matters. Without the illusion of free will, we live life under the power of a metaphysical dictator. And no matter how harsh the dictator, that’s hard on the mind and soul.
What does It All Mean?
Are there practical ramifications of this? I’d say no. You’re either inclined to buy into this argument or disinclined. (But it’s going to be completely based on your past experience and external circumstances, so don’t get too excited.) But neither way matters. Either you’ll go forward and continue making choices, or you’ll go forward and continue playing out the story of your life, contingent upon whether I’m right or wrong.
In my life, I tend to be a bit more understanding of people’s paths, however different from my own they may be. And I tend to want to praise myself a bit less, as I don’t feel my successes are much of my own doing.
But at the very worst, I feel like a spectator in a pretty spectacular world.
