It’s a scary, scary world we’d be living in if people truly felt that no person truly possess personal agency. The woke line of thinking seems to go: Whites are evil and racist and always have/will be; blacks are victims and oppressed (always have been/always will be) therefore...everyone’s screwed for eternity. Whites can’t not be evil, and blacks can’t help but be oppressed victims. Where does that get us? Answer: Nowhere good. It’s profoundly degrading, in my view, to see any ‘group’ or ‘population’ as inherently X or Y or Z. Groups are compiled by individuals, who are all as unique and different as you can imagine. Every human being has ‘privilege’ and weakness. Intelligence, ambition, empathy, self-awareness, depression, alcoholism, etc: These are not choices. Every individual lives a life of choices every single day. No: life isn’t fair. Many grow up in tragic circumstances. Yet we can’t take away personal agency because that makes people robots with The Mind (genetics/environment) pulling the strings. Unlike all other sentient creatures, we have more highly developed brains. This is both a blessing and a curse. One of the blessings is that we can CHOOSE. I would know. I’m 12 years sober from alcoholism. My life then versus now is night and day. I made a lot of bad choices before finally making a good choice.
free will and agency are two different notions. Free will is an illusion of philosopher elites who simply have vastly more lifestyle choices than ever and this sheer over abundance of choice appears like a superpower. In reality, most people march forward with the inertia of old social patterns and are very selective about what they see as choosable. Choice relies on perceiving its possibility and social forces work to conceal possibilities of choice. I wrote about this recently. Might be interesting to some - America as a choice multiplier-
It’s a scary, scary world we’d be living in if people truly felt that no person truly possess personal agency. The woke line of thinking seems to go: Whites are evil and racist and always have/will be; blacks are victims and oppressed (always have been/always will be) therefore...everyone’s screwed for eternity. Whites can’t not be evil, and blacks can’t help but be oppressed victims. Where does that get us? Answer: Nowhere good. It’s profoundly degrading, in my view, to see any ‘group’ or ‘population’ as inherently X or Y or Z. Groups are compiled by individuals, who are all as unique and different as you can imagine. Every human being has ‘privilege’ and weakness. Intelligence, ambition, empathy, self-awareness, depression, alcoholism, etc: These are not choices. Every individual lives a life of choices every single day. No: life isn’t fair. Many grow up in tragic circumstances. Yet we can’t take away personal agency because that makes people robots with The Mind (genetics/environment) pulling the strings. Unlike all other sentient creatures, we have more highly developed brains. This is both a blessing and a curse. One of the blessings is that we can CHOOSE. I would know. I’m 12 years sober from alcoholism. My life then versus now is night and day. I made a lot of bad choices before finally making a good choice.
Love Sam Harris btw. Long time fan.
Michael Mohr
‘Sincere American Writing’
https://michaelmohr.substack.com/
free will and agency are two different notions. Free will is an illusion of philosopher elites who simply have vastly more lifestyle choices than ever and this sheer over abundance of choice appears like a superpower. In reality, most people march forward with the inertia of old social patterns and are very selective about what they see as choosable. Choice relies on perceiving its possibility and social forces work to conceal possibilities of choice. I wrote about this recently. Might be interesting to some - America as a choice multiplier-
“Christian without Paul. Buddhist.” 😂this is perfectly put. Even when I was still religious, I had no issue admitting “I have a problem with Paul.”