philoposee

Yesterday in the truck on the way home from work we got into a "discussion" about free will vs. determinism, which, in a group of more than two people, is pretty much guaranteed to provoke some sort of emotional response in someone. For some reason, the world seems to be divided into two groups on this one. First, we have the people who think everything they do is determined by forces outside their control (and for some reason they're OK with this, or at least haven't killed themselves), and on the other hand there are those who think they've got the power to control everything and to determine everything as they go along.

Most people don't do this consciously, so as soon as you suggest that their particular view may be composed of three parts hogwash and seven parts lung butter, their subconscious goes into hyperdrive, saying something like this: "Whooah there, Nelly! This pooey-head's trying to shift my paradigm. That's disturbing and freaky and what in the name of pete's navel will I do without my paradigm? I gotta stop this creep! I gotta attack! I gotta defend!" And so on and so forth.

Instead of trying to trace the convoluted paths of my thought on this in my two remaining minutes of internet time, I'll just say that I'm starting to learn that conflict and antagonism are necessary for growth. It's always difficult and usually painful, but I've just got to struggle through with an honest and humble approach to ideas that don't fit my staunchly internalized worldview and paradigm. Is that a form of dialectical materialism? Am I a marxist? I just want to love more - why does love have to hurt?