If you follow this blog, you will know I am somewhat addicted to this topic. So, I apologize if I am boring you, but I had a new insight that makes a lot of sense to me, and I find if I write it out it seems more understandable (to me if no one else).
The idea of “the freedom of the will” that characterizes the common conception of things basically states that in a universe where every atom follows its prescribed course, there can be no arbitrary capacity for action such as that which is commonly attributed to the free will.
So, the battle is waged between determinism, aka no free will, and free will.
But something is left out of the arguments which focus on examples involving the movements of atoms or billiard balls on a pool table. That thing is organization.
I am going to use an example to show what I mean; please bear with me. If you were to take a sheet of computer printer paper (somewhere along the line it got a promotion from being typewriter paper), and wad it up into a tight ball, then drop it, it will likely fall straight downward, due to gravity, etc. This scenario is quite determined. Now take another sheet of that paper, hold it flat and horizontal and then quickly remove your hand. It will also fall but not straight down. I might flutter as fall leaves do, or it might slide sideways a great deal. This is not so determined, but I imagine a sufficiently powerful computer might be able to predict the path the falling piece of paper would take, so maybe its path to the floor is determined, maybe not.
Now, if I fold the paper, skillfully, into the shape we refer to as a paper airplane and drop it, it might sail away quite a bit. Unlike the paper ball or the flat sheet, the paper airplane is quite directable. We could sail it off to the left, or the right, or up before falling down, etc.
So, let’s skip a few steps. I now direct you to the two rather small private airplanes off to my left. If I take one and grind it into small pieces, each of those pieces, if they were to be dropped, would fall in quite predictable, may I say determined, paths. But the one not so treated, which has a full tank of gas and an okay from the tower at this local airport, can motor down the runway and lift off into the air, then proceed to fly north or south or east or west or southwest, etc. It can climb to a higher altitude or stay low to the ground. Is its path determined? I think not.
What determines the path of the airplane (the one in the sky that is)? The pilot, no? Does the pilot have any measure of free will, that is can he/she steer the plane up-down, left-right, forward-back as they want? I think it is obvious they can. So, what is the difference between the fully functional plane and the box of ground up plane parts? They weigh the same. They have the same chemical compositions. They differ only in organization, what is attached to what and how.
Now, organization is not a thing, but it is clearly involved. If you want to make it more obvious (and less expensive), instead of grinding up the first plane into small bits we could just have separated all of the parts. I would wager that each of those separate parts would drop straight down if dropped from a height, the only exceptions would be those being light and having a small enough surface area to catch air and to flutter down, e.g. the pilot’s flight plan. Reassemble all of those deterministic parts and up, up, and away you could go.
So, free will, remember my favorite topic? Clearly atoms and billiard balls do not possess free will as they possess no will at all. Their behaviors in most circumstances (not all) are determined. But once something becomes so complicated that it possesses locomotion and any innate decision making powers, I think free will has to kick in. (Look out for robots in the near future.)
So, some of our behaviors are determined, I suspect, but others are not, I suspect. The reason is that all of our tiny, determined parts, when organized a great deal become capable of things that the parts are not.
The simplest example of this is your body, the body of a living animal, is comprised of myriad atoms that are not alive. The key is how those atoms are arranged, which means we still might get Star Trek-esque matter/people transporters! Beam me up!
We Need to Get Rid of the Elites
Tags: class warfare, corruption, obscene wealth, tax the rich, the egregious elites, the elites, the Fucking Elites, the unnecessary elites
What a mistake! In our pre-history we allowed certain people to assume authority over the rest of us. It wasn’t just as war band leaders, but that was part of it. We created priests and potentates and then they ruined our lives.
Those early elites established the pattern for those to follow them. They assumed an air of superiority and we, gullibly, accepted their superiority and therefore our inferiority.
Their first step was to absolve themselves from having to work for their living. Their efforts—to organize society, to interact with the gods, etc. meant that they had to be supported by the rest of the people. But their leisure and “important work” they adopted as their own lead them to feeling that they were special. From that point onward, these “elites” were driven by the sense that they were better than everyone else. And so thousands of years has passed and the same attitude has been in play. Today’s elites still think they are better than we are because their lives are provided with ease, wealth, opportunity, etc. In most cases that was inherited, not earned.
But what have they actually done for us?
They established the hereditary inheritance of power/money. So, their bairns became entitled little twats (see British royal family), learning the mantra of “We are better than the hoi polloi” with their mother’s milk (or at least their wet nurse’s).
They created caste systems/perpetual poverty. Since the castes act as cultural enforcement agencies, they made sure the poor stayed poor. In that way, the rich could ensure they stayed rich.
They even established a class system in the U.S. Americans assume they have a classless society, but that is just propaganda. Look around and you can see the classes of Americans quite easily (there are books available for more detail).
The elites gave us snobbery. By establishing rules of behavior, often nonsensical ones (we call them etiquette or manners), they were able to signal who was in and who was not, easily. Eat with the wrong fork—clearly you are a barbarian. Not pass the salt when asked for the pepper, clearly you are uncultured. Wear white after Labor Day? Oh, my heavens, what a maroon!
Invented mythology of the “self-made man” and others.
Embraced and adopted capitalism, based upon the unbridled greed of rich people, and called it “good” for all. (They considered the fact that capitalism puts no limits upon greed as a feature, not a bug.)
Invented mass slavery, bondage, serfdom, and marriage as ways of labeling people as property that they might own them. Note that is not owning the right to their labor, but their actual bodies, too.
I am sure I could come up with a list of the services elites provide, but no matter—whatever they are they are just too expensive. We need to find another way.
I am not advocating exterminating the elites, but modernity gives us better, more humane ways to eliminating their influence. We need to stop paying homage, for one. They do not deserve the respect they claim they are due because of their valuable service, as job creators and other imaginary “good things.” Ignoring them instead of praising them is a good start. But we need to pay close attention to them because of the dangers they pose. For example, calling Elon Musk and Donald Trump paragons of business is not only untrue, but feeding their egos to get them to do more and more outlandish things. And then we need to tax away their fortunes. Money is power, they say, and we need to strip them of their power. There are other things we can do, but stripping them of their actual capital as well as their social capital would be a good start.
And, Ayn Rand fans, I am not worried about the collapse of society were we to do this. There are many examples of stupid actions taken, for example when the Chinese were expelled from Malaysia (twice). Each time the economy collapsed and they needed to invite the Chinese-Malaysians back. But then it was the elites (hoity-toity Malaysians) ejecting hard working Chinese, not the other way around. The Chinese-Malaysians were doing vital work that just stopped when they were given the boot. Were the Chinese to have expelled the Malaysian elites, there would have been no effect such as a collapsing economy because those elites performed no effective labors.
Postscript Yes, this is being posted on Memorial Day, a day to remember proles who gave their all to protect the wealth and power of their lords and masters. What better way to teach us to act self-sacrificingly. (And don’t get your panties in a twist. I am not denigrating the heroism of soldiers sent into war (voluntarily or not). I just point out that prior to WW2, in the U.S. the vast majority of citizens wanted no part of the wars being waged in Europe and the Pacific theater. A Japanese mistake (attacking Peral Harbor without declaring war) followed by a German mistake (Hitler declaring war with the U.S.) lead us into both situations. It was the elites causing all the trouble; the people don’t start wars.