Props of the Stage

     Before I opened my eyes and filled my lungs up with oxygen, the Stage before me indeed was set. When I sat in drama class so long ago and saw the Shakespearean quote, "All the World's a Stage; we are mere actors," I felt that. But, feeling a thing isn't exactly seeing a thing - comprehending it. My identity was cast upon me before I could even grasp what "identity" really meant. I think all this debate over free will is quite misconstrued. In one corner of the ring you have the hardliners who say you are what you are - a biproduct of your genetics. That's not very helpful to an individual contemplating their course in life. In the other corner, you have those who equate Free Will to the transcendence of some ill-defined soul. 

    I was raised in the Midwest deeply indoctrinated in a fundamental version of Christianity. And I've racked my brain wondering if anybody else from my neck of the woods ever blinked for even a second and thought, "Hmm. If I were born and raised over there in the Middle East, I would most likely be a Muslim or a Jew." Or, "If I were born in India, I'd probably be a Hindu or a Buddhist." Of course, I had it drilled into my mind that all of those religions were the false ones as so many people have.

    A template for which one can align the meaning of their life is presented to their perception before they even can make a rational choice of whether that template is even a necessary one. That doesn't just revolve around religion. Geolocation, Boundaries, Nationhood, Family are all included in the make up of this template. I imagine most people modify their perceived templates to develop a better depiction of what they think aligns with what they conceive as Reality. While there may be exceptions, I reckon that most people - if they ever will to see what's over there beyond the garden wall of their conditioning - will spend much time shaking off the feels of the familiar just to take a step in their own shoes.

    Stretching one's neck to take that look is a risk to be sure. Consider the following: Language, Religion, Education, Family, Nation, Boundaries, Geolocation. All of these aspects of one's real existence will greatly determine how one will end up categorically in relation to the State which they reside. While there are so many dynamics there, if one isn't cognizant of the fact, everything ultimately arcs toward the benefit of that State.

    If you just think, "Maybe English isn't so superior," "Maybe Christianity isn't the only necessary religion to align one's life with," "Maybe I shouldn't settle for what my family expects of me in MY life," "Maybe America's way isn't the only way that works," "Maybe these pre-drawn boundaries distort my perception of who those individuals are on the other side of it," and "Maybe I don't have to be where I have always been," then maybe you can discover the spell and ask that age old question: "Who am I?"

     I think when most people pose that question, they have a few additions to it.  "Who am I... in relation to what God has for me?" "Who am I ...in the eyes of my dad...my mom...my spouse...friends, the Nation...etc.?"  Clearly, one can start by asking, "What am I?", "Why am I?", and "How am I?" but when we come back round to the "Who" of that "I" which we are looking for, somehow the more accurate questions evade the mind: "Who is this I to this being which I call God?" "Who is this I to this being which I call myself? That little "to" is the missing link. Once, I realize that I am not necessitated to need to be anything to anything, the world comes to a screeching halt.

    Now, I see illusion for what it is. For so long, I was just doing. But I was doing what I was doing in relation to what I thought I knew and what I thought I wanted. But if I was basing this "I" on the illusion which I have perceived that "I" to belong, I must do as the skeptics do - in the Cartesian sense - and ask, "Am I also an illusion?!?" And this is where many mystics appear to stop. They follow along the rationality of the Freudians and Jungians of world and stop at, "You are not the Ego." But, once one discovers that their Ego is a mere façade, is that it?

    It may indeed take a lifetime to even separate from that façade to which we have attached ourselves to discover the Id lying beneath. But, let's just say you do discover the true "I". Where did the "I want" go? The "I want" in the Jungian lens boils down to the direction of the repressed "Will". What is that Will?

    In the Jungian sense, we act on stage in the manner that is expected of us, and thus our dreams and sublimated art are expressions of our repressed Libido. Libido doesn't merely carry within itself only a sexual connotation; but a "god-like" creative connotation as well. What that means is that we are not mere rational beings! We may use reason to get what we want but is it really reason that defines that, "Want"?

    I seem to have stumbled upon some sort of paradox here. On the one hand, we use Reason to make our calculations to get from points ABC to points DEF, on a tactical level. On a strategic level, however, our Reason allows the how of the want. Yet, if we don't know the why of the want, we are merely creating imaginary lines across the land. Who said we should want what we want in the first place? Reason may also help us distinguish the why of the want. It might even cause us to discard the wants which we first posited in order to find some form of "Real Want". 

    So, deterministically, the ultimate drive is hidden in the Will to Power in some sort of Nietzschean sense. That is, one's drive is carried forth on the premise of one's Will to Live. Perhaps we accept the World as it was presented to us because, ultimately, we want to live. If we didn't, we'd be like Sartre and consider the possibility within our Being of throwing ourselves off a precipice - and that would certainly be a choice. Deterministically, for the sake of our survival (or especially for the survival of our children), we will have to negotiate with the Reality which is presented to us.

    The world is full of choices and I think that's where this idea of the Free Will comes into play. Kant in his Critique of Pure Reason spends an awful lot of time discussing the "unconditioned" and the "conditioned". The “unconditioned” is the dynamical possibilities that come together to form the “conditioned”. These concepts are built primarily on Hume's understanding of cause and effect with the realization that cause and effect aren't as simple as they appear. What makes multiple courses converge into one? How interesting that this process has happened, is happening now, and continues to happen.

    Free Will, then, is ultimately mental work - Reason. Sentient beings have a tool which many in the animal kingdom, if you look at their neural structures, do indeed possess; but to a wildly different degree - Consciousness. While any animal must make a decision as to how to get from point A to point B without the very great possibility of death, our Reasoning greatly transcends that. Whereas other species are concerned, in a way, with the promulgation of their kind, we calculate how best to accomplish that. Whereas the iteration of a termite might build the most wonderful hives, humans are capable of, not only calculating how best to build a structure, but what use that structure should even have.

  There are so many things to choose - so many paths to take. Which way is right? Is it simply all based on survival? Upon thriving? If I realize that everything I've ever known in the way I know it is merely an appearance to myself, what the hell do I do? Do I put on the mask with the awareness that the mask isn't me in an effort to interact with others on the stage? Or, better yet, do I reconfigure the mask in a way that better aligns with the values which I know I cherish? Do I become a mystic and lead others to the understanding? How many would dare to leap out of the illusion they were presented? 

    Maybe, ultimately, the truth is that Nothing can really be done. Tearing down the Walls is risky business. It induces fears and anxiety. And here, I'm merely speaking in regards to the individual. A State? Well, one would have to be ready to die on a hill, hoping somebody might understand why, to even make a dent in the illusion as it presents itself, Now. Regardless, that never stops Illusion in general from presenting itself to the newcomers to the world that has been created before them. It seems, then, that the illusion always was, always is, and always will be.

    And, that's the riddle to Design. A deity never had to make anything for Nature to be as profound as it is. I spent years sorting out whether, or not, Design was merely a spiritual word which I had projected. But, I now realize that I was merely looking at the word, Design, from the wrong vantage point. Ultimately, I don't know how much my Will will ever impact the world regardless of how closely aligned I allow myself to be with the "Design" set before my path. Design is a Universal Affair. It's the amalgamation of the Beings and Non-Beings which make Nature what it is and what it isn't. Design is the Way of Life. We design. We interpret what the design means. And then we design again. Who knows where it all leads? That's only for the future to know.