Last year, my brain scientist friend revealed to me his reality of: humans do not have free will. I do not know. I want to believe I have a history of exercising my free will. Life's beauty is overcoming the forces of Newtonian physics and breaking out into a newer, larger trajectory. In fact, you do not need free will per se, all you need is discontent with status quo. Ultimately, all you want is to reach the finite heights. The funny thing, a lonely individual will never be at that apogee. Herein lies the tragedy of individualism.
This (now ending) week brought some shocking newsflashes regarding ‘free will’ (whatever it might be).
1. salon.com’s Cary Tennis: children of divorce might be conditioned to opt for single parenthood;
2. Scott Stanley: the cohabitants do not even self-select into cohabitation (they do when we talk about statistics-effects, but no, do not "do" really);
3. The Economist: innocent people have a strange and worrying tendency to admit guilt, even when not tortured.
And while we probably should be all worried about #3, it's #1 that I am very concerned with. I do not know how about San Francisco (where Cary lives), but on my side of the planet, children of divorce are the most honest individuals regarding marriage and children. You won't see them stringing their partners for years without commitment. They are clear about disliking marriage if they do, otherwise they have high esteem for the institution, and oftentimes consider it to be the very best chance at Happiness and fulfillment that was ever given to humans. A good chance to redeem their parent's faux pas. They do not choose single parenthood over a family: not giving two married parents to a child is the worst thing that can happen to us as parents. No. Being raised by a single parent gives you very clear ideas of responsibility and (quasi-insurmountable) hardships, not a scheme by which you “just know” how to do something. So here. Duh, Cary.
