E.D. 2008, A Portrait of a Young Woman, acrylic on canvas 24x36"
When it comes to the question of free will, people disagree
with each other. Religious say that there is a free will, but skeptics argue. Mustn’t
there be a free will to will this discussion? But many philosophers doubt
the existence of the mind. It’s puzzling, right? It must be a mind to mind it, but the
problem of the mind is that it escapes definitions…
Motivation is immediate when it comes to survival and
procreation.
Motivation is strong when it comes to social acceptance and
power.
Motivation is rotten when it comes to arbitrary
decision-making.
We always question the shit.
Repetition helps. When we do thing repetitively the
sensibility of the thing doesn’t bother us too much. We doubt even less when a
group is involved in repetitive activities. We feel well at peace when we
belong to the group involved in repetition.
If we received no orders, demands or requests, we are in all
sorts of doubts whether we should initiate a thing. We tend to comply when we
get an assignment unless we are teenagers, whose human brain is rapidly
developing at the moment and defies assignments.
Here is an evolutional pattern that happens inside human sculls: first,
a reptile brain grows, second, a brain of a herd animal, and finally, a human
brain. The first two are very old and
work automatically. The third brain is wrought with doubt.
What is a human brain, anyway? Isn’t it the zone in the pre-frontal
lobe, which is said to be responsible for setting arbitrary goals and making independent
decisions, taking stupid risks against instinctive fears and braking away from
the herd against all odds? Isn't it the latest step in natural evolution? Aren't
we, as a part of nature and the brain's carriers suffering from the growth pains along
with the whole nature? Doesn't it manifest itself in discomfort of doubts,
guilt, madness, intellectual disabilities, harm to the others and ourselves, environmental
destruction, and shit like that?
Religions has been developing all along with the human brain to take
care of gross discrepancies. Their rules and prohibitions mean to deal with the harms and
suffering associated with brain functions.
If we take a careful look, we may even notice that the younger, more developed religions worship of all things the brain itself, or rather the indefinable phenomenon we call
intellect and somehow link to it. Christianity calls it Logos as oppose to Chaos, and God-our-Father as oppose to Mother Nature. It makes it responsible for creation but separates it from nature and human consciousness. This separation leads to contradictions. Some religions overcome it by including mind of all sorts as well as Mother Nature in the overall holistic
picture.
Historically, religion was the first PR tool used to manipulate masses
by provoking and comforting guilt and doubt. Guilt and doubt that people experience
when they suddenly get an idea of doing something new, unconventional,
something maybe unreasonable, or totally unsolicited. Religion calls this function of human brain a free
will, sometimes praising it but mostly reproaching.
The development of human brain, aka free will, is a very young
phenomenon in natural evolution so some people tired of social and individual controversies
it creates suggest to deny its existence.
I, personally don’t deny the freewillshit and struggle for social acceptence while producing unsolicited art.
