Free will, aphorism 319, A Human Strategy, Matt Berry
319
“Free will” does not exist, at least not in the manner we speak of it. It is an error, just as “mind” is an error. What happens? The clamor above the surface of things enters the labyrinth of the ear and returns again as an echo ... a harmonized chorus. Throughout our music there are pleasant and seductive melodies that flatter us. One of them is “free will.”
We hardly notice the cadence punctuating our melody ... and to which our muscles are dancing. If there is such a thing as control, it is here in the cadence and tempo of our thoughts and not their melody and lyric. I dare not call this “will” ... for fear that I will be seduced out of my rhythm again.
Let me stop the music here, as I often must, and scold the members of my orchestra: “You are not inside me; you are outside me: I face you. I select you, arrange you, fashion for you your instruments. It is only in this manner that I can compose something beautiful from within. Now lay this next melody over the beat of my heart .... ”
“Free will” does not exist, at least not in the manner we speak of it. It is an error, just as “mind” is an error. What happens? The clamor above the surface of things enters the labyrinth of the ear and returns again as an echo ... a harmonized chorus. Throughout our music there are pleasant and seductive melodies that flatter us. One of them is “free will.”
We hardly notice the cadence punctuating our melody ... and to which our muscles are dancing. If there is such a thing as control, it is here in the cadence and tempo of our thoughts and not their melody and lyric. I dare not call this “will” ... for fear that I will be seduced out of my rhythm again.
Let me stop the music here, as I often must, and scold the members of my orchestra: “You are not inside me; you are outside me: I face you. I select you, arrange you, fashion for you your instruments. It is only in this manner that I can compose something beautiful from within. Now lay this next melody over the beat of my heart .... ”