Many think that everything we do is predetermined. Churches preach that. Philosophers struggle with the problem of free will versus determinism. Many of us, however, will say that of course we have free will. We are Americans. We can do whatever. Try to stop us.
“Aha!” says modern Electronics. “Try using your phone when the battery is empty. Sure, you are free to load it or not to load it. But where does that get you? Admit it: you are at the mercy of Technology.”
You are writing an important treatise, something truly heretical. Having free will, you are entitled to do this. God will not stop you. But the word processing software will. It suddenly freezes. You cannot write another word. You are at the mercy of the Microsoft Corporation.
You go shopping for some imported black delicatessen pumpernickel. The store does not carry such. No surprise. You are at the mercy of supply and demand.
You order a book for your kindle-1 but it is sent to kindle-2. You are at the mercy of Amazon.
We are free to create or do what we want, but it may go wrong. The more pressing our plan, the more likely it is to go wrong. Maybe that is what Friedrich Nietzsche meant when he said that free will does not exist.
In sum, we may be free to be creative, to plan our luncheon on the grass with or without clothes, whatever. In the end, however, we are at the mercy of Murphy.
Having read about the gruesome sacrificial rituals of the ancient Aztecs, I found it interesting to hear the why and wherefore of this practice, as suggested by recent anthropological research. It appears that people believed in beings they vaguely referred to as The Gods and that in the beginning of things those gods sacrificed themselves and by that act enabled the people to live and prosper. The “beginning of things” must have been a problem for the Aztecs. Apparently the gods did not create the Aztec world but owed allegiance to some higher power and their self-sacrifice was to honor that higher power, just as the Aztecs’ human sacrifices were a way to honor and thank the gods. The sacrificial victims were most likely voluntary martyrs submitting to a most honorable ritual that was still carried out in the sixteenth century.
I am not a wine connoisseur. Obviously. Because I buy my pleasant, harmless dry red at three bottles for ten dollars. If I go shopping on one of my thrifty days I buy six bottles and pocket the 10% bulk discount. I buy my fruit and my oatmeal and most everything else I eat at the local supermarket where there is always something “special” and on sale and where people are invited to enjoy the savings on Five-Dollar-Fridays. In other words, it is a humble neighborhood where residents are thrifty, hold on to their wallets, and redeem coupons.