{"id":126,"date":"2021-09-15T08:38:11","date_gmt":"2021-09-15T08:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.novelty-fiction.com\/gazette\/?p=126"},"modified":"2021-09-15T08:38:11","modified_gmt":"2021-09-15T08:38:11","slug":"w-e-consequences-of-our-free-will","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/novelty-fiction.com\/gazette\/w-e-consequences-of-our-free-will\/","title":{"rendered":"W.E. – Consequences of Our Free Will"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t\t\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Through our upbringing and then every so often, most of us have been taught \nand trained to accept that many of our actions are binding and irreversible. Few \nare those who have never lost a dear friend over some misunderstanding, \nmiscommunication, or simply as a result of actions that in hindsight that person \nmay have come to regret. Indeed it should be so: If we want to have a free will, \nand if that free will is to have any real meaning at all, then our deliberate \nactions must have some real consequences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everything I have said until this point reflects conventional thinking, there \nreally isn\u2019t anything new in it. Graciously, not all of our mistakes are \nirreversible, and sometimes matters can be patched up with an apology or some \nredeeming act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now I\u2019m finally arriving at the gray area that I find to be of interest: \nNamely, the \u201cirreversible\u201d nature of certain actions are to a large extent the \nconsequence of social convention, not strictly logical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Black and white <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A murder is a straightforward example of an irreversible act. Someone goes to \nthe police station and confesses: \u201cI killed that son-of-a-bitch last night!\u201d \nUpon further inspection, a body is produced, the poor man did indeed get stabbed \n39 times before he bled to death. This action is surely irreversible, no prayer \nor expression of regret will suffice to get the guy back on his feet. And unless \nthe police officers are on the take, chances are that the confession is \nirreversible as well. A long married couple had an argument, she lost her temper \nand maybe overreacted a bit, and now she must face the consequences \u2013 et \ncetera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If this hot-tempered woman had maybe drunk one less cup of espresso that \nevening, it is conceivable that she would have stabbed her husband only twice: \nOnce in the left shoulder and once in the chin. Under this scenario, he is \nadmitted to the emergency room, from which he eventually emerges all stitched \nup, traumatized and unable to smile. The physical scars may eventually heal, but \nthe emotional ones probably never will. How can he have dinner with his wife \nagain and look at her cutting the roast with a knife without thinking: How\u2019s she \ngoing to use it afterwards? Is she going to stab me again? Alas, the \nrelationship is most likely destroyed, and this regardless of whether he decided \nto file a legal complaint against her, whether or not the prosecutor decided to \npress charges -\u2013et cetera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what if she had merely stared at him angrily, looked him in the eye, \nwaived the knife in front of him and said: \u201cYou son-of-a-bitch! I want to stab \nyou real bad!\u201d Then driven off for a night out on the town. Coming home all \ndrunk and with lipstick on her face. Most likely, he will suspect that not only \ndid she harbor thoughts of stabbing him, she also went out and found herself \nanother man for the night \u2013 alas, this relationship is unlikely to return to \nnormal anytime soon, if ever \u2013 et cetera.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Shades of gray<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In quite many instances, I would argue, the consequences of our unfortunate \nactions and decisions really are potentially reversible, as further scrutiny \nwill reveal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friendships are a form of social contract, the existence of which requires \nmerely the mutual acceptance of such a bond. Oftentimes, the formation of a \nfriendship involves an explicit declaration of such a desire by one party, then \nacceptance by the other. At other times, a type of silent agreement is reached \nquite simply by mutual comfort and trust being built over a period of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I would argue that unless something really bad has happened, a broken \nfriendship can quickly be restored by the parties involved. One party may take \nthe blame and offer an apology, which the other party then accepts, and \nconditions should hopefully be restored to normal \u2013 otherwise, one or both \nparties have not been acting in good faith. The parties may also decide amongst \nthemselves that they both carry part of the blame, and so they split the \ndifference. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In quite many cases, the disagreements that led to the destruction of a \nfriendship is nothing but a pittance. In that case, the parties may agree to \ntreat the matter as a non-event! I mean this quite seriously and literally. If \nwe have a free will, and if a friendship is a social contract among two people \nbased entirely upon that free will, then do we also not have it within our power \nto decide that certain unfortunate words and actions are to be disregarded \naltogether?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friendship Restoration Agreement (sample)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We, the undersigned, hereby agree that certain regrettable events \n(hereinafter referred to as “the Pittances”) were the consequence of powers \nbeyond our control. Although the Pittances may well have appeared as deliberate \nwords, actions, and decisions at the time they were made, upon further \nreflection one of us has realized – and the other one now agrees – that these \nwere in fact rendered hastily and\/or thoughtlessly, and this to such an extent \nthat similar unfortunate incidents are highly unlikely ever to reoccur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We, being of sound mind and possessing a free will, hereby declare the \nPittances as null-and-void. As a result, our friendship is fully restored to its \nformer condition.<\/p>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Through our upbringing and then every so often, most of us have been taught and trained to accept that many of our actions are binding and irreversible. Few are those who have never lost a dear friend over some misunderstanding, miscommunication, or simply as a result of actions that in hindsight that person may have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-container-style":"default","site-container-layout":"default","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-transparent-header":"default","disable-article-header":"default","disable-site-header":"default","disable-site-footer":"default","disable-content-area-spacing":"default","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-quarterly-magazine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/novelty-fiction.com\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/novelty-fiction.com\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/novelty-fiction.com\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novelty-fiction.com\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novelty-fiction.com\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/novelty-fiction.com\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/novelty-fiction.com\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novelty-fiction.com\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novelty-fiction.com\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}