2 Reader Responses

1. Ted Heistman Says:
   September 28th, 2007 at 8:50 pm

   Some times I do things I believe to be wrong for that reason. It feels like a freer act.

   Its an act that contains more novelty and therefore more information. A rebellious act contains more information and thus is better for self expression.

   For an innocuous example, When in the woods I like to walk off the trails and camp where I am not supposed to. This doesn’t make me a serious rebel or anything. But I feel like if I walk on the trail and camp in designated areas, I am not really conecting with the wild. I am just walking paths that were created by others, following the rules. This is why some designated wilderness areas, with tons of rules and restrictions seem “less wild” to me, than more marginal areas where people people leave garbage around and throw cans in the air and shoot holes in them and stuff.

   The garbage subtracts from the aesthetic of wild beauty, but the freedom to do bad things without people noticing adds to it.

   One of the most wild places i have ever been to was in Minnesota in an area that was under disbute between the DNR and the White Earth Indian reservation. It was like the wild west. No man’s land. People got killed in there, all the locals advised never going in there without a gun.
   Some crazy people lived in there as sqatters year round, poaching the wildlife. There were wolves and Moose living in there too, despite the poaching.

   Another thing I see related to this is homosexuality. Some people examine various ancient texts like Leviticus and books in the Nag Hamudi and label these writings as “homophobic.” which I find ridiculous. I think somthings should be transgressive. Like Ailester Crowley and his homosexual sex magic. Would this magic have been so powerful for for him had he lived say, today or five years or ten years into the future when gay sex maybe associated with being more white bread and boring and “married?”

   Just talking about sex in general, things are more erotic when they are forbidden. The naked human body is erotic because people wear clothes. Its forbidden not to.

   Going back to the information thing-I don’t know if I made it explicit enough, but RAW wrote about this, or if not him somebody similar. He said somting like this:

   Roses are Red
   Violets are blue
   You think this will rhyme
   But it ain’t gonna.

   That contains more information than the way everyone knows.
   Mathmatically, thinking of balance and harmony, the number that is the most balanced is zero. Who wants to be a zero?

   That’s like being room temperature. Lukewarm. If you totally fit your environment you are nearly invisible.

   So in terms of WILL of which FREE WILL is related. Historically there was the Will of the King, which was supposed to be the will of God. So then everyone else is a subject. Historically these kings were just people of the highest castes that were descended from barbarians that had forceflly subjegated other people. They then through the priestly castes, dictated what was right and wrong. The subjects then were extensions of the will of the rulers. The people had little will of their own really.

   So how do you have free will in this set up? By being a criminal! Your actions then ironically will mirror those of the rulers, because rulers are above the law. You know about all these conspiracies that are mostly about these elites doing all this bad stuff, while compelling others to follow the law? That’s the way it always is.

   Criminals and rulers do things that are in their own interest. Some people for the most part don’t have much of a will. I think people that do what is expected of them always have little will.

   Another thing that comes to mind is Peck that wrote “People of the Lie” and was trying to define evil, he mentioned evil people seem to be really strong willed.

2. Ted Heistman Says:
   September 28th, 2007 at 11:58 pm

   I found this article just now:

   
   Malignant narcissism is characterized by an unsubmitted will. All adults who are mentally healthy submit themselves to something higher than themselves, be it God or truth or love or some other ideal. They do what God wants them to do rather than what they would desire. “Thy will, not mine, be done,” the God-submitted person says. They believe in what is true rather than what they would like to be true. What their beloved needs becomes more important to them than their own gratification. In summary, to a greater or lesser degree, all mentally healthy individuals submit themselves to the demands of their own conscience. Not so the evil, however. In the conflict between their guilt and their will, it is the guilt that must go and the will that must win.

   The reader will be struck by the extraordinary willfulness of evil people. They are men and women of obviously strong will, determined to have their own way. There is a remarkable power in the manner in which they attempt to control others.

   Theologians speak of evil being a consequence of free will. When God, creating us in His own image, gave us free will, He had to allow us humans the option of evil. The problem can also be envisioned in the secular terms of evolution theory. The “will” of less evolved creatures seems largely under the control of their instincts. When humans evolved from the apes, however, they largely evolved out from under such instinctual controls and hence into free will. This evolution leaves humans in the position of being totally willful or having to seek new ways of self-control through submission to higher principles. But this still leaves us with the question of why some human beings are able to achieve such submission while others are not.

   Indeed, it is almost tempting to think that the problem of evil lies in the will itself. Perhaps the evil are born so inherently strong-willed that it is impossible for them to ever submit their will. Yet I think it is characteristic of all “great” people that they are extremely strong-willed – whether their greatness be for good or for evil. The crucial distinction is between “willingness and willfulness.”