Have you ever considered the possibility that you were wrong? What if you were pointing the finger at the wrong person the whole time, content in your fatuous, self-determined judgement of the world and the multitudinous faults you percieve within it?

What if, when you looked at everything from a different point of view, a new truth shone upon you like a revelation; an epiphanic immolation of your pervicacious ignorance?

While such an understanding has yet to fully open itself to me, a tempestuous interruption of my personally divined truths is causing me question the unquestionable; that the modern world is accountable for its actions.

If the mantra that we are all creatures of a combination of gentics and experience, neither of which we can control, as we are born with one, and influenced with the other before we are independent enough to make our own decisions (decisions which are, by point of fact, only made because of the combination of what has come before it) is true, so it could be argued that choice is an illusion. Given identical criteria, there is only one decision that can be made, because everything that has happened in your life, your environment, the world around you and the countless generations that lived before you that still have significant influence on your very genetic code, all this has led you to the point at which you exist now, and you can only continue on the path with which you have been set.

Certainly, that path is not linear. Billions of fates collide and collude every moment. But while I will avoid saying that it was pre-determined, it certainly must be predictable. With enough information then, it can be forecast. This re-introduces the prospect of 'fate'. If one can predict the future through sheer wealth of current and past knowledge - and while I do believe that this is possible, the sheer power and storage requirements such data would demand is beyond imagining, and certainly beyond current capabilities - then the power exists to alter the future. Or does it? Was the interpretation of our very futures, and our reaction to it built into the concept of predictability?

What value has life then, if its course can be determined? More importantly, how does one hold someone accountable for their actions if, on reflection, it is impossible to be responsible for what you do as history and genetics have forced you to do it?

There is a single simple answer to both questions. And that is to ultimately ignore that there is a greater truth. That we must take responsibility for ourselves is the defining boundary of our continued existence. Perhaps then, while the possibility that 'fate' might somehow exist should allow for understanding of certain actions, it should not be held up as an excuse. That path leads only to anarchy and, ultimately, self-destruction.

What is the point of this entry then, if I am telling myself that I have acquired a greater understanding (which I am by no means saying is correct, I'm still considering this) which I intend to largely ignore? Perhaps it is so you will understand my pain a little more. Perhaps so I understand it a little better also. Maybe I just enjoy re-proving my stance on the world. Or maybe, just maybe, I just really need to get the point across that there is no excuse for ignoring our own responsibilities, and those that do are the enemy of humanity.

Food for thought, at the very least.

IB

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