Christmas

Good intentions are not the same things as good results. The actual result of something is more important than the form that thing took. Likewise, wisdom is vindicated by all of her children.

The modern world has a way of confusing ultimate and lasting good with what makes you feel good right now. Though there is nothing wrong with immediate pleasure and comfort, the experience is non-benign if divorced from deeper realities. It is this disaggregation of our surface experiences from deeper realities, and subsequent compartmentalization of different aspects of our lives that leads to many of our personal and relational problems.

At the same time, good results must be recognized for what they are. This is all a roundabout way of getting to the point, which is that despite all of the stress, chaos, confusion, and sometimes loneliness, solitude and depression that are a part of this time of year; despite the rampant materialism, political correctness, and loss of perspective as to the original meaning of the season, even if the original meaning was a week of festivities dedicated to the god Cronus, the ultimate result is what matters. 

The preponderance of us are drawn closer to those we love and care about, and are given cause to reflect on that which we consider meaningful. There is joy, there is happiness, even if there is sorrow. 

It is for this last point it is most fitting that some of us celebrate the coming of the Divine in human form on this day. In the midst of pain and suffering, joy and hope, not apart from the darkness, but in the midst of it. The light does indeed shine in the darkness and the darkness will not overcome it. It is beyond a name and does not require recognition to be vindicated in all of our actions, for all of our actions that are good find their ultimate source and meaning in It. There is only one circle of love, friendship, happiness, hope, peace, and joy in the Universe. That circle finds its form in what I call the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. It is on this day I remember this circle of all that is good taking on human form in the depths of human suffering and brokenness. 

It is still here. He/She is still here. The Divine came irreversibly into the world over 2000 years ago and remains present in all those who allow It to live through them. It lives through you and I if we allow it it to. That circle of good many of us find ourselves drawn into is a step in the right direction. 

Affluenza

Affluenza is a term that was recently made famous when 16 year old Ethan Couch was let off easy for causing the deaths of 4 people and critically wounding 2 others. He was reported to have been under the influence of several substances at the time in quantities that would make fraternity initiation nights look weak by comparison. The defense made the case he did not understand the consequences of his actions because his perspective was distorted by the amount of affluence he grew up in.

Now, a major sub-theme to the outrage against this ties into the ongoing observation prevalent in modern society that there is growing inequality and that more and more wealth is being pooled by the people at the top of the hierarchy. This truthful observations has often lead to the idea that the people taking over this wealth are bad and that being wealthy is somehow a crime in and of itself. Whether this is openly expressed or not, it is hard to ignore it's reality when people say things like the so called 1% should pay 90% tax on what they take in because no one needs (the implication is that they should not have) that much money.

The absurdity of this statement aside, it is indicative of deeper socio-emotional issues that do in fact require addressing. Protecting and expanding the middle class is important for economic and security reasons in and of it self. However, redistribution of wealth has been shown in so many ways and so many places before this to not be an effective measure for achieving this that there is no need to address it at length here. One does not need to go to some extreme right wing outlet for this information, only look at the countries in the world with large populations that have attempted the same and see that, not only was it not effective for protecting the middle class, it lead to the creation of a new hierarchies completely out of touch with reality.

However, the opinion still creeps that those on top should not be there and that penalties must be inflicted. So seldom though do we turn the leans of examination onto ourselves and look for what lurks beneath the surface.

It is not the case that inequality in the developed world is not a problem. Indeed it is and the resulting poverty is an insult to free and prosperous societies. However,  most of those often commenting on it from the angle that the rich must be punished to pave the way for justice have no perspective on poverty and justice and are themselves afflicted with affluenza.

There comes a time when it is important for those who wish to have a truly global perspective to recognize that "first world problems" are not the same as those faced by the multiple billions of people in the world below even the third world's poverty line, either in severity, scale, or otherwise. Poverty is a problem anywhere. Having to make fuel cost conscious choices about what type of car you drive, having to take a job you are over qualified for, even not having a job for an extended period of time is simply not the same thing as being faced with the choice of which child you will sell in order to pay for food for the other ones.

The wealthy are not the problem and being rich is not a crime. The discourse must focus, not on the redistribution of wealth to create pseudo-equality, but rather on limiting the ability of non-benign actors and organizations at the top of the hierarchy to make choices, which create the systemic conditions by which inequality grows, both here and abroad. Then again, doing this effectively will entail sacrifices. You will have to not buy what you cannot afford. You will have to pay attention to what you spend on, and you will often have to give up those low prices.

At the expense of those now unemployed because the production of those low cost goods went to an oppressive totalitarian regime in which workers lives are as expendable as the products they make. 

Boundaries

The things we most often argue about are only symptoms of things hidden under the surface that we are not yet ready to confront.

Consider a romantic couple fighting over what they see to be bad traits in each other. A girlfriend accusing you of being too prideful. A boy friend saying you aren't giving enough to the relationship, or any number of other combinations.

In emotionally charged conflicts, which these tend to be, it is a safe assumption that whatever is being openly discussed is not the root cause of the conflict. It is both sides triangulating away from something hidden and too difficult to bring up. The question to ask is what is the underlying cause? More importantly, why can't we talk about it?

The reason has less to do with hiding things than it does with creating boundaries, or rather not creating them. On the one hand we avoid deep confrontation in favor of surface arguments because deep confrontation would leave us exposed for who we really are, thus violating the most fundamental boundary, but what lies in the depths of who we are is not always docile. When left in darkness, it has a tendency to run rampant and ravage. On the other hand, the reason things become hidden is because we did not pay attention to them and did not set boundaries around them to begin with. When not so restrained, and thus not in our control, they nearly always wonder to darkness.

In the case of people having gone through any manner of abuse at the hands of someone more powerful than them, this process is taken out of their hands and survival takes over. All the same, what is hidden must be brought out one day and must be framed for what it is.

To name something is to take power over it. It is the act of defining it and bounding it. It is also the first step to being free of the chaotic waves of fear and anxiety, and the first move to take hold of the weapons of reason and wisdom. This is seldom an act that is accomplished in solitude. However, the choice to take control originates with each individual.

So what is really under the surface? What is the real problem? What is it that you have yet to bring into the light and set a fence around, rather than leaving it to roam and ravage in the darkness?

Actually Getting The Chance To Save The World

The real issue with modern politics is not bad government directed policy. It is a lack of initiative on the part of the individual. No amount of legislation will ever change that. 

However, this does not stop those in charge of legislation from trying to change it. Neither does it stop people from having their opinions dictated to them by public figures claiming their policy leads to salvation.


Most policies, whether they be new gun control laws, health care system overhaul, or trying to get the potholes down the street fixed are flawed to begin with because the amount of coordination, compromise and add-ons required to pass them dilutes the original intent sufficiently for much of the endeavored to miss the objective. At the same time, while seeing the effects of the new legislation on the potholes down the street is easy enough to monitor, measures of effectiveness are not as forthcoming with more large-scale legislation geared at more complex systems. However, it is critical to take into account that these limitations have more to do with the nature of the game itself than how it is currently played. Policy is a tool and a necessary one for shaping courses of action and focusing efforts. It is not the same thing as realizing those efforts. No amount of telling someone what to do and how to do it will ever have as much effect as the person making the choice for him or her self.


How much more would the effect of individuals taking responsibility for their actions be if those actions were taken to cure the troubles of whatever communities we find ourselves in? No amount of reposting socially conscious statements on social media compares to actually going out to the street corner and having lunch with the homeless alcoholic. Being faux sensitive in order to keep up with the current fashion is not the same as actually being sensitive to the troubles around you and then action to correct them. This need not be limited to the surrounding community in purely geographical terms either. Indeed the whole world is our community, but not acting on a problems because it has been conceptualized as too big to act on is as much of a crutch to our moral pride as reposting something about social justice and calling it doing your part.


Ending something like Sex Trafficking is as much about making life as much better as possible for the one former victim you know as it is about legislation and enforcement to ensuring the crime never happens to anyone ever again. Ending Global Poverty is as much about the one kid in the slum you have the opportunity to give new shoes to today as it is about UN education initiatives and ensuring economic policy helps rather than takes advantage of the majority of the world below the poverty line, and ending homelessness is as much about having lunch with the homeless alcoholic down the street as it is about changing cultural norms and dealing with income inequality.


When the problem becomes so large that only a new law can save us, there is no hope at all. The problem is in front of us all the time if we look. Each individual determines their own level of involvement. However the surest way to be certain the problem will always be with us is to do nothing at all. At the same time, there are those who demonstrated that no level of involvement was too deep and no sacrifice was too much. How much more could be done if this attitude became more prevalent?

  

What You Don't Know Can Kill You

Humans have a very hard time evaluating risk. We are not as rational as we may think and logic and reason are normally brought into our internal thought processes and external actions as a way to justify what were in truth emotional decisions. However, the degree to which we fail to logically account for risk, though it is linked to this, goes above and beyond.

There is actually sound biological reason to this. If we did evaluate risk "rationally", and thus made choices to avoid it, there would be a whole host of things we should rationally avoid. For nearly all of human history and in much of the world today the leading cause of death among women in the age range capable of baring children was and is child birth. This does not seem to have stopped the proliferation of humans to this day. In fact, lack of ability to rationalize and valuate risk has lead to much of the behavior that has allowed humans to become the current dominant species on this planet. It has also lead to our greatest atrocities.

Lack of food security risk valuation lead to the greatest mass killing in modern times.

What you don't know can indeed kill you.

However, it is also often what you do know, but do not accurately perceive that will do the same. In the modern world, near eradication of most short term risks has tremendously deteriorated our already low ability to valuate risk. This does not strictly mean that we do not under value how risky something is, but that we also have a tendency to over estimate it.

Just as we bring reason in to justify our emotional behavior, the same is done to assign disproportionate risk values to things that make us uncomfortable. This is why we see stories of kids being expelled from school for chewing their toast into the shape of a gun. This is also why we discuss euthanasia of unborn children because of genetic defects. Finally, this is why we have talk of laws against smoking in one's own house while at the same time no one seems to think it's a bad idea to get in a car and drive, an act that kills far more people every year than marginal exposure to second hand smoke ever has.

The modern world, as all worlds before it, is a complex system. It cannot be understood by simply looking at it's dissected parts, but rather requires an examination of the whole on its own terms. At the same time, all complex systems trend towards chaos, destruction, equilibrium and then back to chaos. This is as true for a sand hill piled by the wind to the point it collapses under its own weight and then is blown again as it is for a political system claiming power to the people only to be taken over by elites and then revolted against only to repeat the process again. For the time being, such absurd lack of ability to perceive reality is only an element of trending chaos. However, at the same time, it opens us to decisions and subsequent behaviors that are ultimately damaging to the human person. The world will go on regardless of what we do. However, it is our choice to what extent we contribute to that world being better and less chaotic than it was before.

Banal Evils

It is very easy to judge someone for a horrible act that you could never imagine yourself committing. It is also very easy to fear extreme and unlikely events like shark attacks, and terrorist acts much more than it is to consider the more likely and common dangers that claim many more lives like driving a car. However, just as we fail to evaluate risk for what it is, we also fail to recognize that evil is far more commonplace than headline making horrors like school shootings and pedophile rings. 

You don't need to know about the resent revelation of the largest child porn ring in history, or the ongoing starvation and slaughter of civilians in Syria by all sides of the conflict to know about evil. You don't even need to be aware of the large portion of the world that worries about getting food and clean water every day. 

You also don't need to have taken part in causing these things to be guilty of evil. 

Many often look at such horror and ask why. One could just as easily look out the window and ask the same if they knew what they were looking at. This is because, as always, that which goes unnoticed can and often does lurk under the surface like some Leviathan. Ignorance is not bliss and that which you do no know can indeed kill you. The evil comes from these things doing so to others. 

Consider the clothes you wear. Now consider that the majority of the cotton used in the garment industry comes from Central Asia and is produced by what is essentially slave labor. Now consider that the agricultural practices employed to produce it have irreversibly destroyed the environment of the region and will continue to do so. This sort of thing doesn't go on the labels.

Consider the technology we use (I’m using a MacBook Air to write this). Not only the manufacture of the final products, but the procurement of the materials is extremely exploitative to the people involved. It’s easy to decry the ongoing wars in Central Africa. Not so easy to admit they are fought for resources that go into the technology your lifestyle is dependent on. 

Consider that 1 in 5 American women reports sexual assault at some point. Now consider that that number is much lower than the actual number of sexual assaults. Men in the audience, ask yourselves some hard questions about your past and current relationships and consider the possibility that you may be a part of this. 

These are only a few examples. The are sensational, which draws the attention. However, the key  thing to remember is that all events have other events that lead to them. Nothing happens in isolation. To this end, complicity is as much of a contributing factor to evil as is the act itself because it sets the conditions for it to actually happen. 

We are all guilty of complicity to one extent or another and thus all guilty of evil to one extent or another. Thus the question that will ultimately arise is so what? Another less damaging, but ultimately ineffective response is to blow up the issue into some major metaphysical-existential crisis. Workers rights. Global poverty. The 1%. This is all nothing more than hope soon to be swept away for lack of a path to reach it. As lofty and noble as such thoughts are, they are nothing more than good intentions, and few things have caused as much harm as good intentions. 

Rather the answer, as always, is to actually do something right now. Rather than making the problem so large that it is either non-confrontable, or comfortably ignorable, look out the window. See what is going on right now. See reality for what it is. Have lunch with the homeless alcoholic. Ask the hard questions of those you are close to. Make decreasing the suffering of others a habit rather than voting for someone who states it as a campaign goal. 

If evil is banal, so too can be its opposite. 

Stop Blaming DC

There is no worse act in public leadership than to hold out false hopes soon to be swept away.

Given the current political issues, it is obvious to apply this saying to our current elected leadership. However, in keeping with the objectives of this space to take seriously that which is overlooked and that which lurks under the surface, think instead about what constitutes power and thus what constitutes leadership, weather for benefit or ill. 

If you want to know what holds real power over you, consider that which you are too fearful to challenge. 

Given the amount of challenge currently faced by elected leadership, they are not who the first line is directed at. They are not permanent and suffer as much from chance and fortune through the system they inhered and thus the limitations they also inhered as anyone else. Rather, the first line is directed at what lead to the system in the first place. 

The real false hope that has been held out is that if we follow our feelings wherever they lead, we will be happy. 

The result has been the opposite. Many will recognize the "greed" that drives the financial system as an example of this. This sentiment is far more pervasive though. In accepting that following feelings leads to happiness, for any good person preventing other people from doing the same would make one feel uncomfortable and thus unhappy. Pain caused by a lack of comfort leads to avoiding what caused the pain. This combined with the very new and very western idea of cultural relativism has lead to it being an uncomfortable, and thus it is assumed, unhappy thing to challenge anything put forward to the purpose of this new common virtue of, not only everyone being equal, but everyone being entitled to the best of everything. 

This is the essence of political correctness, a thing that tends to be seriously challenged only by people equally out of touch with reality, like members of the Westboro Baptist Church, and Tea Partiers. 

This has become elevated to the level of doctrine and dogma and has delivered neither happiness, nor equality, nor gotten anyone closer to whatever they may feel entitled to. Rather it has allowed the collective sweeping of that which is too hard to seriously talk about under the rug at best, and at worst it has resulted in avoidance and thus ignorance of human suffering. 

For example, a white man shoots a minority teenager and mass society demands blood. Even if this is a rightful response, it absolves no one for the blind eye turned to people who look like the victim killing other people who look like the victim on a regular basis. It absolves collective society even less for ignoring the conditions that lead to it being common for this to happen in the first place.  

The correct response to that which has given false hope is to face reality and move on. 

Veterans Day

Today is Veterans Day. For those who have served or are now serving, it is a day of pride and recognition. For those who never served, but support none the less, it is a day to remember and go out of one's way to thank and recognize those that have sacrificed in a particular way. And for a very few, the day means nothing at all or it is a source of irritation at the so called hero worship they perceive as unwarranted.

Much can be, and is said of this final group. However, in my opinion, nothing needs to be said at all of them. They condemn themselves by voicing such opinions. The far more troubling scene on this day is that of the homeless alcoholic on the sidewalk still living out the jungles of Vietnam, or the college student in his room flirting with a loaded firearm in the knowledge that ending the memories of the streets of Baghdad and Fallujah would be so easy. It's also the girl from New Jersey who gives half of her paycheck to her mother who is living in a hotel room, even though she disowned her because she loves a another girl. It's the kid who has been the primary care giver to his baby niece because his sister is standing charges for murder, and it's the the guy who drinks himself to sleep every night in order to forget how much it hurts that the women he loved couldn't wait 7 months for him to get back. 

The truth is the sacrifices are greater and more irreversible than simply going to war. Most will never know what it is like. However, this does not make their recognition none the less valid, or their love none the less needed. 

For all those who support us, thank you. 

Behavioral Issues

There is a lot of talk these days, as there ever was, about radical change. We here about the need for it from sources as non-congruous as the Huffington Post and local mega church revival gatherings. The only problem is waiting around for something dramatic generally entails waiting a very long time.

Also, waiting around, however frustrating it may be, is a lot safer than the risks associated with doing what you truly want to do. Think of the member of the opposite sex, or perhaps the same sex who you wish you could have something more with. The wishing becomes its own fortress. Hope becomes its own solitary confinement. The thing with solitary confinement though is that if you can't get out, nothing else can get in, and thus at you. 

Important decisions are always underpinned by emotions more than logic and reason. 

That being said, rather than waiting for that radical change which is beyond prediction, the emotional blocks laid one on top of the other like walls in a fortress underlying that hope can be rearranged to form something, if not quite as dismally safe, much more open and thus much more capable of influencing the real world. 

This doesn't happen by waiting around. It happens by deciding to take control of your thoughts and actions daily, and moment by moment until they change. It comes by deciding to have a conversation with the homeless alcoholic on the street corner rather than ignoring him. It comes from deciding to make eye contact BEFORE leering at that hot girl's back side. See the person before you see an object. It comes from saying thank you when something has happened for which you should say so. It comes from deciding to forgive and saying you forgive until you actually mean it and it actually becomes true.

We talk about bad habits, and all too often forget that good habits can be learned just as well. 

Many small things become big things.

Revolution Doesn't Solve Anything

A common trend in political discussion, as well as anything else pertaining to a large mass of individuals is to forget the role of the individual almost entirely. It is thus consistently common when advocating for some form of change away from the dismal norm to either talk about that change in terms of ultimately hollow platitudes and meta concepts, or to start going off about "revolution". This is by no means a new phenomenon. It's where we got the dual rise of Communism and Fascism from. On the other hand, the ultimately boring and depressing talk about getting to some morally superior plain, which sounds surprisingly similar to the talk of women still not being equal to men in the work place, or on the other side of the isle, how we have gotten away from family values and thus are about to crumble as a society, has been recorded since when the ancients still reverenced Athena.

Great ideas, with no hope of being realized 

Actions realized that burned out like wildfire and burned millions in the process

As with everything else, these trends arise for the same reason the course of water is always towards the least resistance. It's easy to push for an untenable extreme, which forces extreme sacrifice and thus irreversible commitments, or to advocate unclearly defined concepts that are just big enough for no one to actually have to look at their reflection and see something about them to be changed. The mark of great skill and wisdom though is build something that lasts. 

This does not happen at a meta level of ideas, or through some great awakening. The first is not specific and not actionable. The second, like wildfire, dies out eventually, as has been the case with all great social movements, from political uprisings to church revivals. This is because both courses appeal to the crowd, whether it be increasingly pervasive media projections of "normal", or race riots and occupy encampments. 

What is ignored is the individual. It is ultimately easier to avoid hard choices by not making them because  your supposed "values" would be violated by a required compromise, or because the choice has already been made for you in the heat of a mob in the process of being dispersed by police in riot gear. This makes the choices of each of us no less important. 

The choice is actually not so complicated. In making it, it is critical to always realize that no one is obligated to care about anything and should not be expected to. If you wonder if the world gives a f**&, it doesn't. However it for you to decide if you will. Thus dispense with self pity, as it only brings more suffering. Stop feeling sorry for yourself for being misunderstood because it only leads to pain, and stop considering that things are as they are because people are stupid. The mirror could just as easily be turned on you by someone else. Rather, consider those around you, both near and far and take their welfare into account. Don't make advocacy about some grand cause that is just big enough for you to hid behind it in the face of pain and suffering that is right in front of you every day. Don't decide to ignore because it is to stressful to care or because the problem is too big to ever solve. It is progressively solved every time someone does show compassion and does risk caring for those who cannot care for themselves. Consider the homeless alcoholic begging for spare change and realize that, though such people will always be here, the opportunity is yours to relieve suffering now. Such opportunities should never be wasted. 

It is not through a revolution, or reaching a higher plain of conciseness that we find peace and justice. It is also not through devotion to high ideals and strict observance of narrow beliefs, a crime for which atheists can be just as guilty as the most hardened Westboro Baptist goer. 

It is through the compassion we show to those around us right now.

And especially towards those for whom no one has the time or care to show compassion. 

Someone who decided to care and will never be forgotten for it

Social Distraction, Or Why The Political Situation Is What It Is.

The United States has been good at finding distractions for a long time now. The appeal of spectator sports is a harmless example of this. On the other hand, the national obsession with the trivialities of what would be called in the slang of my generation "first world problems" is less harmless. One of the biggest distractions of all though combines spectator sports with first world problems to create the current political scene, the impact of which ranges from inducing insanity and breaks from logic and reality, to outright abuses of power and derelictions of duties to protect those who cannot protect themselves. It is because of the harm that is caused and the greater harm that is possible that the political scene, and what to do with it will be primary topics of discussion.

In the public discussion of politics, personal ideology has often times taken the place of reason. This is harder to reverse than it may at first seem. The reason any system exists as it does is because it is reaching, or has reached an internal equilibrium, which is to say things are the way they are because it works. Political campaign positions have become more extreme because it provides a better contrast against the opposition and thus captures more prospective voters. Attack adds get run during campaign seasons because they are actually effective, and political actors tend towards more strict ideologies rather than allowing compromise because it causes them to stand out in the increasing noise of modern media.

However, as much as it is my objective to describe things as they are, there would be little point in writing if I did not also ask what could and should be. The purpose of all political action should be to advance the common good, as defined by promoting order rather than chaos and especially defending those who cannot adequately defend themselves. These may be stated intentions of members from all points along the political spectrum. That said, intentions, however good mean nothing in the face of increasing and consistent negative outcomes. For example, the ongoing debate and attempts to restrict firearms comes from a high intention of protecting those who cannot protect themselves, an aim most in keeping with my stated objectives. The actual implantation of such legislation though, does not produce outcomes in keeping with the intentions because the policy does not take reality into account. Criminals, by definition, do not observe the law and should not be expected to observe laws that would restrict their access to weapons for the commission of further crimes. On the other end of the spectrum, there is the idea that abortion should be restricted at all costs because it is very easily seen as the killing of those who are ultimately unable to defend themselves, a view that is actually quite common and accepted in many other developed countries. In practice though, the anti abortion movements often times focuses on the final act rather than recognizing the lack of opportunity, poverty, and other assorted negative situations that lead up to it, and taking action on those with the second and third order effects being abortions becoming increasingly less common. The outcome for them then is that they fight a losing battle and make themselves increasingly a target for being accused of the ultimate modern crime of insensitivity.

Both of these untenable positions result from substituting good intentions for the actual methods, compromises and sacrifices that lead to good outcomes. The same is true of nearly all other major political and cultural issues we now face. It is thus that the  most harmful of all distractions we face are good intentions with no way for realization, and they are so because they lead to ignoring the reality of the situation, taking untenable and oppositional positions thus causing tremendous noise and chaos, and all the while masquerading as good. As a wise man once said, "you don't make arch demons out of lizards, you make them out of arch angels."

The risks associated with actually turning good intentions into positive outcomes may and should induce a certain level of fear. However, acquiescing to fear in the face of sound and thought out methods, however common, will only result in the same and worse than what we now face. Things find internal equilibrium, but it is not always as it should be.

Introductions.

The purpose of this space is to discuss that which is overlooked, and that which is lurking under the surface. This is as much because that which you don't know can indeed kill you, as it is because the stone that the builders refused will become the head corner stone. It is also for that which is too inconvenient to discuss in politically correct modern society. In fact, it will be made clear in successive conversations that the issues most talked about and most contended are far less important than what they are being used to cover for. 

This is because just as dysfunctional families triangulate away their greatest problems, so too do troubled societies substitute that which does not mater for that which does to ease the discomfort. That being said, do not assume there will be any Tea partying going on, and don’t expect to be welcomed if you preach conspiracy theories. 

The leaning here is not Right or Left. Neither is it Libertarian or Anarchist. Rather, what we will discus here is fear and courage, shame and wisdom, chaos and order, and how these influence and underpin all that we do or fail to do in the public world. Despite our claims to rational thinking and behavior, faith is as much a part of the modern secular world as ever it was in more religious times past. Logic is used post facto to rationalize what were always emotional decisions because all that we do is influenced thus. 

This does not mean though that there is not free will. There would be little point in debating what is best if we did not expect we could positively act on it. All action requires will to one extent or the other. The questions then will circulate around to what degree emotion will master us or if we will master them to be the horse we ride upon to a greater good. 

There is an old story about how the city of Athens got its name that goes as follows. One day, the people of the City saw in the middle of the Agora a spring of fresh water and an olive tree where before there had been neither. Now, these were taken to be auspicious signs and were thus brought to an oracle for interpretation. The oracle declared that the these could be taken as gifts from either Poseidon or Athena and that a vote should be taken to determine which of the two the City would be named after. In those days it was the custom that both the men and the women would vote on public issues and it so happened that when the vote had been taken, the women outnumbered the men by one, and all of them had voted that Athena be the namesake of the City. Poseidon was so enraged at this that he caused a tidal wave to inundate the whole area and killed many. When the waters had subsided, the men of the city came together and decided that the women must be punished for what had happened in order to supplicate the angry god. Thus, from that day on it was decided that women would never be allowed to be full citizens ever again, nor would they be allowed to call their children by their own names ever again, nor would they be allowed to vote ever again. In so doing, the men of the City proved themselves more fearful of the chaos of Poseidon's waves than the reason and justice of Athena's weapons. An ancient story as this is, it is a metaphor for the world we live in now. All too often we find ourselves swayed by fear and chaos rather than guided by wisdom and influenced by courage.

So what are you more afraid of? Poseidon's waves, or Athena's weapons?