Since we are mostly thinking about elections when we are talking about choices and selections, we also usually miss the depth of this concept. I have written a blog post here called Tree. In that post, i tried to explain that we are usually in the state where out decisions lead us to. But i haven't thought about what is selecting and choosing in that post, it was mainly about the process. In this post, which was formed before the 2023 elections in Turkey, you will find my analysis on the concept of selection and choice. Let me state in advance that this will not be a political post :) A choice stems from choosing. The act of choosing consists of 2 mandatory parts. Options (multiple) and free will. It really impresses me to see one word having a lot of depth or complexity. What is an option?
An option is a concrete phenomenon which either gets us somewhere or serves a purpose. We know things like choosing a job, a partner, a car, a city from elementary school. We also have options like our answers to questions, our intentions or our toning when we say things. Sometimes options are what we have, sometimes what we are presented with
.From this point of view, it is important to realize that options must be offering us more than 1 alternative. When we say "this is the only option", we are wording the statement wrong. Since it is not optional, it pre-eliminates the other options. It becomes mandatory. Let me put this here as a side note, if you think you only have one option, we can't talk about choosing since your will is also automatically invalidated.
We usually have some sort of expectation from our options or we choose the ones we think they will serve us somehow. This changes according to the nature of our options and why we are choosing one. For example, since we can't create a house or a car completely as we want, we usually consider how much it serves our needs. But when we are choosing for a parlament or a manager, we usually expect the politician or the manager to serve us. Or we may expect to give a certain impression when we answer a question. In other words, some options are active and some are inactive.
Even if this seems unnecessary, i wanted to think about what is an option. Briefly, we have concrete or figurative things that either serves a purpose or yields to something. This was the first component of the word choice, or selection. The second one is the person, meaning, the will.
We can say that will is the one that decides among options, makes sense of things and comes up with a conclusion. First, let me say this: The reason why there is no will or choice when you have only one option is that there is no logic to include. At this point you may ask "do i lose my will if i eliminate the other options and i am left with only 1 option?". Actually no, because there is a logic behind that elimination process. That means will. We shouldn't miss that detail. Mandatory happens when the other options are eliminated without or outside of your power.
So what can this will do? It can question the options, it can look for new options, it can be hold responsible for the choices, it can give up on choosing. Options are nothing when there is no will. Now if we remember that a lot of things can be options, like i stated above, we realize the term "will" is a lot more important than we think. We can be making choices without realizing. So, is the term "will" so mainstream? Why am i questioning it thoroughly? :) We are the driving force behind will and therefore i think it is worth questioning. For example you may ask if it is actually your will or someone else's? Or why are you using your will?
We use our will and making choices among the options. I mean this is ideally what should happen. But the act of choosing is not so simple, since it is a result of 2 aspects. One aspect we don't have a control on and the other one that can be manipulated. We can deeply argue about the concept of will and it will touch on different areas of lives when we talk about the reflections or it. Right now, we are trying to understand what it means to have will to select among the options. Also, even though i don't mention it, we are talking about free will here. Because if our will is not free, we can't talk about actually choosing anything. Now, time to talk about choice or choosing.
With the things we talked about in the above subtitles, we can say that making an easy choice is not that easy. In an ideal selection, all of the options must exists independent of each other and we must be able to incorporate logic on them without manipulations with our free will. These conditions are rarely met in the political elections. Therefore the only conclusion i have in the area of politics that the election is usually merely an illusion or deception. I guess that is why people who try to eliminate the other options rather than choosing their own option emerge.
So what can go wrong while actually making a choice. Even though we have free will, we may know the nature of our options, we may be missing the possible alternative options, we may not know what those active options may serve to or where they would lead us... All of these are consequently manipulation of free will, leaving it as just will. Because normally free will can question the options that are available.
We are in the process of making a decision the moment we start working logic among the options. The world doesn't work as simple as i mentioned in the first 2 subtitles. That is the point of this post and the most important part comes now.
I can say this with a little bit of a generalization. I was talking about this principal in my older post about trees, which i mentioned in the beginning. As long as you have free will, you are in charge of it and you are responsible for the outcomes. This is why i say you can see your reflection in your choices. Of course in the political voting and selections where the probabilities are determining power, everything gets more complicated. But when we look at individual decisions, everyone is making their own decision. At this point you may ask, "Am i responsible for everything happening around the world, what kind of ludicrous idea is this?". You kind of have a point but actually we are looking at this from the wrong perspective. Let me elaborate.
We think we are causing large scale events with our small free wills. Political elections are the most popular example for this. But we are actually determining a small part of a bigger reality. So it is not fair for you to hold yourself accountable for the whole world, since none of our choices are that much impactful and determining. You should think of this from another context. You can just ask yourself what did i choose, why did i chose it. Because you are responsible for your own life and nobody can hold you accountable other then yourself. You already have lots of conscious or unconscious decisions or choices or selections everyday. Even not using your free will is a kind of choice. Remember i also mentioned that options are not always presented to us, sometimes they are what we have. Now i guess all the non-sense above helps explaining that we are making lots of decisions.
The word choice or selection is a 2 sided concept and has a big meaning. Unless we are a rock sitting in the nature, we have to try to see our own impact in our lives. Otherwise we are half-humans who don't appreciate the value of the free will. Also realize that i don't make any distinctions like good option or bad option or a good choice or a bad choice here. Of course i can't know what is right and wrong. We just have to accept the fact that we are making choices frequently in our lives.
This is the question i tried to answer in my Tree blog post. All of the choices you make in your life will directly or indirectly have a repercussion. You can't ignore it because of the action and reaction law, even if you deny it. Also, you may be inflicting other people with free wills with your own choices. That is why i haven't asked this question here: Is this post meaningful where the choices are effecting the options and choosers? Maybe no. Even more so, if we don't actually understand our options and not sure of having a free will, it feels like being invalidated.
And another strange blog post finishes here. This was an unusual experience for me because for the first time, i was able to write the whole post in a single session in front of the computer. I really tried to avoid writing a subjective post here. But let me finish with my own thoughts. The responsibility begins with being a human but doesn't end by losing (choosing to lose) our humanity. We are humans the second we are given a free will but we are not free of responsibility when we choose not to utilize our free will. We don't even properly know if we are making an ideal choice in an ideal situation. We don't realize how much decisions we are making everyday. But somehow, we are confident of our choices and we think we are absolved from our responsibilities. Do you think it is what easy? We made a choice and are we done with it? Thank you for choosing to read this post. See you at the next post :)
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