Again and again I come upon this misconception, this dreadfully simple confusion that recurs because of our basic cowardice towards reality: free will is an absurdity — and a sort of sin, stemming as it does from the worst sort of courtrooms, the ancient religions with their notions of the condemnation of man by an all powerful god and purely good god. Everywhere there is talk of free will, I smell the ironladen odor of blood. Free will is the foundation of so many generations of human misery and so many generations of failures. And what a joke it has always been! It is far more nonsensical than ether ever was and its purpose is even smaller! It does nothing but allow us to blame others. It does not explain. It does not predict. It is not a scientific principle, but the absence of one — it is to the mapping of the mind what the statement, “here there be dragons,” was to the mapping of the Earth.
Why is this belief — so patently false — maintained? For the same reason astronomy was so long forced to geocentric theories — because everyone assumes they are the center of the world. Ending free will removes the importance of every human being as causal agent. Suddenly everything we believe crumbles. Just deserts? Nonsense. Our educational system? Nonsense. The moral justification of meritocracy? Nonsense. Our entire society’s morality is built upon a piece of nonsense and so there is great fear about letting that nonsense go. This fear, unconscious as it is, manifests itself simply as scorn and indifference — invariably the defining traits of cowards. When we abandon this nonsense, where will we go as a species? I do not know, but I find the thing incredibly exciting. How much more we will be capable of when we stop talking about “real selves” and see men as what they are: machines.
I find it sad at times to think that we are still not yet caught up with what La Mettrie knew hundreds of years ago, but alack. Such is life. Some discoveries must wait their proper time.
As a side note, please don’t tell me you like Nietzsche if you believe in free will. I will internally translate the statement, “I feel like Nietzsche thinks like I do,” if you believe in free will, into the statement, “I am unabashedly stupid.” Read section 7 of The Four Great Errors from The Twilight of the Idols, which begins, “today we no longer have any pity for the concept of ‘free will’,” and is entitled “the error of free will.” This side point comes up surprisingly often, so I felt it necessary to resolve right here. I would prefer not to have make this point again as it is painfully simple.