It seems to me that people in general only make "bad" as in awful or senseless choices all the time, not because they know they re beneficial or detrimental, but rather because they don t know what they re actually doing, or ponder to consider the inevitable outcome of them.
The ability to make choices of your own is actually the downfall of humanity. The Human Condition is only called such because humans are really their own worst enemy.
What are your thoughts?
tizzoseddy2020-04-05T08:28:03Z
Yes, people often make choices carelessly, but I don't think it's correct to say that humanity's ability to make choices is their downfall.
As I see it, if a being has the ability to imagine more than one possible course of action, that being has free will.
I guess you are thinking about people that choose to drink and drive, or engage in some similarly risky or self-destructive behavior, but more often than not, the choices that individuals make are their salvation. I'm thinking about everyday choices that keep us out of danger, like stopping at red lights, putting warm clothes on for cold weather, and umpteen other simple things that we barely think about, but that we could imagine not doing.
If you are thinking about humanity as a whole, I think free will is our only chance for salvation. If we mindlessly pursue our desires, without the thought of doing otherwise ever crossing our minds, we fail to utilize free will.
We succeed in exercising our free will when we consider our actions, recognize that they will have detrimental consequences, and subsequently imagine and opt for alternate courses of action.
People need internal sympathetic opposites. That might be emotional and rational dispositions. At some point in our development we learn to integrate more and more of our opposites. This affords us control and power. As we are less the slave and more the master.
We be what we need to be. Just finding that being is the key,
You generalise which is immediately dangerous when dealing with humans. For my part I'm perfectly clear and I take full responsibility for the choices I make and the consequences I may suffer. If you wish to abrogate your responsibility to others then it raises the question of who can be relied upon to make your choices for you.
I would suggest that if relying on others you need to be competent to judge their motivation, honesty, and reliability. But you already want to abrogate this responsibility because you're not ! So round and round in circles you go and confusion and delusion results.
Sometimes our choices are made on our behalf by those in power. Sadly our systems of selecting these people tend to favour the most unsuitable individuals.
There are always those who are ready, willing, and able to exploit the confusion and gullibility of those who make themselves vulnerable, but that's their choice
There is an infinity of Good among which to navigate and develop; that is God's hope for mankind: increasing expression of God's Love, Light, Truth, and so on. The ability to make such choice is Godlike. The perversion of Godly awareness, sometimes called "free will," is post-Garden egoism, rather than One Mindedness, Oneness.
If a human is her own worst enemy, that reflects that she has not put off the old woman with her deeds, has not become the new woman in Christ, Truth, i.e., submitting to God's will, which is always good, and reflects the tender Love and care of a Parent for Her Child. "Angel on one shoulder, devil (fallen angle) on the other" is the caricature.
Related:
"Return to the One: Plotinus's Guide to God-Realization;" "Understanding Yourself" by Mark Prophet; "Man, Master of His Destiny;" "Autobiography of a Yogi;""Beams from Meher Baba;" "Mere Christianity;" "The Great Divorce;" "That Hideous Strength."