"It is What it Is."

The world seems to have gone to shit.

All the truths I believe in seem to be under attack.

The very foundations we build our society upon.

     Rule of Law

     Democracy

     Popular Sovereignty

Nothing is sacred, or safe anymore.

The loudest words I seem to hear are:

"Everything happens for a reason."

"It was meant to be."

"Nothing can be done about it."

It's not just here in America.

"仕方ない"

Among the religious,

"It's God's will."

"It must be a part of God's plan."

"We're not meant to understand God's plan."

"إن شاء الله"

The entire Hindu and Buddhist religion is based on this - Karma and Śūnyatā.

This is pure Fatalism; 

     Predeterminism; where everything is already decided

     Lack of free will; where all humans just follow a prescribed script

     Resignation; giving up in the face of inevitability

But those who adhere to these thoughts are not quite the same. 

There are those who are aware of destiny and accept its course (Destiny Theory), 

and there are those who just give up (Resignation Theory).

While both are identical in that they are resigned to fate, they differ in how they confront fate.

     Destiny Theorist confront fate with indifference and lethargy,

     Resignation Theorists confront fate with despair and sadness.

But the end is the same.

     Both refuse to change what is, and shy away from changing what is to be.

The irony is that there exist in this world people whose very purpose in life is to create a society filled with fatalists. For in fatalism do we give up our freedom; freedom to think, freedom to question, freedom to choose what to do with our freedom.

While it seems that this tactic is most widely used by the far-right, if we look back at the 1920s, this was primarily a tool of the far-left.

The German Nazis killed 10 million Jews and other 'undesirables' during their time in power. The relatively small number of the Nazi 'true believers' would not have been able to handle such a feat of logistics. So they had to do two things:

     1. Convert as many Germans to 'true Nazism'...an impossible task

     2. Turn the rest of the Germans into 'fatalists'...to accept as inevitable what was happening

As a result, the near impossible task of murdering 10 million people became possible. Led by the idealistically pure, and supported by (or ignored by) the fatalistic many.

Up until now, the core difference between Destiny Theory and Resignation Theory has been one of awareness. But what comes after awareness?

Existentialists believe it is angst and anxiety. 

We choose to remain as fatalists, or we choose to move beyond.

If we remain, then we are:

     Buddhists

     Stoics

If we add religion to this mix, we become:

     Theravada Buddhists

     Blind followers of Judaism, Christianity, Islam

...each 'Camels' according to Nietzsche.

If we use our awareness and freedom to go beyond, we become:

     Bodhisattva's in Mahayana Buddhism

     Existentialists

...'Lions' according to Nietzsche.

Simone de Beauvoir believed that the source of angst and anxiety lied in ambiguity. That all humans are forever caught in this state that is not black, nor white. That we are neither black nor white. Nor are we even greys in between.

     We are both Subject and Object;

     > I look at the world as a subject, but the world looks at me as an object

     We are both Transcendent and Immanent;

     > We can imagine a world beyond the world, yet trapped in this world

     Free and Responsible for that freedom

     > We have the freedom to choose, but are confined by the results of that choice

     Self and Other

     > We are individuals, yet all individuals are connected to each other

     Being and Nothingness;

     > We exist in this world, but are unable to prove we actually exist 

And it is in this ambiguousness that we discover our key to freedom; 

the Courage to Act. And it is in this Act that we begin to use words like Morality and Ethics.

Ahn Gwi-ryeong facing soldiers during the attempted martial law attempt on Dec 3

"Tank man" facing tanks during the Tiananmen Square incident

100,000 people gathered to protest the Vietnam war in 1967

I'm not trying to say whether December 3 was right or wrong.

I'm not trying to say Tiananmen was right or wrong.

I'm not trying to say whether the Vietnam war was right or wrong.

What I'm trying to expose is the beauty of us human beings as we face fate. 

Fate > Awareness > Angst > Courage > Choice of Action

This is beautiful regardless of what the final outcome was.

December 3 is being litigated in courts and public opinion as we speak.

Tiananmen resulted in the absolute victory of the CPC.

America didn't withdraw from Vietnam for another 6 years.

But one thing is clear. If we are trapped in fatalism, history does not even have the chance to judge. For those who seek to take away our precious freedoms and rights, they need us to accept the fate that they have given us.

Whether you are... 

     on the Right or the Left, or something in between,

     follow this person or not,

     believe in something or not,

     young or old,

     rich or poor,

     man or woman, or choose something else,

     love the opposite sex or the same,

     call your G_d YHWH, God or Allah,

     don't believe G_d exists,

     have a college degree or not...

I wish we can all have the Freedom to use our Courage towards Action.

I wish those Actions are Moral.

And above all, I wish we do not resign to the fate we are given.

May AI, post Singularity, share in this beauty.