Conceptualism Behind Freedom, and the Continued Workings of the Mind

A theme prominant in the day's activities today has been of mixed reception in the mind. Initially, a number of the schools populace found themselves locked in a room for two hours with removal of basic sources of sanity such as communication, and broadly a lockdown of all functions beyond work. Towards the end, the fact that the end of the exams was upon us struck, and joy was filled because we were, bluntly, right back where we started some three years.

But that's a somewhat warped summary, to add some context to the introduction, and perhaps an unfair one. The confinement in exam rooms has ultimately gained us rather influential qualifications which, assuming civilisation as we know doesn't end as a result of freakish bio-engineered walking plants before 2011, we will find unspeakably useful in the execution of day-to-day life. More specifically, it allows a larger range of jobs to become available. A cynical man may briefly pass on the thought that the reward for toil is more toil; as a result of our hard work, we have allowed ourselves the oppurtunity for more work to be thrust upon us, however not quite inadvertently (incidentally, quite the reverse in fact). However, the chain of events goes further. The more work we gain as a result of the work we achieve now, the more luxuries we can afford. This, ultimately, is where all work leads to. Once adequate funds have been amassed for the nourishment of the self and perhaps any family one feels obliged to feed, there are a number of other things which may claim priority; housing, heating, healthcare, et cetera, but after all of these things have been paid for, all that addition work can gain the worker is luxuries. This seems a rather selfish way of looking at it, with perhaps slightly tired yet still relevant arguments of third world suffering, but a more realistic one, I feel.

But this is merely the distracting background for the main issue I wish to address; there is a point to work, be it luxury or necessity, and is ultimately quite a fruitful endeavour. But what is more interesting is how the mind functions under the constraints of exam conditions. In a quiet room, devoid of distractions, with no task to occupy the mind, it occupies itself, and, in my opinion, is best equipped to analyse nearly anything. It is most curious, in fact, that this freedom of the mind is induced by its own constraint from activity. Almost a sort of spiteful move by nature against self-induced boredom. In any case, it is in these conditions that a higher clarity can often be achieved. For example, this topic itself is mostly the result of pondering in the hour or so of spare time. That said, in retrospect, it doesn't seem as well constructed as it was. This could either be attributed to it merely being lost in translation, forgotten, or simply because I've slacked to a less attentive state. It's not really possible to say, really, although I would say that another possibility is that it was never really that well constructed initially and I am simply only realising it now. But back to the topic.

Freedom
The mind is a curious thing, as I feel I should say more often, to the point where I can finally have a phrase to precede; "-that's what I always say.". It is essentially a computer which is in control of itself, however, as I suspect I may have detailed in a past blog, I have often entertained the notion we in fact lack the control we think we have over our own minds. Not in the sense that we can possibly really be aware of, but in that since our thoughts are the product of chemical reactions, and the chemicals within our brain will always do the exact chemical reaction in the exact same way (this being in terms of the age-old muliverse argument, which goes thus. There are (within the theory) multiple alternate realities in which we make different decisions, to create the representation of all theoretically possible eventualities. What I am trying to communicate in this somewhat over-extended parenthesis-enclosed waffling is that there are no alternate possible decisions we can make because the chemicals present in the brain will always perform in the same way, and we therefore don't actually have the decision to make. It is perhaps decided in part by chance, as the complex channels of the brain are quite intelligent in their self-learning. This helps mask this possible way in which the brain works from being too obvious and, in place, random). Ultimately, because of this, it is possible we, as concious beings, are only spectators to our own thoughts. But this is delving too much into otherwise frowned upon fields of speculation, sounding abstract to the point of mocking. Nevertheless, it is a theory that I've often thought of in rather fond detail, in its originality. I had a similar theory that, if this were to be true, then, in addition to the laws of physics the entireity of history and the future are in fact preset and, theoretically speaking, open to being calculated, if one to chance upon a curiously convenient archive of the chemical format of all beings, and all objects within the universe. Oh well.

I suspect I may have digressed somewhat, so shall have to return sometime to this topic.