Thank you for this. So I see two possible responses to recognizing and internalizing how utterly random life - writ large or writ small - can be.
Try to ignore a randomness you cannot control and walk softly and propitiate the fates, whoever you imagine them to be. Maybe the fickle finger of fate will pass on by (or single you out for an unmerited blessing).
Or, much harder, try to live a life in which you are a blessing to others so that they think of how lucky it is that fate has used you as its instrument in their life. The ‘no regrets whenever you get taken’ kind of life.
The odds that you meet up with someone who lives their life in that way may be vanishingly small, but how transformative it can be when you do.
And ironically, this is the one scenario whose odds you can improve, if you adopt it as your own personal goal. You could make that unlikely person yourself.
Is the first word in the 2nd sentence a typo? 'Hah'? I think you mean Mao? Anyways, it was an interesting read as it helps to put things into perspective. I've often thought about all of the very bright/gifted people who have lived who have never been able to use their intelligence/gifts in a more meaningful way.
Reminds me, even though he was focusing his analysis on the level of individual decision-making and moral responsibility, of Galen Strawson’s line: “In the end, luck swallows everything”.
Hi everybody, in the original version that was emailed out, I made a dumb mistake in the math. It's corrected here. *sigh*
Thank you for this. So I see two possible responses to recognizing and internalizing how utterly random life - writ large or writ small - can be.
Try to ignore a randomness you cannot control and walk softly and propitiate the fates, whoever you imagine them to be. Maybe the fickle finger of fate will pass on by (or single you out for an unmerited blessing).
Or, much harder, try to live a life in which you are a blessing to others so that they think of how lucky it is that fate has used you as its instrument in their life. The ‘no regrets whenever you get taken’ kind of life.
The odds that you meet up with someone who lives their life in that way may be vanishingly small, but how transformative it can be when you do.
And ironically, this is the one scenario whose odds you can improve, if you adopt it as your own personal goal. You could make that unlikely person yourself.
You have certainly caused me to think…
Is the first word in the 2nd sentence a typo? 'Hah'? I think you mean Mao? Anyways, it was an interesting read as it helps to put things into perspective. I've often thought about all of the very bright/gifted people who have lived who have never been able to use their intelligence/gifts in a more meaningful way.
Reminds me, even though he was focusing his analysis on the level of individual decision-making and moral responsibility, of Galen Strawson’s line: “In the end, luck swallows everything”.
https://www.naturalism.org/philosophy/free-will/luck-swallows-everything
Perhaps reality is ideoplastic; I.e., shaped by consciousness.