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Old 10-27-2005, 01:25 PM   #227 (permalink)
SERPENT7
Crazy
 
Location: Gold country!
The closest I can get to 'free will' is an idea advanced by BF Skinner. He essentially said that all men desire to be ruled by a just master rather than desiring real freedom. (Kind of paraphrasing there.) This is because having real freedom means having to take responsibility for your actions and the consequences of them. Most people would rather stay asleep, and blame an authority figure when things go wrong, rather than stay in control of thier own lives.
Skinner proposed that society is very tightly controlled by the power elite for the benifit of all, including (and especially) themselves. This control mechanism is sometimes obtuse, and sometimes very difficult to detect. Take western society for example. We live under the illusion of total freedom, yet most people obey traffic lights. Crime rates go down in well lit areas, even when there are no cops around for miles. If someones boss tells you to do something, they do it. Often times even if it is not related to thier job. We are born to OBEY. This is the result of generations of social conditioning. This need to obey is strengthened by several social institutions like having a monotheistic religion, single teacher led classrooms, one boss, ...etc.
In short, people like to think they are free, but they are not, nor do they really want to be.
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