RE: Worry and Control
May 6, 2015 at 4:15 am
(This post was last modified: May 6, 2015 at 4:26 am by Edwardo Piet.)
Free will is not the issue because determinism doesn't imply fatalism.
And this is about the uncomfortable uncertainty of whether I am being too fatalistic and missing out or not fatalistic enough and struggling unnecessarily.
The philosopher Seneca for instance believed that doing nothing about things you can do something about is no worse than trying to do something about something you cannot do anything about.
I am not so sure. Can we really afford to be so Stoic about this? We all have but one short life and life is a long emergency. Can we really afford to miss out on experiences?
How often is a totally wasted effort trying to control things we cannot because we think we can worth the risk?
How often is not wasting any effort at all but as a result not bothering to try to control some things we in fact can and in fact missing out worth it?
This is the uncertainty. This is the anxiety. It depends so much and that is tense. Decisions matter and making the right ones matter. Especially long term committments.
And this is about the uncomfortable uncertainty of whether I am being too fatalistic and missing out or not fatalistic enough and struggling unnecessarily.
The philosopher Seneca for instance believed that doing nothing about things you can do something about is no worse than trying to do something about something you cannot do anything about.
I am not so sure. Can we really afford to be so Stoic about this? We all have but one short life and life is a long emergency. Can we really afford to miss out on experiences?
How often is a totally wasted effort trying to control things we cannot because we think we can worth the risk?
How often is not wasting any effort at all but as a result not bothering to try to control some things we in fact can and in fact missing out worth it?
This is the uncertainty. This is the anxiety. It depends so much and that is tense. Decisions matter and making the right ones matter. Especially long term committments.
