Its been a while since I let my brain ramble. I had to let it concentrate on getting my breath in and out. Its fascinating how the physiological self has such a tremendous drive for survival even if if the emotional self is apathetic about it. Or is it so because of the indifference of the conscious self? But that is a topic for another day.
I was wondering how pre-knowledge of the result would effect the causal action(s). Would people do differently if they actually KNEW the end result of their actions? I am not talking of "I would have sold the house in time and made money"; or "I would not have not spoken to that creep." Simplistically, it is easy to not start the car at all if you knew that you were going to back into a tree. It is also quite immaterial . You are, after all, expected to look in the rear-view before you put the car in reverse.
Let us think about things we do not usually cogitate about. Would you say the the things you spewed out in anger if you knew what effect it was having on the other person? You might not even have any anger left if you knew how guilty or hurt the person is. Or how scared. Would you speak up or shout back if you knew that bottling up is leading up to the coronary you will have in a few years? If you knew the result of internalizing, would you lash out? Verbally or otherwise?
Would Saddam Hussein have continued with his horrendous activities if he knew it would lead him to hiding in a hole, and finally an ignominious hanging? Somehow I doubt that he would have changed. He might have been more oppressive, more power-hungry, more bellicose to avoid that fate.
I do not believe kids who say 'It was an accident' when they swing their arms and hit someone smack in the face. That is just an excuse they have learnt from parents. An accident is something you have no control of, like falling on someone when you lose your balance. If you have the tendency to swing arms in a room you already know the consequences. It would be an accident if you lived alone in an oasis and never had people around you before.
The point is that the concept of 'if I knew I would have done differently' is not plausible. The child who never studied, would never have - even if you showed his alternate future to him on blu-ray DVD! You would have taken that job even if you knew beforehand that the boss is a rude megalomaniac because there are heaps of other considerations you made; and because you never know with other bosses. Like Hamlet says, "Tis better to bear the ills we have than to fly to others we know not of." Conscience does not only make cowards of us all, it makes us accepting of things we do not want to change. Even if Hamlet knew the ills that he would accost I doubt he would leave those he was already familiar with!
People do things because of what they are, and what they believe. Their actions are not predicated on outcomes. The driving force for the criminal to kill is his ingrained violence and belligerence, not the notion of having a world without the victim! The gentleman opens the door for a lady not because he wants to hear a 'thank-you' but because that is what he always does.
Human beings are wired to do things that make them comfortable. Their actions bespeak their attitudes and values. I believe that every act by a person is statement of his being and ego at the time. It has very little to do with what he wants to happen, even though that is the premise everyone acknowledges. We do nothing for what might be, we do only because we are.
