By reading this, you're (once again) making the right decision
Congratulations! Now make some more right decisions
You always make the right decision.
So do I.
In the beginning
In the beginning, there was a beginning.
Some believe the beginning was 14.8 billion years ago.
Some think that it was 4,000 years ago.
Some say there is only now.
Whatever. Whatever you choose, it’s the right decision.
Let’s go with the 13.75 billion years ago story, not because it’s true, but because that’s what I decided to do. (And it’s the right decision.)
13.75 billion years ago—more or less—this universe began. And now, here you are, reading this. And now (a different now), here I am (another here) writing this.
Lots of things could have happened differently. It all depends on decisions. For example, I would not have written this if my parents had decided to have sex a minute later or earlier because I wouldn’t exist. Maybe someone else would have written it. But I doubt it.
Likewise, you wouldn’t be reading it if either (a) I had not written it and (b) your parents had made slightly different decisions on when and how and with whom they had sex. (This assumes that your parents had sex.)
And their parents and theirs and on and on, not just about sex but everything else, back in time to the first time some entities made decisions.
A connected universe
According to the best science we know and the most woo theories of life, everything is connected.
Let’s stick with the science for now. (Because I decided to.)
Science says …
“Hey, let’s play ‘science says.’
“Science says vaccinations reduce the risk of COVID.”
“Science says climate is changing.”
“1 + 1 = 2”
“Ha ha! You didn’t say ‘science says’”
Science says that every object in the universe is connected to every other object through gravitation if nothing else.
Science says that in the Newtonian paradigm, objects with mass attracted one another through an invisible force. Science says that in the Einsteinian paradigm, objects seem to attract because any object with mass changes the shape of space-time, and other objects are affected by those changes. In the woo paradigm, objects love other objects and draw closer.
Haha. I didn’t say ‘science says.’
Science says that if you decide to move from New York to California (and make the necessary subordinate decisions and actions so that you carry out that decision), you will slightly change the orbits of all the planets of all the distant stars in all the distant galaxies and also slightly change the state of every person, animal, tree, or rock on this one.
Your decisions
Did you decide to read this article? Maybe you didn’t. Maybe you just did it.
Can you decide to continue reading it? Or stop?
Go on. Make a decision.
I’ll wait.
Or seem to.
Whenever you make a decision—everything in the world adjusts itself to be compatible with that decision.
Everything.
The adjustments may be tiny, but they are there.
We start with a universe in perfect dynamic balance, according to the laws of physics. Then, something makes a decision and changes.
And everything rebalances itself, restoring that perfection..
.“I have a decision to make,” says a reader, “and I’m worried I’ll make the wrong decision.”
“Don’t worry,” I say. “I don’t know what’s the right decision for you. But whatever you decide, I will say ‘you made the right decision.’ and that will be true for me.”
“What if I make a mistake?” someone asks.
“Then making that mistake was the right decision. Haven’t you read ‘Mistakes are the only route to knowledge--even for God?’”
“If you don’t make a decision that is a mistake, how otherwise could you have learned?”
“When you make a decision, everyone will agree that you made a decision and change accordingly.
“Your true friends will agree that you made the right decision.
“Those who are not your true friends may not agree you made the right decision, but fuck them. Sorry, I mean, forgive them; they know not what they do.
“You made the right decision.
The end
Now I’m going to decide to stop writing, start editing and then click the Publish button.
It is the right decision.
And by that series of decisions, the universe will change.
And in that changed universe, you are reading this sentence.
I agree with this, “Then making that mistake was the right decision. Haven’t you read ‘Mistakes are the only route to knowledge--even for God?’”
It’s the same thesis, I think, as in this:
There Is No Bad News; There Are Only Blessings In Disguise
https://moviewise.substack.com/p/there-is-no-bad-news-there-are-only
“In other words, it’s possible to be glad, in retrospect, that you had to endure a misfortune. The Chinese proverb about a man, Sāi Wēng, who loses his prized horse and responds by saying, ‘how could we know it is not a good thing for me?’ “
If all decisions are right ones, then doesn't that vitiate the term, "right?" What would be a wrong one? There's no entropy or life in a closed box of "right" ness! Determinism kills life! Embrace the muddle! I'll subscribe.