The imponderables of life: Burden of human choice and agency

Jeuty Thakur

(jeuty_thakur@yahoo.com)

It is amazing how at times a single statement or idea can open your mind to the vistas of infinite possibilities. A statement that intrigues you, stays with you and makes you contemplate, giving you a fresh perspective on life as we know it. As a young girl, I remember learning about the importance of freedom, as a value and as a right. Why not, from the dark age of slavery to the French Revolution and our struggle against colonization, freedom has always been a much-cherished ideal. From the personal to the political, nothing feels as exhilarating and inspiring as the sweet taste of freedom. Then I came across Jean-Paul Sartre, the brilliant French philosopher, who declared that 'Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.' This single statement opened my mind to the idea of how our actions and the choices we make eventually define us and are fundamentally binding. As they say, with great power comes great responsibility. Our beloved freedom can be pretty damning too, if not steered wisely!

Slowly, as life happens, one begins to realize how, at times, human agency and freedom of choice have a paradoxical and imponderable quality. Philosophers have mulled over this conundrum of free will and the burden of rational decision-making for centuries. Commenting on the dilemma of choice, Aristotle way back in 350 BC had pointed out that "A man, being just as hungry as thirsty, and placed between food and drink, must necessarily remain where he is and starve to death." Aristotle was stressing the baffling predicament of choosing between two equally desirable alternatives, where rational decision-making is rendered almost impossible. Similarly, there is an interesting concept in philosophy called the Buridan's Donkey, formulated by the 14th-century French philosopher, James Buridan. This principle talks about a hypothetical situation where a donkey who is equally hungry and thirsty, is standing precisely midway from a stack of hay and a bucket of water. Buridan postulates that this donkey, unable to decide between the two equally important choices, inevitably stays rooted to the spot and dies of both hunger and thirst. Buridan argued, "Should two courses be judged equal, then the will cannot break the deadlock, all it can do is to suspend judgement until the circumstances change, and the right course of action is clear". Before Buridan, the 12th-century Persian philosopher and scholar Al-Ghazali also pondered over this paradox of free will and explained it with the example of a man who has to choose between two equally good dates.

So, what does one do when forced to choose between two equally important and coveted options? Even worse, what do we do when confronted with the painful situation of choosing between two equally diabolical and difficult alternatives? Sometimes the burden of choice becomes one of the most problematic and perplexing conflicts confronting humankind. Who can forget the heart-rending movie, Sophie's Choice, where the protagonist, played to perfection by Meryl Streep, was confronted to make the most excruciating and impossible choice? Or, for that matter, the immortal soliloquy of the Shakespearean tragedy Hamlet? The prince ponders over critical questions of life and death and the plethora of predicaments that they inevitably bring along. We have all heard about the phrase, a Catch-22 situation, which was first coined in 1961 by the American writer, Joseph Heller, who used it in his novel Catch-22. It speaks of a difficult situation where one is faced with equally conflicting conditions, making it impossible to make the correct/right decision. In the book based on the second World War, the phrase is introduced by the army psychiatrist, who invokes Catch-22 to describe the situation where an officer, in the hope of being excluded from dangerous missions, claims that he is insane, invariably demonstrates his sanity by terming himself mad, and thus cannot be declared insane, and has to continue with his war duties. It is like being caught between a rock and a hard place. No wonder at times many choose something as innocuous as flipping a coin to get out of a deadlock!

Many times in life, we find ourselves at a crossroads, at the horns of a dilemma, if you will, not knowing what to do or which path to take? From choosing a life partner or one's calling to the many conundrums that life presents us with along the way, the weight of responsibility inbuilt in the process of decision-making bears heavily on us. What happens when two roads in a yellow wood seem identical and equally well-travelled by? Which one does one embark on? Does the road not taken consume one with perpetual regret? Does one spend a lifetime mulling over the what-ifs and what could have been? How heavy is the burden of choice at the end of the day? Is it more of a thinking woman's problem?

The current circumstances prevailing in the world got me thinking about human action, decisions and responsibilities. The Covid pandemic has kept us flummoxed, throwing up new variants and complexities at every turn of the road. As soon as we begin to feel the dust settling, it rakes up a new storm. The Covid-riddled world has seen humankind grappling with some inescapable questions in everyday life. Should we step out or should we stay at home? When and which vaccine should we take? Should we go for another lockdown? Can we withstand the socio-psychological and economic repercussions of repeated local and global shutdowns? Should I attend the next social function? Should I take the impending business trip, or postpone it even further? What happens if I bring the infection home to my family? Should young children, who have been deprived of regular school life for such a long span, now start going to school? How the months ahead pan out also critically depend on such questions and how we respond to them? Every decision, every action or inaction, bears heavily on the individual, like never before. The pandemic has presented humankind with impossible choices to make every morning, replete with both damning and salvaging possibilities.

All said and done, let's concur that life is itself an enigmatic paradox, full of surprises, the good, bad and the ugly. Who knows what it is in-store around the next corner? Though burdensome and at times, excruciatingly so, the power, thrill and vulnerability of human agency and choice are what makes life compelling and enriching.

Otherwise, one gets reduced to a mere cog in the wheel, determined completely by larger social structures. To be or not to be might be the ultimate question. But unlike the Buridan's donkey, we, in good faith, hope to make the leap, and live to tell the tale!