Blog 6: Free Will Or Destiny?

        I believe that Oedipus’ free will enabled him to make horrible choices in his life that led to his demise.  Through out the entirety of “Oedipus the King” you find that Oedipus makes one rash decision after another, never taking a moment to simmer down and reflect on the consequences that might result from what he does or says. Oedipus the man was plagued by a stubborn belief in prophecy and a myriad of flaws such as arrogance and a lack of self-control.   During his mad dash from Corinth in an attempt to escape prophecy Oedipus literally comes to a cross roads in his life in which his ill thought out decision to massacre an old feeble man and his men ultimately leads to fulfilling the prophecy he was trying to escape.

     It is easy to believe in destiny or prophecy because it allows us to explain away our own explicit roles in all the things that go wrong with our lives.  In psychology we learn that people tend to find patterns in random events that have absolutely nothing to do with each other instead of taking a step back to think critically and realize that one thing may have nothing at all to do with the other. For example to this day we find people that read horoscopes in the daily paper and swear that they are one hundred percent accurate.  I believe the act of reading a horoscope itself taints our actions because our behavior changes due to whatever we read.  It’s easy to see why someone may swear that a horoscope was accurate when they spent their entire day trying to heed its advice.  It’s not  a surprise to see that they found something they think relates to the vague words they take as prophecy when in actuality it's just coincidence.  I feel we are the ones that actually give the horoscope or in Oedipus’ case the prophecy power because subconsciously we cause the things that make it true.

     There is an ancient polish proverb that states, “To believe with certainty we must begin by doubting.”  If Oedipus had taken this approach I truly believe that he would have avoided the calamity that engulfed his life.  He never took one moment to doubt the words of the prophet or to ascertain the consequences of his hasty decisions.  The second messenger tells us towards the end of the play, Line 1470 of Oedipus the King, “…brought on by choice and not by accident. What we do ourselves brings us most pain.”  I think this proves that Oedipus brought about his own downfall and that the prophecy was just one of the tools he used to do so.  That quote is as relevant to all of us as it was for Oedipus; many of us mistakenly believe that our actions are the result of our "destiny", socio economic background or controlled by some magic being that grants our wishes and dashes our dreams. When as human beings we have the ultimate power of free will and the ability to think critically even though many lack the wisdom to utilize these gifts to their full capacity.