We are the clay, and you are the potter.—Isaiah, 19B; 63: 2-7.
Are you the potter or the clay?
Mud, Mold, and Cast
Any bowl can serve as a Jello mold. In fact, any container can; just an old can (clean, of course) will do. The Jello is the “clay” or “mud” that in liquid form assumes the inner shape of a container. The resultant “hardened” or “congealed” Jello “cast out” of the mold is a “cast.”
Potters are said to “mold clay” on a potter’s wheel. For the unconfined spinning “mud” the potter’s hands act as dynamic top and sides of the “mold” and the wheel as the bottom of the mold. So much for today’s class, children. * Now, get out there and shape your lives—unless you don’t believe in free will and personal responsibility.
The Liberal Interpretation of Isaiah
If we have free will, then we are our own potters. But for many young liberals, free will is a dubious property at best. They’ve been taught that they have been molded, that they are a cast, and that society in general and close influencers in particular are the potters.
And they have some evidence that people are not their own potters.
Experiments have shown that brains can initiate behavior from milliseconds to as much as ten seconds before minds become conscious of decisions to act.** Plus, statistical tabulations aplenty show how easily humans can be grouped by common actions and beliefs. Generally, people know where bad neighborhoods lie, for example, where crimes are most likely, and where safety is assured. Such profiling is itself a partial argument against free will. The counterargument, of course, is that one is often free to avoid bad spaces. “Want to go to that shady bar for a drink after midnight?” “No thanks.”
Yet, the reality of pre-conscious brain activity foreshadowing an actual behavior is a perfect corollary for liberals who seek to transfer blame from individuals to the societies that molded them: “Look how he grew up. You can’t blame him for his actions.”*** Essentially, the Liberals’ Isaiah says we live lives others have cast. We’re more cast than mold.
A Not-So-Liberal Interpretation of Isaiah
But if we accept the premise of free will, then as individuals we are responsible for our actions. We are the potters of the lives we have shaped for ourselves. Is it possible that the lag time between brain activity and actualization of that activity is a mechanism that allows us to reject impulses? To exert “free will”?
Under the premise of free will we easily divide our lives into what we have the potential to be and what we have actualized through our own efforts. Of course, the “clay” that makes up our lives came to us by inheritance from a universe 13.8 billion years old (give or take a week). And the species into which we were born has certain limitations exceeded by other species.
We didn’t create the “clay,” but as creative potters we have molded it within the context of the clay’s physical (and mental) properties. Yet, even in the belief of free will, we can acknowledge that we’ve allowed other hands to assist us in molding the clay, maybe in imitation of that scene in Ghost with Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore at the potter’s wheel, four hands instead of two.
Two Main Political Philosophies Derive from Perspectives on Free Will
Although it is easy to differentiate between liberalism and conservatism on the basis of accepting or denying free will, neither liberal nor conservative holds exclusively that free will only exists or that it doesn’t exist. When conservatives group liberals because of their beliefs, they act as free will deniers. When liberals place blame on individuals, they act as free will advocates.
It’s a matter of purpose. Democrats who wish to blame individual Republicans for apparent inappropriateness or even evil, see no problem in accepting free will. Republicans who wish to blame a Democrat mindset for detrimental policies approved by politicians in lockstep see no problem in denying free will.
*I suppose there’s nothing wrong with the common expression “Jello mold” that people apply to the “Jello cast.” With regard to misused English words, well, there’s no reason to cry over spilled milk. No one’s going to change idiomatic expressions used for more than a century.
**Smith, K. Brain makes decisions before you even know it. Nature (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/news.2008.751
***Thus, the arguments used by college students driven to justify the attacks by Hamas in October, 2023.
Are you the potter or the clay?
Mud, Mold, and Cast
Any bowl can serve as a Jello mold. In fact, any container can; just an old can (clean, of course) will do. The Jello is the “clay” or “mud” that in liquid form assumes the inner shape of a container. The resultant “hardened” or “congealed” Jello “cast out” of the mold is a “cast.”
Potters are said to “mold clay” on a potter’s wheel. For the unconfined spinning “mud” the potter’s hands act as dynamic top and sides of the “mold” and the wheel as the bottom of the mold. So much for today’s class, children. * Now, get out there and shape your lives—unless you don’t believe in free will and personal responsibility.
The Liberal Interpretation of Isaiah
If we have free will, then we are our own potters. But for many young liberals, free will is a dubious property at best. They’ve been taught that they have been molded, that they are a cast, and that society in general and close influencers in particular are the potters.
And they have some evidence that people are not their own potters.
Experiments have shown that brains can initiate behavior from milliseconds to as much as ten seconds before minds become conscious of decisions to act.** Plus, statistical tabulations aplenty show how easily humans can be grouped by common actions and beliefs. Generally, people know where bad neighborhoods lie, for example, where crimes are most likely, and where safety is assured. Such profiling is itself a partial argument against free will. The counterargument, of course, is that one is often free to avoid bad spaces. “Want to go to that shady bar for a drink after midnight?” “No thanks.”
Yet, the reality of pre-conscious brain activity foreshadowing an actual behavior is a perfect corollary for liberals who seek to transfer blame from individuals to the societies that molded them: “Look how he grew up. You can’t blame him for his actions.”*** Essentially, the Liberals’ Isaiah says we live lives others have cast. We’re more cast than mold.
A Not-So-Liberal Interpretation of Isaiah
But if we accept the premise of free will, then as individuals we are responsible for our actions. We are the potters of the lives we have shaped for ourselves. Is it possible that the lag time between brain activity and actualization of that activity is a mechanism that allows us to reject impulses? To exert “free will”?
Under the premise of free will we easily divide our lives into what we have the potential to be and what we have actualized through our own efforts. Of course, the “clay” that makes up our lives came to us by inheritance from a universe 13.8 billion years old (give or take a week). And the species into which we were born has certain limitations exceeded by other species.
We didn’t create the “clay,” but as creative potters we have molded it within the context of the clay’s physical (and mental) properties. Yet, even in the belief of free will, we can acknowledge that we’ve allowed other hands to assist us in molding the clay, maybe in imitation of that scene in Ghost with Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore at the potter’s wheel, four hands instead of two.
Two Main Political Philosophies Derive from Perspectives on Free Will
Although it is easy to differentiate between liberalism and conservatism on the basis of accepting or denying free will, neither liberal nor conservative holds exclusively that free will only exists or that it doesn’t exist. When conservatives group liberals because of their beliefs, they act as free will deniers. When liberals place blame on individuals, they act as free will advocates.
It’s a matter of purpose. Democrats who wish to blame individual Republicans for apparent inappropriateness or even evil, see no problem in accepting free will. Republicans who wish to blame a Democrat mindset for detrimental policies approved by politicians in lockstep see no problem in denying free will.
*I suppose there’s nothing wrong with the common expression “Jello mold” that people apply to the “Jello cast.” With regard to misused English words, well, there’s no reason to cry over spilled milk. No one’s going to change idiomatic expressions used for more than a century.
**Smith, K. Brain makes decisions before you even know it. Nature (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/news.2008.751
***Thus, the arguments used by college students driven to justify the attacks by Hamas in October, 2023.
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