It should be, because it's distasteful, but so is much of the
education system and marketing of course. It's used in the
movies. It's used in politics. It's used in Rhetoric.
But does it eliminate free will?
I don't think it eliminates free will. But what it _does_ do is
place unwanted social constraints upon perceived choices.
Mean-girls in the 3rd Grade did that by calling me a nerd.
Thing is, I got over it by the time I was in 4th grade by
"self-talk". I recited stick and stones on the way home from
school until it no longer upset me.
Nobody taught me to do that. The thing is: It was a lie. "Names
will never hurt me" is a lie. I knew it was a lie then that I
was telling myself. I knew it was bullshit:
Names do hurt. I'm sure I can yank out a brain scan showing that
name-calling registers as physical pain in the brain. I'd bet
money it does.
But, it's possible to eliminate the hurt.
Free will to me, stretches across a lifetime. Sometimes my free
will "seems" more free than others.
Yet I believe you can do anything you want to, IF you're willing
to change the context in which your assumptions lie.
But the compliance gaining, to me, is distasteful but I don't
think it's necessarily criminal, because just like a piece of
music can temporarily manipulate emotional states, it's possible
to break free of it.
There _are_ different "tendencies" of people though.
Not everybody will be emotionally manipulated in the same way.
Odd that I make such a defense such as this, because I rant
about the Education system and how it ruins the way people
perceive the world.
Yet, I can simply say a few well chosen words, and years of
"programming" can be eliminated.
Did they lack free will before? No. Their free will operated
with the knowledge that they had along with their natural
tendencies.
Providing a little extra knowledge, allows for other choices and
yet, they had those choices even before, because all humans CAN
rationalize.
Even being taught, "You have no choice" socially (which we are
all stricken with from time to time", DOESN'T eliminate choice,
because belief is not fixed within the individual. it's possible
to break free.
There ARE extreme circumstances however. Those are real problems
and should be eliminated. ==== What ideas are you programmed
with right now that you can't break free of that eliminates your
free will?
For example, do you believe the metaphor of computer programming
is equivalent to the human belief system?
Do you believe that some people have free will through proper
training and other people do not have free will because they
were programmed?
