Free Will vs. The Patterns We Cannot Escape

“From the moment of my birth
To the instant of my death,
There are patterns I must follow
Just as I must breathe each breath.
Like a rat in a maze
The path before me lies,
And the pattern never alters
Until the rat dies.”

These grim lyrics from Simon and Garfunkel’s “Patterns” (1966) alert us to how much of life seems pre-determined. They raise a very provocative question: Are we really free, or simply following a broadly, prewritten script? This is an idea that has long been debated, and it continues to challenge everything we think we know about freedom, choice, and control to this day.

Now, bear with me for a moment and imagine:

You are a rat trapped in a maze with high walls and the usual twists and turns. So this means that at every fork in the road, you make a decision: go left or right, keep going, or turn back.

Naturally, this feels like you are in control, doesn’t it? After all, you are the one deciding where to go! Except that when you zoom out you find the maze has been designed to channel you in certain ways, guide your choices, and eventually, lead you to a pre-determined outcome.

So, what if, like someone once told me, you are told that your entire existence operates in the same way, that your sense of free will, your ability to pick and choose, is not really as free as you think? And that unsettling feeling you may be feeling right now is how I too felt.

Why free will feels real

Free will feels natural: you decide what you want for breakfast, which job to apply for, who to have a relationship with, etc. However, if you just zoom out a little and think, “Why cereal and not eggs?” It may be it is because you grew up in a house where cereal was the default. And, “Why did you choose this particular career path?” It may be that others’ 1expectations nudged you in that direction.

Even the type of people you fall for can raise the question: how much of your choice is really about them, and how much is it the sum total of all your past experiences actually shaping your “type”?

From this perspective, even if our choices seem autonomous, in reality, we are merely navigating within invisible walls built by culture, biology, our history, etc. As such, the walls funnel us into broad patterns that repeat themselves, and most times with a scary level of predictability.

On a broader scale, you can take the example of empires. They all seem to follow a pattern: they rise, peak, and crumble in amazingly similar ways. Whether you are looking at ancient Rome or the more modern superpowers, the story is pretty much the same.

On a different level, even our societies seem to operate like clockwork as they go from periods of innovation to stagnation, progress to regression, etc. So, are we really that different as individuals?

Looking at your own life

Have you noticed how you (and people around you) fall into patterns? When you look, is there that tendency to follow trends, make decisions regularly influenced by peer pressure, or repeat family dynamics? When you think about these things it can start to seem like you are running through a maze someone else has designed with paths that have been laid out by centuries of tradition, genetics, environmental factors, etc.

It is pretty much the same with all of us. In fact, it is like humanity itself is running through one giant maze with most of us unaware of the patterns that are really guiding us.

So, don’t we really have any free will?

I hope you have been with me so far, but at the same time, I don’t want you thinking, “Great, so if I’m just a glorified lab rat, what’s the point of anything?”

I am not saying we are, but even rats in a maze can make choices within the confines of the maze. Yes, there may be limits as to where they can go, but they can still decide how they go through said maze.

In the same way, our lives may be shaped by certain forces beyond our control, but we do have some room to maneuver. To me, merely appreciating this alone gives you an edge.

Most of us just stumble through life without ever questioning the walls around us, but if you can recognize the patterns, you step back and see the maze for what it is, and then you can make more intentional choices.

On a lighter note, I admit it is kind of funny when you think that such incredibly complex beings that are capable of great works of art, advancements in science, love, and existential crises are also, essentially, just really big, fancy rats.

Breaking free… or not

Now here is the big question: if free will really is an illusion, then does it even matter? Freedom might not be about breaking out of our maze completely, because that doesn’t look like it is happening anytime soon, it may really be about choosing how we go about our maze: finding joy in our various journeys and being kind to our fellow maze dwellers along the way.

So, what is your next move? Left or right? Either way, it’s your choice (at least, it feels like it is), so make it count.

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This post was previously published on medium.com.

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