24 A Programmer’s Guide to the Mind
This illustration may sound
somewhat fatalistic, but I suggest that
it describes the situation for the
average person. He thinks that he is
completely free, but his choices are
limited and his paths are
predetermined. He has his job
channel, his weekend channel, his
sports channel and his family channel.
As he moves from one activity to the
next, he flips his mind to the desired
mental channel, and calls into play the appropriate mental rooms. The
ability to change mental channels and to move from one activity to another
gives him the impression that he has free will, but all that he is really doing
is moving from one culturally determined course to another.
When this type of person begins to feel limited and restricted, he
usually responds by demanding more channels—more choices. He wants
more entertainment options, more places to work, and so on. Channel
surfing through eighty possible programs may give the illusion of freedom,
but I suggest that it still does not attack the root problem, which is the
content of each channel.
As we all know, the content of a television channel does not come from
the television set itself. Rather, it is recorded in some far-off production
studio and then broadcast from a central location to millions of different
television screens. Similarly, the mental „channels‟ of culture are not
programmed by the individual person. Instead, society exalts a few
people—either dead or alive—from its midst and sets them up as role
models for the rest of us to follow. How we act, where we go, what we
wear, what we buy, and how we live are then determined by the examples
and words of those whom we respect. Given this type of situation, it is
natural for us to question the concept of „free will.‟
Modern society has responded to the perceived lack of „personal
choice‟ by adding more „channels.‟ We have allowed our world to split
into various specialized segments, each with its own role models. However,
I suggest that this does not solve the problem of „free will‟ because it does
not tackle the central issue. Society is still divided into „broadcast studios‟
and „television receivers.‟ The only way for us to escape from this
situation is to turn off our „television sets‟ and to create our own worlds. In
essence, each individual then becomes his own television producer. That
way we can create exactly the type of programming that we wish and truly
have a free will.
So why don‟t we get up, turn off our mental and physical television sets
and develop a life of our own? I suggest that there are several hurdles
which must be overcome before we can take this radical step.