Man or Machine

Many people believe that their lives will be defined by the many choices they will make. Just a fraction of the critical choices we make during our lifetime will include picking our childhood friends, where we will go to school, who we will marry, what type of career we will have and how we will raise our children. Some folks believe that there are no choices. Life is as it should be. You are born, live out your pre-planned existence on earth, and then die.

I can't help but think of Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange, where a human being's ability to choose was forcibly taken away from him by the government. The main character Alex was a young teenager who made plenty of choices - bad choices. He chose the life of crime and in doing so, ruined or terminated many innocent lives along the way. When he finally is imprisoned, he makes one crucial decision which would change his life forever - the ability not to choose. The government trained Alex to experience extreme distress when he started to make an evil choice thus taking away his ability to choose bad. At first, Alex looks forward to the experience of being a 'good' person, but the government doctor corrects him, "It may be horrible to be good...What does God want? Does God want goodness or the choice of goodness? Is a man that chooses the bad in some way better than a man who has good imposed on him?" Will Alex be a better person when he is forced to become good. The government says yes, for society's sake. What would a human being say? Once the the ability to choose is taken away, does he cease being human?

One of my favorite movies of all time is The Matrix. This trilogy takes the meaning of choice to a whole new level. What were the many differences between Neo and Agent Smith? Neo was the antithesis of Smith. Neo was good, Smith was bad. Neo was the type, Smith the anti-type. The crucial difference between the two was described in one word and you guessed it - choice. The key to this movie is the final scene of The Matrix Revolutions when Agent Smith asks "Why, Mr. Anderson? Why do you do it? Why get up? Why keep fighting? Do you believe you're fighting for something? For more that your survival? Can you tell me what it is? Do you even know? Is it freedom? Or truth? Perhaps peace? Yes? No? Could it be for love? Illusions, Mr. Anderson. Vagaries of perception. The temporary constructs of a feeble human intellect trying desperately to justify an existence that is without meaning or purpose. And all of them as artificial as the Matrix itself, although only a human mind could invent something as insipid as love. You must be able to see it, Mr. Anderson. You must know it by now. You can't win. It's pointless to keep fighting. Why, Mr. Anderson? Why? Why do you persist?" And what does Neo say? "Because I choose to."

So the question is, what is a choice to you? Are you a man, machine or something in between (to borrow a line from the rock band Loverboy)? Does choice define the man or is it the other way around? The architect of The Matrix couldn't understand choice. He thought by eliminating choice, he could create the perfect society or utopia. Do you understand the concept of choice? Do you realize that every choice you make has a consequence? An effect on you as well as everyone around you? If you choose to become a drug addict, it will obviously affect you, but also others that come in contact with you. Those who respect you as well as those who look up to you.

Exercise your God-given ability to choose and choose wisely. The effects of our choices reach further and touch more people than we will ever know. Just ask King Henry VIII. He separated England from Rome, started his own Church, and many lost their heads along the way. Why? Because he made a choice. Henry chose Anne Boleyn over Catherine of Aragon, plain and simple. One choice and literally the world was never the same. Now that is power - not the King, but the choice he made.