Ramble - The Free Will Crapshoot

Free will without societal guard rails creates too many burdens, limiting free will. So, absolute free will is non-existent.

Without government, without legislation providing basic needs, free will does not exist. Stability is needed to truly allow for free will (to place a barometer in this ramble, free will is defined, rather elegantly, even after almost 250 years, as the pursuit of happiness). Without stability, choices are not made based on happiness, rather they are made based on survival.

If a person is required to first provide their own stability before they can pursue their supposedly God-given right of the pursuit of happiness, then it is a crapshoot on wether anyone actually achieves free will (in the context of the world today, it is something that must be achieved, it is not given, it is not one of our inalienable rights); and as the generations go bye, the number of those who achieve stability, and are thus granted the right of free will, dwindles, living as we do in a state of raw capitalism (our form of capitalism, perhaps the only outcome of capitalism, being zero sum).

With no governmental regulations on capitalism, with weak or non-existent social welfare programs, we are denied our constitutional right of the pursuit of happiness.

We are denied free will.

Ramble - Legacy As Meaning, Legacy As Life

What is the sum total of life, existence? Is it legacy? Defining legacy as what we leave behind, both in blood and substance. As blood: a family who fondly remembers you, yes, but also that you contributed to a lineage; that you left your family, primarily though not necessarily only your children, better off than before your existence. My children will stand on my shoulders, and their children should stand on theirs; we each contribute to this collaborative crescendoing greatness through the ages - to do otherwise, to leave one's family, especially one's children, worse off than your parents left you, is not only a failure of life but a failure of morals. (Not taking into account the myriad ways a child can fuck up their legacy regardless of the parents' doing.) This is the legacy of necessity, in which we should be expected to, at minimum, toe the line; provide (be the provider).

Beyond blood, into substance: We should strive to lead lives measured in work, pursuit, and the accomplishments earned along the way. This is not only speaking towards work as necessity, providing food and shelter. In fact that shouldn't count at all in how we define legacy as substance. Work as in a job or career, the success of which, should only be defined by how well you provide. No: substance, true legacy substance, is something with which you can use to measure the breadth of your life. The sum total of your thought and expression, be it in athletics, or journaling, or art, or charity. "This was the period of my life in which I wrote X." "That was the year in which I built houses in Y." "That was the month I ran my personal best in the Z."

Life with only blood legacy is nothing more than animalistic in the sense you accomplish only survival. Life with only substantive legacy is hollow, almost narcissistic, devoid of humanity. A fulfilled life must be defined by legacies of both blood and substance.