Machiavellian Principles And Dystopian Futures: We Must End The Mythology Of Fate
A neuroscientific and cultural theory treatise on why believing in destiny is disastrous for humans.
NOTE: This might sound like a philosophy deep dive — it’s not. I always try to make every newsletter practical. I have also started 2 other newsletters that do investigations into everything from a philosophical point of view - and the other is a cultural exploration of what, why, and how pop culture influences us. Check those out!
Destiny
des·​ti·​ny | \ ˈde-stə-nē \
a predetermined course of events often held to be an irresistible power or agency felt that destiny would determine their future
As children, we believe the world is full of possibilities. We don’t believe there are limits to any of our desires. Any destiny is achievable. From being the hero in our own stories — to defying gravity, we live in another realm where our daydreams are reality.
But before we get deeper into such an esoteric idea like destiny, we have to understand that most human progress is driven by some notion of destiny. When our cave-dwelling Paleolithic were traveling from one place to another, they were motivated by the desire that what they wanted was somewhere on the other side of their next destination.
Some tribes were so passionate about the idea of fate, they invented a pantheon of nature-based gods who represented their desires for a world without struggle. They struggled so they didn’t have to struggle. Any objective is guided by a premise. Any goal has an end. From voting to eating our favorite ice cream, we have what is referred to as teleology (there is a purpose for why you’re doing something). A synonym for destiny is purpose. But, destiny relies on the idea that our actions will lead to some desired end.
We do things because we believe in them. Those actions are our fate. In this sense, destiny exists, and your worldview will predetermine your steps. Think about this: If you fear something, do you run headlong into it? Of course not, you avoid it, like the plague!
If we believe life is meant to be happy, our decisions and responses will imperfectly demonstrate that throughout our experience. In this sense, you have a fate guiding your every step. Your beliefs mediate within you as a sort of destiny that you aren’t always aware of.
In the book Science of Fate, Hannah Critchlow, a British neuroscientist makes the claim that all of our choices, even the friends we choose are all influenced by our neurology:
Critchlow explains that everything – from our genetic lineage to our childhood upbringing, the friends we make, and the risks we take – has the power to shape our brain and alter our perception of the world around us, influencing our thoughts and actions without us even knowing.
Destiny is the belief that whatever is happening now, doesn’t have the last word. However, it also assumes that no matter how bad something seems, there is a reason or a purpose behind it. For some, this purpose is given to us by a divine being, for others, it’s just circumstances that are out of our control.
The belief in anything outside of us essentially determines our steps. This idea does not have to be a religious one —- science argues the same to be true, from a secular point of view.
Your brain makes up its mind up to ten seconds before you realize it, according to researchers. By looking at brain activity while making a decision, the researchers could predict what choice people would make before they themselves were even aware of having made a decision.
The work calls into question the ‘consciousness’ of our decisions and may even challenge ideas about how ‘free’ we are to make a choice at a particular point in time.
Your beliefs about how life is meant to be, how your boss should treat you, how marriage should work, and how the world should be full of peace all guide your steps. Actions arise out of our identity. Our identity is a form of destiny. In a Western context, this message doesn’t resonate with the cultural value of hyperindividuation. We get trained as young children that we are free to make our own decisions. We accept this from a very early age and aren’t really given the tools to change this. So, it becomes part of our identity.
Our identity acts as a form of internalized destiny that materializes in the external world through our behaviors and choices.
This also operates the same way for countries, groups, and tribes. Manifest Destiny was a 19th-century American dream that capitalism and democracy should proliferate across the North American continent. It was fundamentally about territorial expansion and it was justification for many atrocities against groups and members of the First Nations.
This idea of destiny guiding our behaviors end up becoming reasons why we think it’s okay to do pretty awful things. It’s too easy to blame religion and its copious historical impositions on oppressed groups — but, this is about the notion of something guiding our behaviors is a problematic one — even if it’s neuroscience.
Having studied neuroscience from a cultural theory lens, I’ve come to the conclusion that neuroscience is wrong. Not because we are not neurochemical beings, but because all knowledge is predicated on what came before it.
All knowledge tries to exceed itself - but, even the assumption there is something to exceed means there was knowledge that came before it. Yep, this does sound circular!! Our brains are receptive to information - and it does not just whether the information is helpful, true, or a lie. That is all filtered through our identities and values.
Anything we think is normal about our brain has been first filtered through culture & environment. This is also where we get knowledge. We acquire it by interacting, avoiding, and even judging our reality. But all three of those things only become natural to us (and our ancestors) when we begin forming beliefs about those interactions.
Our ancestors had to learn (and train) their brains toward threats - we are not born with that judgment in place. Judgment is a heuristic - a habit we get taught. When we own it as who we think we are, it becomes part of our worldview. This is the same with fear, love, risk, and everything else in between.
There are a lot of things our brain does automatically, like helping us breathe — but, babies are not born to judge others.
What does this all have to do with destiny & fate? If destiny is a real thing, compassion wouldn’t exist if a judgment was inherent. Meaning, cultural values become so ingrained in who we are as people that we can’t think of ourselves without them. This leads to our original claim — destiny cannot exist unless we want to rely on status quo assumptions about human progress or human nature.
Human nature is a myth. Nature and our knowledge of it are always limited by our knowledge of it. Destiny works the same, in spiritual beliefs or otherwise. Ideas are limited by ideas. But, what if destiny was renamed something else? What if we reframed it? Could society move forward?
Let’s explore that. Take the dictionary definition above and rewrite it:
an UNdetermined path of unknown events held together by resistible behavioral patterns that are guided by our changeable neurochemistry fueled by beliefs, values, and culture.
When we think closemindedly about destiny, when we romanticize it, we then turn into groups and individuals who force a singular course of action and demand the environment to fit into our personal visions for the world. We romanticize everything from violence, abuse of power, emotional abuse, and neglect. The way we define joy, love, acceptance, lead a company, parent, or live in the world is all defined by the contours of the patterns we accept as true of ourselves and others. That means we can use the same principles to change the culture around, otherwise, we’re screwed. An inflexible view of destiny births Machiavellian principles and dystopian futures.
The temptation is to read this newsletter as a philosophical excavation into destiny and how we use it. But, the main inspiration is to apply these findings in every context we find ourselves. We must remove the allure to use destiny as a reason or excuse to blame why we don’t want to change. This fear of change can happen to individuals, groups, or countries.
Progress only occurs when we are willing to challenge the status quo. But, that is banal and trite — we have to see that the status quo exists because we believe it has to—so we can get where we want to go. But, the status quo is riddled with problems and not solutions blindly guided by a forced naive idealism fueled by an idea that destiny is all we get.
Multiplicity is a much better option when we seek to change. Progress occurs because we chose from more than two roads that diverged. Freedom is an illusion, but it’s one worth having.
HOW can we TAKE this INFORMATION and CHANGE the WAY we DO politics, religion, consumerism, human rights and more? SHARE below.