"Bite thy tongue!" - I said to myself after reading the discourse between Perry Mann (July 12) and Charles McElwee (July 15) as to whether our actions are driven by subliminal forces over which we have no real control. They cite the contents of various tomes by pensive authors who have led them toward favoring the idea that there is something within each of us which preordains our actions, particularly criminal ones, so therefore, convicts should be held for rehabilitation and not merely as punishment. Now, here I am (perhaps driven by uncontrollable willfulness), tapping keys.
My 2009 epic novel "Two Five" (named for its location's own zip code, 25000) is set in a "new kind of absolutely escape-proof super-prison which houses a million inmates, ordained to be a place where economy of scale takes rehabilitation from serendipity prison-reformer fantasy to reality."
Thirteen chapters are devoted to a dozen very different inmates and one guard sergeant, detailing their antecedents that brought them to then and there. Subsequent events chart courses for the rest of their lives. Then an epilogue tracks the survivors to now.
If I learned one thing during the research, deep pondering, two decades of writing, two years of editing those 213,000 words, it is that billions of paragraphs have been written about the human mind and motivation. Yea, verily, even in the Holy Bible. But - all of it is conjecture.
Everything concerning "will" that I have read concludes that no one has ever presented empirical evidence about the actual inner workings of the human mind. Questions abound as to why some people from the same environment, even the same family, take a place in society which by most measures is considered successful and respectable But, others sink irrecoverably into the depths of crime, degradation and despair. All the "answers" given so far are based on the author's faith that they might be so.
My own background: Until in the Army I never lived where there was running water or a flush toilet. Dad was from non-practicing Irish Potato Famine Catholics. His only expression remotely related to faith or lack of it came when I was tuning the radio and paused upon some preacher panting about Jesus-uhhhh - "Turn that somewhere else."
Mom came from the United Brethren, a sect, like the Mennonites, originating in the devout Amish Brethren. UBs drive tractors and cars, use electricity, send their children to public schools, vote. They absolutely do not proselytize. She rarely used religious passages in my upbringing but devoutly followed the "Spare the rod ... spoil the child" dictum. All Brethren sects teach their children that each of us is responsible for our own actions, hence their heritage of "tough love" toward their children, thus driving home that our actions have consequences.
"Non Brethren" are left to fend for their own souls and are absolutely of no concern to "us." Self-control is paramount. Whether we behave ourselves because of an intellectually satisfying Platonic goal of a life worth living - or morbid fear of burning forever - or don't want to be in prison - well, to each his own.
Dan Cook is an author, artist and inventor who lives in Hurricane, primo.cocinero@gmail.com.