Blog 17: Minority Report, Oedipus, and free will

David Rodriguez
Dr. Luke Vasileiou
ENG 103
18 May 2011
Free Will is an illusion. A concept; which we fail to produce enough substantial evidence to provide a plausible reason. There are plenty of innovative theories and infinite possibilities; however nothing to provide a contradiction that our lives are not, nor have not been already scripted for us. “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players” Shakespeare captured it best, by laying claim that we are similar to performers playing just another role within our society. We play a role do to the model, influence, and environment of our world around us.
So having this influence would also control our “Free Will.” Granted we have a choice that we can make and for it a cause and effect would occur. In the film “Minority Report” a little food for thought is given as Chef John Anderton (Tom Cruise) rolls a ball across a table, seconds before it drops to the ground Danny Witwer (Colin Farrell) catches it in his hand. John “Why did you catch it?” Danny “Cause it was going fall” John “But it didn’t fall because you caught it” this conversation between them provided us with the idea that John knew ahead of time that Danny would react in this way and catch the ball. Now even though Danny had the choice whether or not to catch the ball in the first place, John had already set it up to gain this reaction within Danny. So “Free Will” here would not be found.
It is safe to assume that our reaction, even though thought to be our very own, is in fact just the effect to someone’s cause. Another interesting event in the film was how they went about arresting people minutes before the crime was even committed by the suspect. This was all based on understanding the cause and preventing the effect. With the Precogs prediction they could see the cause of a crime about to happen and stop the effect minutes before it would become the reality. In the film the question is brought up “How do you arrest someone before they make the choice to commit the crime?” this would make a good argument; however if we take a look at the husband that violently kills his wife and her lovers in the precogs vision we can see that he has already gone about building up his rage. Even though the police arrived in time to stop him from committing the crime the anger and rage within him would have lead him up to this event.
In comparison the play Oedipus the King, Oedipus is told by the Delphic Oracle that he would one day kill his father and would then mate with his mother. This Oedipus was destined to do. Hearing that he was destined to do this created a level of paranoia. The words of the Oracle began the series of events to unfold. They were the “cause” which was enough to have led Oedipus to pursue a path which was already predetermined. Taking a closer look at both works you can see how the actions or words from another can affect the path which one takes. Even though we believe that we have “Free Will” and are able to control it, our emotions, thoughts, doubts, and understanding can dramatically change us, our actions, our reason. The influence given since birth ultimately affects our “Free Will” so we are never as free as we believe ourselves to be, though we can think it.