Since finishing Haruki Murakami´s masterpiece (well, one of them), Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, I have been pondering upon the wonderful doings of the mind. What we have in our head is fantastic; it allows to create our own realities, in which we all live, within a greater reality that is shared by all of us. It ensures that we dream at night, and daydream during the day. We can remember past joys and suffering, we can plan for tomorrow. And maybe most importantly, we can feel. Not in an instinctive way, but with the mind. In other words, we can feel in colours. Passion is red, hatred is black. Love is pink and tiredness is grey. Happiness is yellow, and sadness misty blue. All in all, the mind is what makes us human, i.e. what makes us different from animals. This abstract construction made by our brains dictates our lives; how we behave, how we understand things, the way we love and hate.
This way to look at the mind poses some difficulties, though. If the mind dictates everything we do, does what we call the free will actually exist? Can criminals be accountable for their crimes? They could always refer to their mind being uncontrollable. Or it might even be the perfect excuse for a perfectly “normal” person to go out of their mind. And what does it consist of? Lots of DNA? Things we have learnt from our social surroundings?
I do not have any answers, but if anyone else does, I’d really like to hear your ideas and opinions.
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