Fatalism and Choice

The greatest problem in American Hollywood pop culture is that the hero possesses a rare skill, extremely talented, or "chosen" to save the world. In real life, you are not Harry Potter or Frodo Baggins, despite any illusions how ordinary a person they might be. You do not go through an adventure, nor do you save the world. Of course, this is just a small, loud subset of American culture that I used to enjoy when I was young, but do not watch anymore, and there are many rich movies of different genres.

Through the lens of late Soviet movies in 60s-80s, I perceived humanism and sincerity. When you look at the romances such as "Irony of Fate", "Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears", "Office Romance", "Could One Imagine", they feature completely normal people, there is no explosions, no enemies to defeat, and no final triumph.

Which, leads me to the question about fatalism and choice.

There are one set of fully external measurement that we are familiar with: Money, Power, Grades (in school), Athleticism/Attractiveness. But what are we without them? And how should we treat them in life?

The first path people choose is pure utilitarianism. You do everything strategically. You study because the major maximizes the money you are going to earn. You suppress your interest to the best arbitrage you can find. You devote yourself purely to external measures. But external measures change, and following this path leads to easy burnout because you don't know what you are fighting for.

Another path some people choose is conformity and stability, commonly found in East Asia. Note this is different from pure utilitarianism in that the former is individualistic and hacker-like. Here people optimize their scores, study because their peers are studying, work late performatively because their peers are working, and obey the authority. But people here are usually very shy, retreat back to their dorms and computer games or social media as the only means of relax, and passive socially.

Another path is hedonism, found in some expat communities or gig workers. You find any job, such as an English teacher, International management, and you work just enough. You party, drink, love, and spend lavishly, living every day of their youth like it's their last day. There are no goals to optimize towards and no long-terms plans, only romance right now. You are street smart and tomorrow somehow things would just work out. But in the long term, is this truly joyful or meaningful? I doubt it.

Another path is monasticism, typical found in the lives of some pure theory PhDs or professors. You suppress nearly all your humanly desire in pursuit of one thing, and you are willing to dedicate your life to it. You ignore the external measurements and focus on the subject itself. But the real world is far too messy and training in a monastry makes you too pure and sincere. When you fail in the external standards, it is often painful to hold your dignity. When you succeed and comply with the external world, are you still focused and calm? You may be very isolated and desperately crave the missed out living experiences of your youth.

Another path is artistic dedication, typical found in the lives of singers, dancers, writers, poets, actors. This is kind of like monasticism but more socially interactive, requiring constant interaction with viewers. What defines art and what is being true to yourself? It isn't what makes more money or attracts more fans. How do you cope with losing to an Instagaram blogger for looks or a TikTok challenge video? If one of your video gets popular and people like it, do you change your style to that? As people read books increasingly less, do you still write books or adapt to the new format? How do you deal with the ugly relationship between art and capital? Art is usually poor and a writer has to feed themselves. An artist is usually at odds with the government or social norm.

And finally there is religionism. Let's use the Amish as an example. From a burned out city hustler's view, the Amish do seem to live a happy life. There is nature, there is community, and there are a set of values. But I have seen too much, fundamentally I cannot be religious or willingly submit myself. Besides, my body cannot handle the physical labor. I cannot withstand extended periods without going online. Historically, the religious life is not a fairytale, and it disappeared for a reason. If you fully adopt modern technology and you are well-off, it is just vacation and escapism, not a religious life.

Can we find a "Peach Blossom Land" as described by Tao Yuanming in the world? It is difficult outside of very wealthy places. Places like Alaska, Svalbard, Iceland exist not outside of our noisy society, but as a core node, usually for resources, military, or tourism, within the interconnected world. Paradoxically, if they stop advertising themselves as an isolated, frontier tourist destination, less tourists would come and they would bring less money. If there are no resources, there would no point in building airports and highways there. Then I thought about the northeast Russia such as Yakutsk or Vorkuta, and I don't seem to like it either for the poverty, conscription, and weather.

Of course, these are typical stereotypes. Some people are a mix, they want to pursue their dreams while not feeling poor, or some combine hedonism with a high baseline of income. Some people are not described so far. As we live in a modern godless society, something else should act as a belief system or guidance.