Choice/Free Will/Fate/Determinism – Here We Go Again!

Written 10th March

Okay, last night’s episode “Dr. Linus” was both fun and frustrating raising more questions (thought this was supposed to be a time when we get ANSWERS!!!). I’ll try to keep this short:

-Fun: Warm toasty feelings for Ben, he does the right thing!
-Frustration: Come on! Ben was a pretty bad dude! Tried to kill Locke w/ gun, kills Locke with strangulation, wipes out DHARMA (by the way there were kids in those barracks when they gased the place), kills Jacob. Not a nice man & then b/c he cries about wanting power over the life of his adopted daughter, Alex says he’s sorry, all is forgiven! Please!

-Question: So is that the point of the arugment again! I know this has been batted around a gazillon times! Is the question b/t Jacob & Esau (MIB) man can change, do the good, flashsideways (fsw) Ben let’s fsw Alex go to school while giving up Principal job? He CAN choose to do good & by chosing is good?
Sayid was pretty freaking wicked, tortured people, killed them, and as fsw Sayid does the same thing? So does this mean Sayid simply choose to continue to walk down the path of evil or he can’t choose b/c he is bound by his evilness (“They come. They fight. They destroy. They corrupt. It always ends the same.” Esau/MIB). Or is it that he simply chose the wrong path b/c he was tempted and moved in that direction (Dogen didn’t kill Sayid b/c then his yin/yang would become unbalanced) and now Sayid can’t turn back? “It’s too late for me” Sayid said to Ben?

Who knows???? I would like to think the argument b/t Jacob & Esau is still: man can choose to what is right given the right oppt/push/manipulation… but wait is that really free will if Jacob “encourages them/pushes them/manipulates them????
Is Esau’s point that: Man is evil, corrupt and can only choose to do the wrong b/c that’s who they are??? All they need is a little encouragement/push/manipulation????

Dang! My head is starting to hurt! Maybe that’s the point! Good/Evil is only a matter of perspective, yin/yang. Those on Jacob’s side think they’re good, those on Esau’s side think they’re good and the writers are trying to make us think Esau is the bad guy, Jacob is the good guy…. but wait… it’s all a matter of perspective! There is no good or evil, just how you look at it! Killing DHARMA people is not good, torturing people is not good! Manipulating people is not good, but only if you are on the other side of the perspective. So is good/evil only relative? Sheesh!

Sounds a lot like a conversation that a certain soon-to-be Emperor had with a young foolish jedi soon-to-become his apprentice and a Darth!

Thoughts?