When contemplating determinism, a philosophical theme that many feel ruined the second Matrix movie, many find it almost nihilistic in nature. I can certainly see how that comparison can be drawn and why we end up there, determinism basically implies that all of our actions are determined by past experiences, which seems quite bleak to anyone stuck in a toxic cycle or self destructive pattern.
Personally, I find determinism to be quite a wormhole and here's why I think it's deeper than that. Determinism implies that our past dictates our future, but clearly we've seen examples of people completely changing their lives. Hell, I am a firsthand living account of this and if you've read any of my earlier work, then you'll be quite familiar with the self destructive, narcissistic asshole that I used to be. Oddly enough, it's the very patterns of behavior and becoming aware of them that inspired the change.
So I can't really argue that determinism doesn't exist, and perhaps that's why it annoys so many people. It's quite fatalistic to think that only through making these poor choices and doing these negative things that we can learn how to eventually recognize and stop our own destructive behaviors and become something different. Why can't we just see it all from the start and not go down that path? I think that's where the concept of the "heroes journey" comes into play.
We all need purpose and without it we wouldn't exist. The irony of that statement is that many of us seem to be perpetually trying to figure out what that purpose is and why we are the way that we actually seem to be. According to determinism it's all been set into motion by our very first choices and experiences, many of which we never had any control over, so are we truly without any means to determine our own fate? This would be where the paradox comes in, so bear with me.
If determinism is real and all of these past experiences dictate our trajectory of development, what happens when we reach the point that we are self aware and start consciously being who we want to be? Have we outgrown determinism if it got us to that point or is it simply by design and wherever we go from that point is all still part of the deterministic path? It becomes quite the paradox at this point as we are consciously choosing our own determinism, or at least it sure feels that way, but looking back at the past experiences that lead to this point, it's hard to deny the purpose of the past experiences that enabled this development.
In the end, it all just is what it is and whether we choose to believe in it or not, it's kind of irrelevant. I think the concept is just interesting to ponder on occasion and it makes this existence seem a bit less chaotic. If we're all just energetic beings in a sea of perceptually endless energetic existence, then every frequency shift and interaction being by design certainly indicates a quantum level of order that by design would be incomprehensible for the most part on this realm, but perhaps in our dreams or those moments of intense insight and life-changing development, we're really just getting a glimpse of the terrible beauty of it all and the word we ascribe acceptance of it all to is faith. Namaste.