Speech on Destiny
By Friday, I have to write a speech on "Destiny." Here it is...
The truth is, I’ve been stumped because Destiny has no concrete meaning, and has less value with its concrete definition than with its social effects. Destiny is a marketing ploy that people have succumbed to over thousands of years. It is an imaginary goal that allows people to focus more on their primary faculties than on extraneous pleasures. More than anything, Destiny is an idea that allows people to lessen their importance in the world; to lighten the burden upon their shoulders. But destiny is not fated to happen. Technically, fate is changeable based on circumstance, while destiny is predetermined and concrete. With fate, every action has a fated reaction, which thus augments the pool of fate at the end of one's life; the final destination, or the end of the road. But see, I just used the word "destination." Destination derives from destiny in that it is the end of a journey. The question lies in whether or not that journey is subject to change and unpredictable human deviation. The question is whether or not peoples' lives are in their own hands.
If you’ve ever gone to a nice Chinese restaurant, you know that the menus or place mats will have the Chinese zodiac calendar plastered on them. If you’ve ever gone to Mogos Mongolian BBQ in the valley, they sell birthday related Chinese zodiac scrolls for a pretty penny. Have you ever really sat down to look at one of those? I have! If you were born in 1987 (rabbit), as I was, you are a risk taker who values tranquility, and works well with people. I tend to disagree with the fact that EVERY child born in 1987 has those same attributes. I tend not to believe that year has anything to do with inherent personality, as much as it has to do with logical social trends. But the future in this calendar has been predetermined. No matter what, people born in 2007 (bears) are splendid companions who are intellectual and set difficult goals for themselves. These people are also supposed to expect too much from others. I’m sure 2007 will breed its idiots and its Mother Teresas. The Chinese Zodiac explains destiny as a means of setting yearly social trends; as if they are trying to set logical standards of social progression from year to year. This does not mean that people are destined to become this way; this means that the ancient Chinese scholars want people to become this way. Still, everyday I see people walking into Savon or Ralph’s to buy one of those tiny little zodiac scrolls that looks like a colorful cigarette. It tells them that their day will get better. But this is useless, as you know the person bought it with the intent to gain understanding about the odd or monotonous occasions of the day. If the person lost a loved one, the card telling them that their day is destined to get better will promote recovery. If the person won the lottery, the card telling them that their day will get better just lends them to believe that, had they purchased the scroll before winning the lottery 20 minutes earlier, the card would have been telling them of the fantastic lottery occurrences that did end up happening. Why are people so foolish that they buy into such BS? These scrolls, soothsayers, tarot card readers, Miss Cleos are all forms of marketing. They use the illusion that there is order and predictability in your world so to make you feel happiness, which would just bring you to pay for more tarot card readings to extend this euphoria.
So we have come to the conclusion that the idea of destiny is a driving force to make people worry less. It is also a means of making people more focused and productive. In many cultures, if your father was a baker, you are destined to become a baker. In a lot of these cases, it is very important to keep the family profession as a sign of honor. If a parent were to tell their child that they might become a baker some day, there is a good chance that he will find his own way through trial and error. Destiny gives people focus. It lets them believe that the solution to every problem is so concrete that contemplation and struggle are obsolete. Destiny lets people feel that problems are not in their own hands, but in the hands of some higher authority.
I am not here to espouse any belief that God doesn’t exist, but this argument helps to define my iteration of destiny. Now, one might believe that no “God” really exists, but that people are so afraid to live on their own, that they have created a higher being that can bear some of their weight. We have all heard of mind over matter. It is the human mind’s ability to convince itself of success that is the forebear to the mind’s ability to cure the body. Thus, if people convince themselves praying to an almighty god can cure their ills, the mind will effectually be convinced of the success of this divine treatment, and thus will be more effective in treating the body. This is still a miracle, but it is a miracle of the human mind, not of a higher being. Humans are amazing in that they can create such fantastic figures so to relieve their own stressors. Man’s greatest fear is the fear of being alone and reliant on his own faculties. This is why Adam came with Eve, and why criminals are sent to maximum security vaults. Man knows of his own fallibility; this is why religious dogma often deals with inherent sin. If man had to deal with decision-making on his own for a lifetime, he would likely die trying, as man needs some guideline of the outcome to make the chore seem less subject to his own loneliness and imperfection. This is why people rely on religious and commercialized writing and divinations about destiny. People are afraid of what they may get themselves into! People can’t stand the fact that their survival is dependent upon their helplessness. People need a guideline, a destination, a solution, an almighty friend to withstand life.
I’m going to explain a situation from Tim Burton’s Big Fish. Three children looked into the eye of a witch to see “how they die.” One child saw that he dies young, one saw that he dies old, and one saw that he dies peacefully. Ewan McGregor’s character saw exactly how he would die peacefully in old age, and thus could experience life to the fullest, taking on risks that he never would have taken otherwise, because he knows he will live through it. If ever he was scared, as when he was attacked by trees in a dark forest, he could remind himself that “this isn’t how I die!” and those words would get him through it.
People are afraid. Destiny is a joke that makes man brave.