People say alot of things… whether they’re actually true or not;
It’s kinda profound observing the certainty with which many make declarations, unaware of the likelihood they’re just regurgitating beliefs & opinions rather than making accurate statements of how things truthfully are.
It’s sort of a weird phenomenon, if you think about it - the conviction we develop in ideas, buying into concepts that provide some comforting sense of order & certain and going to great lengths to hold firm in them, despite any/all evidence that might exist to the contrary. Perhaps sometimes its our way of coping with existential fears/dread of the unknown, keeping high on hopium to numb the discomfort of uncertainty and feeling like we don’t have control over life - preferring to see the world through rose-colored glasses than objectively neutral and embracing all the painful chaos that is a part of human life on planet earth. (Granted, the biases slant many ways, the same dynamics applying to a wide variety of topics - although the leaning towards “positivity” is the focal point for this exploration in/of writing).
But without digressing too far, let’s proceed to today’s case in point…
You’ve surely heard the common phrases, turned into inspirational platitudes, scattered across social media:
“You can’t mess up what’s meant for you”
Or similarly,
“What’s meant for you can’t pass you by”
But let’s be real: says who? Yeah, many people say it… but with what awareness/consciousness as the basis? How many of these people truly know that as an absolute objective Truth - versus simply parrot the cliché, having heard/read it enough times to have unconsciously chosen at some point to take it on as a belief?
No matter the angle each of these two statements looks at it, is an assumption/assertion in a “predestination” of sorts - sentiment that’s found equally in traditional religious outlooks on “God’s plan” or more new-agey “the universe is conspiring to deliver me rainbows & unicorns” type rhetoric. Surely, there are times where/when it feels good to plug into such ideas - like a safety blanket providing warmth in times of cold, an ideologically-derived sense of reassurance that ”things will get better.” And given how flawlessly confirmation bias tends to work, we can often find (or perhaps rather cherry-pick) evidence to support these beliefs, whether from our own lives or others’ who speak them with certainty (irregardless of the substance of its foundation).
Meanwhile, there very well could be “evidence” to the contrary…
Can’t fuck up what was “meant for you?” Well, there have probably been many people on relatively “good” paths in life who fucked up their blessing by going off the rails with drugs, alcohol, gambling, and other self-destructive behaviour that ended up destroying relationships, jobs, dreams, etc. But of course, if one is operating in the framework of these “meant for you” beliefs, then by default, those blessings mustn’t have truly been “meant” for them… which also must, if one’s gonna be intelligent, raise the questions: was it tragic downfall & destruction that was “meant” for these people? For everyone dealing with immense pain of devastatingly hard crashes and unhappy endings, rape, loved ones murdered, debilitating diseases, homes destroyed by war crimes, etc, etc… was that what was truly “meant” for them? Well shit.
Or if to shift focus back to the “positive” and contemplate “what’s meant for us can’t pass us by…” we can just sit idly on our asses, procrastinating as much as we like, indulging in laziness to extremes, since “what’s meant for us” will just magically show up in perfect timing and there’s nothing we can do to fuck it up…? Motherfuckaz really don’t thing “self-sabotage” is a thing??
(Or might this example be venturing into territory where more clarity & accuracy of these statements is to be found - i.e. someone who chooses such actions meant for disappointing results as per effect of their own causes? Of course, here, we’re taking on a very different meaning of “meant for us” than most tend to interpret - something not predestined by “God,” but more malleable, perhaps just another way of interpreting the concept of “karma” or basic cause & effect. Granted, we all have a good idea of what most mean when propagating these motivational memes.)
Of course, we’re all free to believe whatever we want. Personally, I’m in favor of consciousness rather than belief - operating not from conceptual models of the world that are bound to distort the clarity of perceiving objective reality as it is, but to see what is as clearly as possible, without bias as much as possible, and by accepting that when we don’t know, there is a far greater range of intelligence accessible by considering/contemplating the full spectrum of possibilities within the extremes of a yin & yang duality rather than locking oneself into a fixed one perspective.
You might wanna go back and reread that. A few times. “Formula for Truth.” Serious nuggets of wisdom & codes when grasping the distinction between those two modus operandi.
However, that’s not all to say that if anyone’s belief that “things are all working in their favor, what’s ‘meant for them’ can’t be fucked up or pass them by”, etc work for them… then so be it, and all the power to them. I’m just here to deconstruct some common logical fallacies, maybe plant seeds that might have anti-viral potential against some common cognitive biases, and poke at a few hypocrisies & ironic paradoxes prevalent in the cultural consciousness of many propagating platitudinal “inspirational” clichés & memes. Hopefully in a way that constructively challenges them for purpose of activating expanded consciousness moreso than low-key intellectual bullying… but nobody’s perfect, so I’ll play the role of cynical asshole too, should anyone get triggered by having their beliefs challenged and interpret it that way, amongst the spectrum of angles this all can/may/will be perceived & interpreted from/through.
So which is it: are there things fated, “meant for us” that we “can’t fuck up…” or can such things “pass us by” while we stand by idly staring into phones and hiding from life? Are there blessings guaranteed and we can take solace in a sense that leveling up in responsibility isn’t necessary since we can’t mess them up anyways, or do certain things obviously need our harmonious participation and there isn’t a Santa Claus fated to bestow upon us at some divinely-orchestrated date whatever hopium would have us want & belive?
Clincher: these are trick questions.
Because if you’ve been paying attention so far and haven’t previously held conviction in particular beliefs in the matter, you might just be in a bit more of agreement with the outlook: who fucking knows. And even moreso, that we may not be able to know. And yet moreso, that there probably are no black-and-white answers, as the complexity of reality and its existential mysteries are far beyond such simplistic trying to have them conform to platitudinal memes imparting false certainty.
Maybe some things are “meant for us.” Though surely, we can fuck things up through carelessness, recklessness, and stupidity in action. Maybe the consequences and their accompanying lessons are “meant for us” in such scenarios, maybe not. Yet, this is still all kinda beside the point.
It’d seem humans have some need to know… when it takes the maturity of humility & humbleness to admit we don’t - and to sit in the space of uncertainty with all its discomfort. Maybe sometimes our beliefs equip us with something to get through the fears and provide a sense of meaning & purpose that’s helpful in ways, and maybe there are times where evolution requires abandoning those ‘crutches’ and learn to courageously walk on our own two feet of honest objectivity & the openness to having all our beliefs challenges/disproven through the unknown where truths are to be found which cannot when blinded by preconceptions.
Granted, this is all but part one of this exploration.
We’ve yet to pick apart and cross-reference with another common platitudinal topic / belief system, which paradoxically is touted by many of the same people/groups/communities/subcultures yet ironically contradicts the “meant for you” outlook when using one’s brain… that of “manifestation.”
Is it really us “manifesting” if it’s “meant for us” and “we couldn’t mess it up?” (Or is that take yet another self-deluding egoic attempt to think we have more control over reality than we actually do?)
If something isn’t “meant for us,” then how da fuq we gonna “manifest anything & everything we want?
More to come in Part Two shortly…
A few thoughts.
If we are looking for absolute certainty, we are faced with an extremely difficult task. Even scientists are not able to make entirely objective statements when examined with pure logic. Although they would love to. I would say that most people who speak with absolute certainty are only those who are fooling themselves. Whatever they say.
Now, perhaps there is no need to resort to fate. We can say that it is because of synchrony. If I go to buy meat, I don't need to worry about how I will find a butcher among the 8 billion people out there. Just as I want to buy meat, the butcher wants to sell it, so we synchronize. Then it is not so difficult. This happens even unconsciously, I would dare say. It is not hard to see it.
The universe, contrary to what our rather recent human anxieties would make us think, works very well, I think. But of course, you will understand that I am not speaking with absolute certainty of any kind. And of course, I'm not talking "facts" either, but rather personal thoughts.
I do believe that "you can’t mess up what’s meant for you." Because I think that one should always try to be sincere and true to oneself, without worrying about fitting in, but wait in faith to see how everything falls into place. So, being yourself, there's no room left to screw it up, unless it's not meant for you. Synchrony may also play a role here. This is just an example.
An interesting publication.
Cheers to you!
I tend to prescribe more to the it is what it is mentality. I know a lot of people hate that position, but when you consider the fact that there are so many things that just happen and so little you can actually change, it's just "whatever".