Demistifying Destiny

Those of you who would read this might very well read the whole thing before dismissing it. I DO NOT ask you to believe it. You are, however, hoped to consider it. Here goes...



Many people, those who are not critical in general and mushy in particular, believe in that annoying word that starts in D and ends in Y. I don't like that concept, or its synonyms, and considers it unproductive. The only version of it I believe is this: that all people would die. I only write about it because I need a diversion right now. It is, for me, counterproductive for a number of reasons, which, at this time, are all that I could think of:

~many people use it as an excuse for laziness and to elude from responsibility

~many use it as an excuse for not working their asses off to be better persons

~it hinders progressive and critical thinking

~it leads to unecessary acceptance of one's current situation

~blurs one's perspective on many issues

~the idea of it renders the human faculties useless (why think, if you would become something that's predestined?)


Now, now, I do not seek to erase the said concept for I, with all my bluster everywhere, could not do that at this time given my still considerably limited knowledge. However, this is I would do: DEMISTIFY it.

Everything in the social world (that was meant as a categorization only), even the notion of god, is socially constructed. That is, all of the things we experience cannot be detached to such factors as history, institutions, consciousness, geographical location, etc. Many people do not think this way. These people do not see and think that what is hapenning in their daily lives are determined NOT only by their actions and decisions as individuals but ALSO by the social environment that they are situated in. By the way (as evidently mentioned), it is not to say that people must rely solely in their deeds, because one can only do so much (consider the development phenomenology in this regard, how it has been revised several times). Moving on, it is very advantageous to not only consider, but to really think that all in this world are interrelated as Joey Ayala said: ang lahat ng bagay ay magkaugnay, magkaugnay ang lahat. Let us consider a fictional conversation about a young lad named Niko:


- Niko's a banker now, he's destined to be.

- No. If that is true, how?

- Well, his parents are bankers, so it makes sense.

- Uhm, no. That is merely the socialization of the individual in his own family, which , you might want to observe, is considerably close-knit. He wasn't born as a banker, he was raised and made to be one.

- It's good he's fated to work in Makati huh?

- Again, no. This is a situation of an off-shoot of his mindset in his career when he was still a student, which a lot of young people nowadays share-- the prestige of working in Makati.

- Maybe its destiny that he has a friend like you who does not believe in destiny eh?

- No, no. What the fuck are you saying?!


You see, by the example above, instead of relating a phenomenon in one's life as caused by such an abstract, alien and farfetched concept as destiny or fate, it would be wonderful to instead consider social events, forces and institutions as the determinants of an event or situation. This not, however, to say that individuals are judgemental dopes, solely coerced and manipulated by their environment, as this would also deny one of the fundamental ideas of the humanities: freedom. Instead of blaming one's misfortune to destiny or worse, to the almighty, it would be more responsible if one would think of the events that pieced up his/her shortcoming.

If one is in constant contact with an environment that posseses all the determinants and influences, explicit and implicit, to be someone someday, say, a doctor, then chances are he/she would indeed be one. Moreover, it is very arrogant and ignorant to assume that one's decisions are solely his/her own and not influenced by previous events in one's life. To top the cream with a cherry, its really reasonable and sensible to keep in mind that all phenomenon in one's life is in the middle of one's own conception and the social structures that influences his/her lifeworld or lebenswelt.

So, stop assuming that things naturally fall into place because they are destined to be.


My two cents.