Twitter is full of photos at the moment of the attack on October 7th last year in Israel. One person who is showing a lot of photos and clips has a tagline that reads:
“Man can do what he wills but he cannot will what he wills.” – Arthur Schopenhauer
Schopenhauer was born in 1788 and is famous worldwide for his philosophy of pessimism, that human life is driven by an insatiable and irrational “will to live,” which leads to suffering.
The assertion in the statement that ‘man cannot will what he wills’ is older than Schopenhauer. It is part of Kabbalah and dates back two thousand years.
In that tradition, the counterpoint to ‘man cannot will what he wills’ is that man can work opposite that which is implanted in him. For that he must have a vision that takes him out of himself. There are many texts on the subject.
What can I make of those who did the killing on October 7th. Many people have described them as sub-human, as animals. What were they like as children in the playground? What environment formed them? What ‘will’ was born in them that found its expression in delight in killing and mutilating?