Why does free will only apply to the aggressors?

Question

If you commit a crime, then that is your free will in action.
But what if you are the victim of a crime? Where's your free will to not have that happen to you?

Gary B. - I didn't think free will was anything we had a right to or not....it simply was.
Additionally, if nobody has more free will, or stronger free will, than anyone else, then the original question still applies....unless you are implying that your god given free will is weaker than some people's physical strength, or alternatively that it simply has no power at all in such situations.....either of which I won't argue with.

WD - so you agree with Gary that free will is not as strong a force as brute strength. So, we have found at least one limitation of free will.
Are there others?

chris and Mr. O - your concepts of free will sound suspiciously like survival of the fittest.
Intersting.
Thanks for the input.

Answer 1

You are confusing free will as a philosophy with free will as an integral part of theology, i.e. the ability to look to God for salvation. No one merits heaven on their own. Don't think that pity is a justification for salvation. Grace is.

Answer 2

free will has nothing to do with god or with heavens...
Man is condemned to make a choice in every second of his life. Some choices are good for him and some arent. Whether he is fully aware of the consequences of his choices is more important than whether he has free will or not. He may sincerely think that the option he chooses is good for him and for mankind but it may come out the other way around. At such cases he cant be held responsible. The problem is that most of our choices are made in full ignorance of the consequences.

Answer 3

It's not the aggressor, it's the actor. Free Will belongs to the the person exercising Free Will. It's not a legal term; it just means that no gods or demons have direct control over your actions.
If a meteor falls on your head, your free will has been neither exercised nor violated - you weren't required to take action, so no free will was involved. You could say that God did it, or you could say it wasn't your day. Actually, you couldn't say anything, because you'd be dead, but you know what I mean.

There is no limitation on free will, because free will is merely the freedom to consciously act. No one can prevent you from DECIDING TO ACT, which is the sum total of what free will affords. Of course you can be physically prevented from acting; lots of things can be physically forced on you, but have no bearing on your DECISIONS. Do you get the distinction?

Answer 4

If you make Samurai Jack's free will be the end-all greatest good in the universe and the only thing that matters, then you're right. "Gabriel, sound the alarm in heaven! Samurai Jack's free will is about to be violated!!"

The truth is that our free will is not sovereign. You have no right to "free will" any more than you have a right to anything else. Your will is in conflict with that of others, and sometimes because the others are stronger, their will wins out. Regrettable, but I don't see a big philosophical problem here.

Answer 5

Everyone, both victim and aggressor has free will as to how one internally responds to the situation.

Aggressor has free will to become more aggressive or repent and correct his ways both externally and internally.

The victim has free will to lament or equipoised or even forgive the aggressor. Though externally the victim cannot do anything, one can understand that the present situation was caused due to his previously exercising the free will that led to that situation. One has free will either to go or not to go to the night club at dead of night and be victimized. After exercising one's free will and being victimized one can internally analyze the situation in different ways and again exercise the free will.

Therefore, one has free will to various degrees, some little in the case of victim and more in the case of aggressor as you say. Having various degrees of free will itself is due to having exerted one's free will previously.

Only the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna has supreme free will and He is called as Svarat, Supremely independent.

Answer 6

I was a victim of serious crime. My free will came in when I fought and said no. But the aggressor was physically stronger and did not listen. It does not change free will either way.

Answer 7

The victim made choices throughout their life that brought them to the scene of the crime.
The Aggressor made choices throughout their life that brought them to the scene of the crime.

Is today affected by the past? Will tomorrow be affected by today's choices? There is a time-line to the choreography of life.

Make each choice wisely...for every choice a person makes in their life, leads them to where they are and to where they will be going.

Victim or Aggressor? Freewill applies to all people and all choices.

Answer 8

You either act, or are acted upon.

Free will is the knowing of options and the freedom to chose.

One day you are the one who 'acts'. The next day you are the one who is 'acted upon'.

Free will is still available to both. And believe me, the greater power lies in how you react to someone. You have the power to turn their action against you into something positive or into something negative. Evil feeds in on itself.

So if you react angrily to road rage and in turn carry the rage against 3 more people on the road then there would be 3 more angry drivers with a bad day looming ahead of them. But if you allow anger to run its course and you come out of your drive fine, you didn't allow one bad act to ruin your day and the day of others.

You can't control what happens TO you, but you can control YOU.

Answer 9

Life is just life and whether we like it or not it is not a bed of roses. Even the roses have thorns. This has nothing to do with free will.

Answer 10

.357 mag,

and a concealed carry permit.

on top of some martial combat training.

there is my free will to be free of the agressor.