One “dualism” (thank you Descartes) that has always fascinated me and been the source of endless inner ruminations, is that of chance vs necessity.
A throw of the dice will never abolish chance - Stephen Mallarme
In a word, it is a philosophical thought about randomness and its role in our lives. Most of us think we are in control and driving the bus. What happens to us is due to our own decision-making, will, intelligence etc … That old theory of “rugged individualism”. This couldn’t be further from the truth.
Our own lives are constantly injected with chance. The roll of the dice, Mallarme’s “un coup de des”. Yesterday, I walked around town and my day was filled with chance. Of course, the necessity was there. I had decided to see a few friends. I dropped my bike off at the repair shop etc … but most of my day was filled with random meetings with people, near misses with cars, meeting this person on the street, and not meeting that person on the street. I was whisked about by chance. It rained, what could I do, but this chance storm made me stay inside drinking mescal and having a lively conversation with people I’d otherwise never experience like that ever.
So much is about timing. Don’t let anyone tell you they made their own way in life, they alone are responsible for their success. That’s all a lie. We are governed by forces of chance and timing that almost make one believe in fate, to be Nietzsche’s lover of fate - play things of the gods.
In science and mathematics, randomness (chance) is a big field. Without it’s presence, evolution wouldn’t happen, nothing would truly occur. It is a necessary ingredient of life - how our sub-atomic self pings about with no seeming order but still establishing our presence, our atoms, our cells, our sinew, our muscles, our mind …
“As beautiful as the chance encounter of a sewing machine and an umbrella on an operating table.” - Lautremont
The Hindus believe in the concept of fate being exhibited through the eternal struggle of asat (chaos) and rta (regularity). It’s an epic fight within all life. Life struggles to be regular, and predictable but then chaos is nipping at its heels and upsetting order.
The surrealists believed in objective chance. Those moments in life when you see this fight between chaos and regularity clearly and the mysterious force is revealed. You’ve all experienced this, for example, you are walking down the street and you look up and you see an image that sparks an idea or solution you’ve been thinking about. Chance intervenes and sparks the miraculous.
Objective Chance is when the surreal, or extraordinary, is experienced as a startling intuition, a sudden awareness of mysterious forces in one's life, as in the case of a curious coincidence or the chance discovery of a fascinating object or work of art.
So today as you go about your today - think about how much chance is injected into your life, your being, your doing. It’s truly astonishing and magical, how we dance along with this energy running between chance and necessity.
A genius film that speaks to me on this topic is - As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty - Jonas Mekas
There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows, and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat;
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.
—Julius Caesar, IV.3.218-224
Timing
A joke.
Love.
An engine.
A left jab.
A musical score.
A half volley.
Success.
It makes you want to believe in fate
the way our roulette wheel of life spins
and stops or
doesn’t stop.
It makes you believe that
there is a ghost in the machine
permitting, not permitting.
I’m looking for the hand
on the wheel
the guy
who made the dice
the energy charging
those changing electrons.
But alas, things happen
when they should.
You just gotta hope
you are on the right side of that.