Play 317: Free Will Is Overrated

CHARACTERS
VINCENT, 17
DAMON, 17

VINCENT
I don’t get why people have such a problem with the idea of any kind of predetermination.

DAMON
Mean like Calvinism or shit?

VINCENT
Science too. The idea that everything is just physical laws playing out.
Anything that contradicts the idea of free will.

DAMON
I have a bit of a problem with that.

VINCENT
Why?

DAMON
I don’t like thinking that all my decisions have already been made for me.

VINCENT
Why?

DAMON
Then it’s all meaningless.

VINCENT
No it’s not, it’s exactly the same.

DAMON
But I’d have no choice.

VINCENT
Yes you would.

DAMON
Isn’t having no choice in anything what predetermination means?

VINCENT
No, it just means what choice you’ll make is set.

DAMON
Exactly.

VINCENT
That’s completely different from not having a choice.

DAMON
How?

VINCENT
You have a choice, just whichever one you happen to make is the one it turns out you were destined to make.

DAMON
How is that different?

VINCENT
Your choice matters just as much if it was already planned out as if it wasn’t.

DAMON
How?

VINCENT
Everything happens exactly the same as if which choice you make wasn’t already planned.

DAMON
But then nothing else could’ve happened. That was the only choice I could’ve made.

VINCENT
So what? Why does it matter if it was predetermined? The effect is exactly the same.

DAMON
I don’t know, I just don’t like it.

(Beat.)

DAMON
It’s like, why even try? Everything’s set.

VINCENT
Because if you don’t try, and waste away in an existential crisis or kill yourself, then that’s what was destined to happen.

DAMON
Then there’s nothing I can do.

VINCENT
You can just not do it.

DAMON
But it’s what’s destined to happen.

VINCENT
Only if that’s what you do. If you choose to keep on living and don’t let it bother you, then that’s what’s destined to happen.

(Beat.)

DAMON
But that’s not predetermination, that’s free will.

VINCENT
Depends on how you look at it. From our standpoint, it’s all the same thing. Just different names. In the grand scheme of things it is a bit different, but in terms of the consequences on our lives, there’s no difference at all.

(Beat.)

DAMON
I guess that’s true.

VINCENT
Yeah.

DAMON
I still don’t like it though.

VINCENT
Most people don’t.

(Blackout.)