The soul of the puppet

Faced with the possibility of freedom, everyone wants freedom. Is that so? From the acclaimed author of Straw Dogs and Black Mass, John Gray offers a reflection on freedom and human free will.

The existence of free will has always been a source of human pride and vanity; however, the greatest forces surrounding us—biological, physical, and metaphysical—constrain our every action. Many writers and intellectuals have understood this condition, but instead of accepting it, they have waged constant struggles against it. We base our concept of existence on the idea that we have control over our actions, our consciousness, and our world, yet we are enslaved by the supposedly unlimited freedom before us, unaware that human life is guided by the anxiety of deciding how to live.

In a melting pot of references to theorists and writers such as Heinrich von Kleist, Giacomo Leopardi, Mary Shelley, Edgar Allan Poe, Jorge Luis Borges, Philip K. Dick, and Guy Debord, John Gray combines concepts of Gnosticism, science fiction, and the occult, weaving together religious, philosophical, and fantastical traditions to question the very idea of human freedom. The result is a thought-provoking and original reflection that shows that freedom is an illusion and that, like puppets, humans dream of escaping the torment of having to make choices.