Stray Bolts

Storms rock. There's the sunshine afterward to look forward to.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Words of the Prosecution III

"Humans are fragile, fickle beings. Our hearts change with the shifting of the tides." - Prosecutor Godot

What makes the difference between the resolve of one person against the resolve of another? We all know that different people have different levels of determination as well as decisiveness. Otherwise, there would be no need to even invent the words 'indecisive' and 'undetermined'.

There are many reasons why one's resolve would falter. Perhaps the two sides of a choice are equally important to the one making the choice. Perhaps one is threatened by external forces or circumstance to change his mind. These are but two of the many reasons why someone may appear to be fickle. It also implies human fragility as it shows that humans can be influenced to some extent to abandon their convictions and change their minds on the fly. In this case, then in boils down to the strength of one's convictions. If one firmly believes in something, and this belief is unshakeable, then getting such a person to change his mind would be akin to trying to wear down a mountain by whacking it with your fist.

Or you could say that it shows versatility and adaptability. After all, not all changes of heart mean a person is fragile. Take for instance, the student doing a maths question. Upon realising that a particular method of solving a question will result in a tedious and long-winded solution-making process, the intelligent student immediately switches to a method of solving which not only gets the answer faster, but is also easier on the marker's eyes. In some cases, the ability to quickly change one's mind can actually help the situation. We applaud this kind of 'fickle-mindedness'.

I believe that inherently, humans are fickle beings, and to some extent fragile as well, because we can be influenced. But unlike Godot seems to believe, this nature is not undefeatable by us humans, nor is it always a bad thing. While it is true that in some cases, some people deserve to be condemned for a change of heart, sometimes, they deserve to be lauded. Then we must decide for ourselves how to distinguish between the two.

If we think of it this way, Prosecutor Godot is not completely right, then.