Delusional dichotomy: decisions & distractions

Decisions are hard. Decisions may be our bread and butter — as everything we do is inherently a decision — yet they also are our most dreaded enemy: as decisions determine, at long last, what we get to have and what we forever lose. Future decisions are the origin of our anxieties, and guilt and depression may arise from misguided past ones. Decisions appear to be the only way with which to advance in our lives, but any advancement permanently serves as a nail in the coffin, eternally severing our current lifestyle and the next. Naturally, many then engage in a wide array of methods with which to delay decisions, or outright avoid them altogether — distractions.

And yet, we appear to hate distractions too. 

We look down upon them, for some may refer to them as procrastination, as laziness, as cowardice. They come in many shapes and forms, but their result is the same: momentary escapism. Although this is our typical line of thought, is it really the case?

Perchance we ought to reflect on where these ideas come from and not be so quick to judge and attribute malice to distractions, but rather, merely refer to distractions as a particular lifestyle — perhaps a glorious one, or even a peaceful one. Certainly, to scroll through your phone’s social media feeds, overriding your entire soul with dread and lethargy, can be considered a distraction. And yet, is exercise not also a distraction? A walk down the street, a delicious meal, a riveting novel, a joyful time shared with your loved ones, a cleansing laugh and roses cracking through the pavement, greeting you on the side of the road. These distractions seem hardly to inhibit your life, but all the opposite: these ‘distractions' are what life is all about. 

On your deathbed, will you complain to your friends and family that you wish you had spent less time doing that which you love? Will you groan, wishing you had worked longer, harder? One more homework assignment, one more spreadsheet and your life would have been significantly better? I profoundly hope you do not believe so.

Thus I ask, these distractions we speak of, they are distractions from what, exactly? From decisions, sure, but decisions to do what? To continue with our “path,” our predetermined journey in a sporadic civilization? 

Why, we have absolutely demonized distractions in our hyper-productive, hyper-consumerist society. Whatever we do that does not progress our career, further fatten our profit margins or sharpen arbitrary skills is a disgrace, a shameful and ill-informed path. Indubitably, we have purposefully misunderstood the nature of distractions.

After all, what are distractions, really? To choose to avoid a decision is, in itself, a decision, is it not? Somewhat counterintuitive to consider, indeed, but in the avoidance of a decision we have made a decision after all. We decide not to decide, and engulf ourselves in distractions. It is not that decisions must be made, but that decisions will be made, regardless of what we do: as silence is a response, so too is inaction an action. 

Let us push this further: if distractions are what give life meaning, and they are only attainable by the illusion of striving away from decisions, are decisions not innately distractions? Decisions distract us from distractions, after all. Which are, in the end, decisions. 

Evidently, this entire system is cyclically ridiculous and has begun to fall apart. Distractions are decisions and decisions are distractions, but they are so fundamentally different whilst being entirely identical. A clear, logical contradiction. Not that human experience and the social constructs we have surrounded ourselves with need be logical, for that matter.

Ultimately, we are presented with a false dichotomy between decisions and distractions, framing them as opposites, as the smart and the dumb, as the productive and the wasteful, as the right and the wrong, but such conniving distortion is outright delusional. Be it for order, for control, for comprehension or due to pure, ignorant inertia, this is simply a misconception. The universe cares not for what you do. There is no forwards or backwards in your life other than what you decide for yourself (or otherwise deceive yourself into believing). 

Such appears to be our most fundamental decision. Our greatest power as human beings, the authority to decide the framework with which to classify the entirety of our decisions, distractions and delusions: all of which are one and the same. We may not realize it. Indeed, we may have been lied to about it, but we do possess such dominance over our fate. And that is the greatest freedom one could ever strive for. 

Hopefully we can make a decision we will be content with. But, even if we don’t, maybe it is for the best that we distract ourselves, just once in a while.