Desire is king
In the seventh episode of the second season of Dark, a Netflix sci-fi show that explores fate, free will, and time travel, Adam, an older and scarred gentleman, has a monologue in which he claims that our actions are mainly driven by our desires. In his rough, German voice, Adam says, “[Humans] cannot free themselves from the eternal servitude to their feelings…Pain is their ship. Desire their compass, all that humans are capable of.” This portion stood out to me because I believe people like to think our decisions are our own but neglect to fully acknowledge what shapes them. We yearn to explore the universe while neglecting the one that rests within ourselves.
Adam is a character who believes that nothing we do can change who we are and, much less, fate. Of course, this is an open debate. Those who challenge this view do so while implicitly or explicitly embracing the notion of free will and negating pre-determinism. Adam is the antihero to Jonas, a man who wishes to break an endless cycle and rescue his true love, Martha.
The real reason why Adam always appealed to me isn’t because of his beliefs, but because I’ve always been fascinated with the human experience and our relationship with our perception of time and mortality. The human experience is one of the richest and complex phenomena we’ve observed. It’s almost inconceivable that we can detach ourselves from the present, relive our past or fantasize about the future. More fascinating still is human behavior. I’ve constantly asked myself why I do the things I do. Why am I attracted to certain things and not others? Do I have control over my life and its outcomes? Or am I just a slave to my feelings and desires?