Can a person independently build his own destiny and choose his future? Or is he just a pawn in a game where all moves are planned in advance, and the outcome is a foregone conclusion? Personal growth coaches will not hesitate to say that a person makes himself. Fatalists are convinced of the opposite.
Who is a fatalist
A fatalist is a person who believes in fate. The fact that the future is predetermined from above, and it is impossible to influence it. This word comes from the Latin fátalis (determined by fate), fatum (fate, fate). Fatalists believe that a person's life path, the key turns of his fate can be predicted, but cannot be changed.
From the point of view of a fatalist, a person, like a train, moves along a route determined by fate from station to station, not knowing what will happen next, and not being able to turn off the route. And the schedule has been drawn up in advance by the higher powers and is strictly observed. And people are just a kind of cogs in a huge mechanism, each of them has its own function, and it is impossible to go beyond the boundaries of the destiny outlined by fate.
Signs of a fatalist
The fatalistic worldview naturally leaves its mark on a person's character:
- The fatalist is convinced that "what to be, that cannot be avoided," and this leaves a certain imprint on his worldview:
- Such people do not expect anything good from the future. Therefore, the word "fatalist" is sometimes used as a synonym for "pessimist" who is convinced that it will only get worse in the future;
- Denying free will, the fatalist does not believe in man and his capabilities;
- But on the other hand, responsibility for actions is removed from a person - after all, if all his actions are predetermined from above, then a person is only an instrument in the hands of fate and cannot be responsible for his actions;
- Belief in horoscopes, palmistry, predictions and prophecies, attempts in one way or another to "look into the future" are also a feature of a fatalistic worldview.
Fatalism in antiquity and modernity
In the worldview of the ancient Greeks, the concept of fate and inevitable fate played a fundamental role. The plot of many ancient tragedies is built around the fact that the hero tries to "cheat fate" - and fails.
For example, in the tragedy of Sophocles "King Oedipus", the parents of the hero, after the prophecy that their child would take his father's life with his own hand and marry his own mother, decide to kill the baby. But the executor of the order, taking pity on the baby, secretly transfers him to another family for upbringing. Growing up, Oedipus learns about the prediction. Considering his adoptive parents as family, he leaves home so as not to become an instrument of evil doom. However, on the way, he accidentally meets and kills his own father - and after a while he marries his widow. Thus, performing actions aimed at avoiding the destiny destined for them, the heroes, without knowing it, bring themselves closer to the tragic ending. Conclusion - do not try to deceive fate, you cannot deceive fate, and what is destined to happen will happen against your will.
However, over time, fatalism ceased to have such total forms. In modern culture (despite the fact that the concept of "destiny" plays a serious role in a number of world religions), human freedom of will is assigned a much greater role. Therefore, the motive "dispute with fate" is becoming quite popular. For example, in the popular novel by Sergei Lukyanenko, The Day Watch, the Mel of Fate appears, with the help of which the characters can rewrite (and rewrite) their own or other people's fates.
Who is the fatalist - Pechorin or Vulich?
The most famous description of the fatalistic worldview can be considered the chapter "Fatalist" from Lermontov's novel "A Hero of Our Time". In the center of the plot is the dispute between two heroes, Pechorin and Vulich, about whether a person has power over his own destiny. As part of the argument, Vulich puts a loaded pistol to his own forehead and pulls the trigger - and the pistol misfires. Vulich uses this as a strong argument in the argument that a person cannot control his life even in the desire for death. However, on the same evening, he is accidentally killed on the street.
Fatalists in this situation can be considered each of the heroes - and Vulich, who shoots himself without fear, guided by the idea that none of his actions can change his fate. And his death on the same evening for a completely different reason - confirmation of the saying that "who is destined to be hanged, he will not drown." However, Pechorin, who saw the "stamp of death" on the face of his opponent that day and was convinced that Vulich should die today, demonstrates a remarkable faith in fate.
