No free will, only degrees of detachment

(By Hella Ahmed) I think that humans have no real free will; they are a product of their environment and their emotional, intellectual, and educational baggage.What people call free will, in the end, is merely their evaluation of things—of situations, possibilities, constraints. They “decide” or “choose” only to the extent that their material and emotional capacities allow them to push beyond the inheritance of other people’s prior decisions. This delimited process—evaluating and acting within the bounds of what one can realistically surmount—is what I call free will. It is real, but stripped of illusion: not the magical, contra-causal liberty of uncaused choice, but something altogether more grounded and finite.

This view echoes a long line of thinkers who have rejected the strong notion of free will:

– Baruch Spinoza (17th century): Men believe themselves free because they are conscious of their desires but ignorant of the causes whereby those desires have been determined.

– Robert Sapolsky (contemporary neuroscientist): In books like Determined (2023) and Behave, he argues we are the sum of biology, environment, and their interactions—no room for an uncaused “will” that could have authored itself differently. Neuroscience shows brain activity preceding conscious awareness of decisions, placing choice downstream of unconscious processes.

– Sam Harris: Describes free will as an illusion because thoughts and intentions arise without our authorship; we are more like passengers observing the script written by our biology and environment.

If free will is illusory in the strong sense, the implications for morality become especially stark. I observe a particular profile: some nihilists embrace growth while rejecting morals entirely. Because they accept there is no free will, they see no basis for genuine moral obligation—and so they possess none. What distinguishes them is the absence of that naïve, emotionally porous layer most humans carry, the one that leaves us open to manipulation through guilt, shame, or appeals to duty. For these individuals, growth narrows to a single aim: accumulating whatever power, resources, or autonomy insulates them from coercion by others. And precisely because coercion is the only real currency in a valueless world, they are willing to wield it themselves—to dominate, to control, to secure what they regard as the only meaningful freedom: an eternal, unbreathable independence.

I used to believe that psychopathy, for example, amounted chiefly to a lack of emotional empathy—but it is more than that. It also involves fragile or erratic impulse control, which can render behavior startlingly unpredictable. Some individuals remain outwardly stable—non-violent, or at least non-expressive of their hostility—for long periods, only to erupt suddenly, catastrophically, with no trace of remorse. 

They were “fine” until they weren’t; the mask simply dropped. The eventual legal loss of freedom is not an aberration but the visible consequence of a longer process—a tipping point. Having manoeuvred strategically for years, they finally stop caring about the broader structure of consequences; past damage has gone unpunished so consistently that they delusionally overestimate their invulnerability. In a deterministic frame, this is not moral failure but the logical endpoint of unchecked causal chains: accumulated impunity breeds escalating disregard.

No, I am not saying that “normal” people who do not commit crimes are naïve. Absolutely not. What I am describing are degrees of detachment. While some detach in a purely nihilistic way without resorting to physical destruction, they become profoundly self-centered and wealth-oriented, without compromise. They simply do not care about your feelings and will exploit you whenever the opportunity arises—provided they can mask it or operate in the shadows.

Sometimes they do not even bother hiding their frank psychological violence, delivering it instead in small, accumulating attacks: micro-aggressions that pile up over time. Many people mock the very concept of micro-aggression, dismissing it as irrelevant. They argue that adults are not supposed to be so fragile, or that anyone entering competitive fields should be able to withstand some human aggressiveness driven by ambition. Yet there is real destruction here. These patterns can inflict extreme emotional damage—leading to depression, despair, or even suicidal ideation.

Legally, the perpetrators are not guilty if they never issue a direct command—but if their repeated actions ruin your mental and physical health, erode your will to live, they come perilously close to forcing you toward self-harm. We see this in domestic violence, in deeply dysfunctional families, or in toxic work environments. Are they aware of what they are doing? Of course—when the abuse is repeated and sustained, awareness becomes part of the mechanism.

There is, however, another form of detachment that causes no harm. Some people simply pursue their own interests. Everything they produce stems from their own efforts and comes at no one’s expense. But they will fight back fiercely if the monsters arrive to drag them down or exploit them—they know the game. They understand that no one will truly lend a hand, so they stop wasting energy on the illusion of community (because, in the end, the rich always win). They know their taxes fund the good life of others; they know that many of the loudest moralizers are covert psychopaths, controlling people by pretending to help society stay composed and inclined toward good morals.

Yet these detached individuals can still have genuine, good-hearted interactions with others—they simply choose their company wisely and keep mostly to themselves. Above all, they refuse to feed the illusions spread by covert narcissists: they will not volunteer time or energy to save money for the rich, who live lavishly while flying private jets to luxury conventions where they lecture on good mental health and vibrant intentions for the people.

Listen : Do we have Free Will?  A shortcut to what is beneath the plot 

Hella Ahmed 2026 © All rights reserved – Find my books on Amazon