I agree. We can ask that to every serial killer and if they replied “because I chose to” I would conclude that they are insane and deserve death or worse
I wanna reply to the other guy, but "because I choose to" isn't just a throwaway line or a badassitude. He's not saying "cuz I feel like it" - it's an allegory for consciousness, and in this scene specifically determinism (machines, algorithms, programs, the Matrix) vs consciousness (free will).
I choose to, as in "I think, therefore I am". The emergence of choice from what used to be stimulus and response, animal instinct, determinism through genetic programming. Love, aggression, the constructs Smith speaks of used to be purely instinctual, we had no choice or consciousness.
I'm not trying to get lost in the labels of "existentialism" or "stoicism" here, because it shouldn't be defined as any one thing, it's talking about consciousness itself, and I don't think those labels alone accurately define it.
If anyone's still reading- I think the logical conclusion of introspection (on consciousness) must be reached by asking yourself a series of questions. The final question you'll arrive at once you've deduced everything else, is - "Why?"
And the only answer is "Because" (..."I choose to")
If that doesn't seem particularly ground-breaking, well. "Before enlightenment: chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment: chop wood, carry water". You have to arrive at that point organically though - it happens in the series of questions you ask yourself that concludes with one question- "Why?". Not by just asking yourself "why"
But that answer excludes the morality of action. “I think, therefore I am” tells me nothing about how I should live in the world.
Example: Sure walk 1,000 miles because you “choose to”. but that comes with all kinds of implications and implied understandings. Choosing to walk 1000 miles in the real world implies you have legs, you aren’t walking in the middle of the highway, not walking directly through peoples homes, not at the bottle of the ocean, not walking across boarders illegally Etc.
What if agent Smith was fighting to save the human race while Neo decided to destroy it and Agent Smith asked that same question? Would “I choose to” (kill the human race) suffice in any rational sense. IMO no.
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u/[deleted] 15d ago
That was one dumb answer. Remembering facepalming watching this in cinema back in the day.