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There's no Such Thing as Willpower

A couple of centuries ago, people didn't know how animals, or planets worked, so they blamed a god. Once people learned about where the big animals came from, the gods were still responsible for diseases, and inventing the animals in the first place, as well as making the basic matter in our universe. As people understood more of how our world works, the gods were responsible for less. It was clear, after some time, that our gaps in knowledge were being filled in by a god. This idea is known as the 'God of the gaps' theory, and I'm proposing that 'willpower' functions the same way.

Older people stereotypically ascribe more to willpower than younger people. When someone has a hard time getting started on a project, but doesn't appear to be bleading, they tend to ascribe this failure to willpower. More recently a plethora of causes concerning seretonin, habits, B12 deficits, and similar, have all jumped forward as new explanation of why people can or cannot do something.

Any time someone who felt down takes a pill, then recovers, the problem was clearly the absence of the pill, rather than a lack of willpower. However, if no pills are sufficient, no diet-problem or exercise deficit apparent, then an explanation must be found, and the one-size-fits-everyone cause rears it's beautifully simple head again.

Just try harder

If things perk up after that, then evidently this person should 'just try harder' all the time. Exactly how much everyone's trying on average, per day, isn't known, and it seems can't be known. Just ask anyone and they're trying 'quite a lot', which (if we believe them) means everyone working exactly the same amount. Exceptions may be found, but any time we ask someone why they're trying more or less than usual, the conversation will instantly break down into causes. A death in the family plus unemployment means someone's really struggling, while a better job, and just feeling better about the world now that Spring is back means someone is trying less. Causation rules the roost, and willpower retreats from the light, into the dark corners of the mind where we blame ourselves for any failure without a definite cause, or judge others who (we are quite sure) show no proper cause for acting as they did.

The Results of Non-Causation

What I really object to here is the methodology, which is essentially 'no methodology'. If someone's having trouble getting up in the morning, having a shower, and brushing their teeth, they might be pained by the question of why they're having such trouble.

I'd like them to keep that pain. I hope it nags at them, prompting to search for some solution. Maybe they need more Sunlight. Maybe they could just accept that getting up late does no harm to anyone. Maybe they should eat more salt.

The great thing about these solutions is that they can be wrong, and it's fairly easy to see when they're wrong. If someone repeatedly takes vitamin pills, but doesn't feel better, apparently vitamin pills aren't the answer.

However, when it comes to gods and willpower, the solution is never wrong. What new animals could a god make? Any. And what happens when willpower isn't prompting you to get your shit together? Just more willpower, because apparently willpower didn't fail you, you simply failed willpower. You did the spell wrong, and have to do it again, forever.

I'm not suggesting for a moment that people can't try to do things, but when they try and keep trying, there are reasons, even if we can't see what those reasons are.