Our actions have consequences, regardless of how worthless or powerful a single soul may seem our actions will have consequences. This may stretch from simplicity such as receiving a smile and then passing such a lovely act on to brighten anothers day, or possibly as apocalyptic as our brutal and needless nuclear annihilation. Possibly these consequences exist as an interpretation of a book, such as Timothy McVeighs Oklahoma city bombing, inspired by the Turner diaries, but how could William Pierce have predicted such events when writing such an extreme novel, despite prior writing fictionally about a similar attack. How could Marx, upon suggesting an alternative to the useless labour of capitalism, have ever predicted the millions who would die in bitter gulags or the slaughter of entire political or social identities. Does this mean that Marx was wrong in producing his work? No, of course not, questioning whether or not this book should be accepted or rejected is a stupid denial of speech and thought. A valuable idea may turn to a violent one but in most cases where this occurs the violence was never intended, Marx and Engels were not killers, yet to this day their names stand on a mantle of murder.

However redundant and needless the feeling of regret may realistically be, foresight that is out of your control is forever painful. Scotland has attempted to pass a law that makes it illegal to incite hate speech. I'm unsure if you agree with me but this is utterly disgusting, both for a country to decide what would incite hateful views but also for them to simply limit speech in the first place. I believe free speech is the most important human right, and sadly hate speech is free speech. Now this law doesn't immediately plunge us into an Orwellian dystopia nor will it likely affect most Scots, however I fear for what this law will bring. Potentially in the near future those affected by this law (hate groups, extremists, xenophobes, etc) will be silenced and denied their views. This in turn isolates them and with no possible way to express themselves they may unleash themselves in a raging ball of flames against a minority group or an institution, and this may happen across the country when suddenly, in the pursuit of equality, Scotland has created countless domestic terrorist attacks. In the distant future this could show dictators or authoritarians that speech can be limited as long as a thin veil of social justice is placed over its hideous, human right defying face. Today we see free speech becoming a thing of the past, where groups such as Antifa may assault those who are simply centrists and where social media accounts are banned for simply saying something as trivial as 'retard.' Imagine a cruel scenario where to jokingly demean yourself becomes a crime, such a worrying thought. Those laws written to protect unrepresented groups may be the same laws that bring them harm.

However, even with foresight people may still accept and embrace hideous consequences. Gavrilo Princip may have anticipated a war being unleashed from his actions, however could he have predicted the extent of these wars. How could he have truly known the extent of genocide his assassination of Franz Ferdinand would bring. This is a choice I am sure Princip contemplated in his incarnation, however if his bullet didn't light the powder keg explosion then any other rogue spark would have. Both world wars brought destruction on an unprecedented scale yet they showed the extent of humanities destructive capabilities, they showed us our potential for self destruction and our naivety that we will stand with time. Pushing ourselves to a ruthless extreme allowed us to create barriers. When they nuked Hiroshima and Nagasaki no one could have predicted an arms race powered by viagra, when the Tsar Bombas destruction shook the world we knew to no longer test nuclear bombs above ground. Both world wars saw revolutionary technological advancements, granted a large amount of which were designed to tear humans apart and some worthless programs such as operation paperclip, however the second world wars medical advancements are far too important to overlook. The second world wars penicillin advancements saw mass production on a scale unseen previously, granted penicillin was discovered before the second world war by Sir Alexander Fleming. However the war also increased the potency of penicillin and in turn created multiple strains. Despite that periods undeniable morbid horror we can't deny the technological advancements of its era. The classic question of "would you go back in time to kill Hitler." However absurd of a question it may be I believe to do such would deny ourselves our current lives, maybe without Hitlers driving force Germany wouldn't have attacked Poland, or maybe their power drive and bitterness to the treaty of Versailles would have brought an even more destructive war. History may be nothing but a distant memory but it still affects us all today.

Friedrich Nietzsche wrote of Amor Fati, a beautiful concept to embrace every aspect of ones life. From embracing your harsh beatings or years lost contemplating suicide while depressed, you must embrace all of these moments of your life to seek peace in who you are. Achievements fill us with pride, but we were potentially pushed to achieve such through shame. We carry shame like a shackle burdening every conversation to action, but this shame can be used to better ourselves. For years I have felt shame in the fact I have remained unemployed for my short life, and instead of carrying a burden of that I simply took it as an example to change. One may feel shame in an unfulfilled sex life, instead of pursuing the widespread climax of many why not find comforting solace in one, why not vice versa. Nietzsche wrote "Amor fati: let that be my love henceforth! I do not want to wage war against what is ugly. I do not want to accuse; I do not even want to accuse those who accuse. Looking away shall be my only negation. And all in all and on the whole: some day I wish to be only a Yes-sayer."  The concept of Amor Fati is truly a concept that allows for oneself to flourish, instead of dreading on every aspect of your life and the pain it has caused you, it is better to simply embrace it, and if you cannot love it then learn how it shaped you to the blooming soul you are. To question your past is to doubt who you truly are, to reject your past is to deny who you truly are. How could we ever grow content with our souls when every memory aged older than a year is washed in regret and despair, embrace your disgrace and love your bitter sweet past.