The Primary Choice Being Focus or Drift

1. Focus is volitional;
2. focus is the logical antecedent of any other choice;
3. the primary choice is whether to focus or drift.

Because focus/drift is a primary this means it does not rely on anything antecedent to it (within the conceptual realm that is). You cannot reduce the choice to focus down to either prior choices made by the individual, or to their “social conditioning,” or to their race, or to any other facts about them (this is implicit in the fact that it is a choice—choices cannot be determined by any other data). It is the primary choice. Of course, focus does depend on prior facts about reality, such as that the individual is conscious and that they exist, but these are not volitional—hence why focus is the volitional primary.

This is not to imply, either, that the choice of focus or drift is in some way determined by the fact that man is conscious, or that he exists—these are just prior requirements. It is still a choice, and in the hierarchy of choices, it is the primary.

For the same reason, there can be no motive or value-judgment which precedes consciousness and which induces a man to become conscious. The decision to perceive reality must precede value-judgments. Otherwise, values have no source in one’s cognition of reality and thus become delusions. Values do not lead to consciousness; consciousness is what leads to values.

In short, it is invalid to ask: why did a man choose to focus? There is no such “why.” There is only the fact that a man chose: he chose the effort of consciousness, or he chose non-effort and unconsciousness. In this regard, every man at every waking moment is a prime mover.¹