Fatalism

Fatalism refers to the idea of a sealed fate: what must happen will happen, whatever one does to prevent it. Close to destiny, it heightens its inevitable and often endured character. Where destiny traces a trajectory, fatalism stresses powerlessness: no decision, no effort could divert the announced course of things.

This notion expresses a certain way of living with uncertainty. In the face of painful and repeated events, saying that "it was meant to be" sometimes soothes, because it lifts from the person the burden of having contributed to it. Fatalism thus offers a reading of misfortune in which the unpredictable ceases to be unpredictable: it becomes necessary, and therefore, in a way, bearable.

Yet it stands in direct opposition to the probabilistic view. For the latter, the future is not sealed but distributed: there are possible outcomes, each with its share of likelihood, and nothing is decided in advance. Where fatalism sees a single, compelled outcome, reasoning about chances sees a range of outcomes, none of which was promised.

Understanding probability tempers the idea of fatalism without dismissing it as lived experience. A string of setbacks can sincerely give the feeling of a relentless fate. Yet such runs arise naturally as soon as we multiply independent draws: they are a matter of statistical variation, not of a force bent on persisting. Attributing prolonged bad luck to fatalism then amounts to giving a face to what is, most often, only pure chance.

In the context of games, this distinction comes fully into focus. Rolling a die, flipping a coin or spinning a wheel summons no final ruling of fate: only an open result, started anew with each attempt. Understanding fatalism as a cultural and philosophical notion, and not as a mechanism of chance, lets us play with a free mind, aware that nothing was written before the gesture.