We make distinctions between alterable acts of volition and unalterable acts of nature, and we make these distinctions for the purposes of shaping and controlling our personal and collective behaviors.
Acts of volition can be directed and controlled, and subject to sanction and reward, whereas forces of nature simply wash over us and influence us with or without our approval.
In the same way, we make the distinction between mysterious and magical "emotions" and seemingly transparent rational controls.
But it seems in the end that these things merely exist as extensions of each other, in various stages of complexity, and there are times when these things can be controlled and shaped, and other times in which they simply burst free.
