Pre Destination Vs Self Determination People example essay topic

Pre-Destination vs. Self-Determination People like to believe that they have the freedom to choose to be or do whatever it is that they want to be or do; it is, however, quite the opposite. This sense of freedom is called self-determination. At the other end of the spectrum, when no matter what we do seems to make any difference or when events just seem to happen and we think about them as being out of our control or somehow planned by some force unknown to us (such as a God), that is called pre-destination. Self-determination has its limitations as to what people are allowed to do, but pre-destination has no limits of any kind. Self-determination is, in fact, used to mask pre-destination, to keep people content in following a pre-set path that life offers. Without pre-destination, how do we know what the weather will be like, or if the sun rises, or if someone will stop at a red light?

Without these paths where would our lives be going? People do these every day things that are simply there to keep them going down the path that they have always been on. When people get off that path, such as when they stop doing drugs, then their lives are on a new track. But the new track doesn't necessarily have anything unique about it, it's just a new path and already pre-determined. And once on a path, it is very difficult to veer away from the pre-determined, pre-disposed activities that a particular lifestyle requires. Smith 2 Pre-destination, not our life choices, guides our lives.

There is no other way to explain things such as people who grow up poor yet somehow manage to create a multinational company and become multimillionaires. Although some might say that these people chose to follow a particular path that led them to their fame and fortune. Instead, it should be argued that even if these people were born poor, they were they were destined to create that company. They were given the drive to make that company into what it was. Anyone can choose to start a company, but few actually have the ability to make that company a success. Choice does not have anything to do with ability: I choose to be a billionaire but I do not have the bank account to be one.

Predestination explains almost ninety percent of what happens in the world, from birth to death, and even pure luck. Self-determination cannot: you cannot self-determine yourself to have the good luck to win the lottery; but it may very well be that you are pre-destined to win the lottery because you have good luck. Self-determination, like the Army saying, "be all that you can be", is a lie that has taken over the human race like an epidemic. It is used to incite us to do things or behave a particular way and to cover up or make more palatable what people do not want to believe. Children in the United States are told over and over that if they just try harder, they can become whatever they want to be. Part of our cultural legacy is the legendary hero who "drags himself up by the bootstraps" to become famous, wealthy, or powerful.

Look at the example of Abraham Lincoln. What are children told about Abraham Lincoln? All the stories about how he studied by the light of one single candle (because his family was so poor) but rose up, conquered, and became president, champion of the world, reinforce the viewpoint that it is through self-determination, choice, hard-work, and dedication, that people can re-make themselves into anything they want to be. Smith 3 Even more insidious are the lies children are told about physical abilities and hard work. Through hard work and determination and practice, practice, practice, you too can become a professional athlete or a singer in a rock band.

This is not true. Beyond the adage of having to be "in the right place at the right time" (luck? Or maybe it's pre-destination. ), the physical prowess or ability that is required to be a professional athlete or somehow perform with a physical "gift" as in a voice, is genetically determined, and not a matter of choice. It is also said that self-determination controls not just one's physical actions, but creativity in the mind. If that's so, then why isn't everyone born with the ability to draw or paint?

There is a simple answer: they were not born for that purpose; they were put on the earth for some other purpose not having anything to do with art. In other words, for as much as someone wants to paint a pretty picture, it will not be his / her destiny no matter how many art lessons are taken. The ruse of self-determination also allows us to cope with events outside of our control by allowing us to "blame" other individuals for things that happen to us. For example, it is said that murderers have the "choice" to kill.

In other words, all people are accountable for their actions and no matter what, a person gone bad should be held accountable for them. So, if a victim's relative can think of the murderer as choosing to do this heinous act, then the death of a loved one is often easier to cope with than if the victim's relatives have to face the truth that it was just their loved one's time to die. Although it is true that, for example, after a terrible plane crash, we should look for mechanical failure or other "reasons" for the mishap, that is not all of the reason why we search and search for the magical "why" of a bad event. We humans have a need, a desire, for reasons and for explanations. Self-determination helps us to understand our world by allowing us to implicate others' actions as causes for unfortunate or disastrous events that happen to us. Never do we talk about the victim's "time to die" as a logical (because it defies logic) explanation for a volcano eruption.

Smith 4 Self-determination and pre-destination are, obviously, competing ways of looking at or explaining away what happens to us in life. If I'm hit by a car, I am simply in the wrong place at the wrong time (pre-destination) but I can fault the driver of the car who hits me because he / she has failed (self-determination) to operate a vehicle safely. Self-determination and pre-destination, although at opposite ends of the spectrum, often work together to allow us to rationalize the irrational, to understand the complicated, and to come to peace with events that happen to us that are just simply unbelievable to imagine..