Lots of people talk about having the freedom to make choices. Free will and all.
But do we really?
It seems to me that choices are dictated to us. That we are boxed into making certain choices.
We spend a lot of time saying we "choose" this or that in our lives, but our "choices" are based (read: dictated) by our past experiences, income, time, energy, materials, environment, other people, what we have and don't have, likes and dislikes, events, circumstances, limitations, and fear.
I "choose" to work because the alternative is not having an income. I'd much rather stay home and read books, but if I want paid vacations, money to buy books, and the income to provide the roof over my head while taking those vacations and reading those books, I am boxed into working.
I "choose" certain things at the grocery store. Sure there are other things I'd rather buy but pricing boxes me into buying less preferred brands or items.
I "chose" to have three cats. I'd like to "choose" not to scoop the poop every damn morning and clean up cat yarf, but I'm boxed into "choosing to do so as I do not "choose" to live in a dirty home or have sick cats.
I could "choose" not to shovel my driveway, but then I can't get the car out. So I have to shovel if I want to go to work to get my paycheck which pays for the car and the garage for the car, not to mention the damn shovel.
To be healthy, I "choose" to count calories (although I'd MUCH rather "choose" to eat any damn thing in any amount I want) and go to the doctor's and dentist's. I did not "choose" to have a dentist phobia, but I have one and it dictated "choosing" not to go for 13 years until I made the "choice" to go to prevent a nightmare in the mouth - boxed in on both sides by my fear - to go means bad things, to not go means worse things.
Oh, I know, those Freedom spouters will say that I can "choose" not to work, I can "choose" not to have the car or the house or the books, I can "choose" to live without obligations - homeless, on Welfare shooting out babies that the State pays for, having taxpayers who "chose" to have jobs and homes pay for me to "choose" not to, I can "choose" to let all my teeth rot out to never ever go to the dentist again, I can "choose" to eat junk day in and day out and eventually "choose" killing myself with obesity related health issues.
But are those REALLY choices?
I read recently in one of my myriad of speculative non-fiction books, The ESP Reader edited by David C. Knight, that "[the Other side has] a steadfast refusal to give advice or opinions on matters of our everyday lives. The argument seemed to be that everyday life is a series of opportunities for making decisions; that those decisions form character; that making another man's decisions for him deprives him unwarrantedly of opportunity." (substitute choices for decisions)
On the surface this seems to be saying we do have free choice. Look and think a little deeper and "everyday life" becomes the box.
I don't know that I'm trying to actually SAY anything and I know my examples are not the best, but I've been thinking about this for a while now and a blog is a journal where you can type/write out your thoughts to see if you can disentangle them, clarify them, come up with some sort of perspective or point that makes sense out of the whirl.
Especially since we don't actually really CHOOSE our president. Now I've raised some points.
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