Our country is founded upon the concept of freedom. Americans are given a plethora of rights, such as free speech and the ability to hold free assembly, but are our thoughts and actions really free? People are terrified of being controlled and yet, unknowingly, they submit to the whims of past and present stimuli. I chose to write this paper as much as I chose to be a male or have chestnut hair or ten fingers. Before I could start this journey into my own thought process and choice of actions, my topic had already been decided for me. We all fit into place as a jigsaw puzzle does on game night at the old folks home, thus is the nature of determinism, and thus our lives are held in check. Parallel to this, libertarianism, states that people are able to break free of the system. Pretending to have sway over one’s life does not warp reality to the will of the person, and as such, there is no way to call “hacks” on life and alter the natural course of actions. In my life, I have found that my quirks and addictions, choices and thoughts, do not come into being, but rather, they were forced upon me and have shaped me as a person.
In Aldous Huxley’s A Brave New World, prime examples of determinism are given regarding babies and how they develop which can be analogous with my life and how I developed. From an exceedingly early age, children become aware of their surroundings and learn from the atmosphere that permeates their environment. Scientists have conclusive evidence that children develop most before age three and this development is crucial to the psyche of the child. It will hold fast to basic concepts and these will be reflected in the personality of the child later on. “Till at last the child’s mind is these suggestions, and the sum of the suggestions is the child’s mind. And not the child’s mind only. The adult’s mind too-all his life long.” This holds true except for when more resent stimuli are able to undermine the foundation of knowledge in the child and alter it to something new. “There was always the risk of their reading something which might undesirably decondition one of their reflexes,” states that although a child may have learned something, it can be unlearned under the correct circumstances. An example in my life that is quite fitting to this is my interest in music. As a child, my father was the only close influence on my musical tastes. Due to this, I grew up liking classical rock, The Who, Buddy Holly, and many others. As I grew older, my friends were able to ‘inform’ me that what I enjoyed was not the social norm. Quickly I learned to adjust my tastes and now I sponsor an iTunes collection full of hard rock, punk, indie, and alternative. Without new stimuli, otherwise known as my friends, I would never have chosen to enjoy the music that I do today, because my father does not and would not have suggested it to me. There are many other examples of determinism in my life other than music, however, as every facet of my personality was shaped in one way or another by someone else.
Sometimes it is intricate work to pick and pry until the reasons for traits can be identified. In other cases it is much easier, as it is with Magic: The Gathering for me. My good friend Danny Inbar brought a plague upon me in the form of the addicting game of Magic. Last week, I spent more than I made from my job at Sears on the card game, which as a fairly money-conscious person, I never thought I would. I never made the choice to go out and learn to play Magic; rather it was dumped on me by Inbar with no effort at all on my part. It is not as if I am complaining, since I certainly enjoy the activity; however, I am addicted. A metaphor to explain the phenomena of determinism is as follows: I am a living chalk board, nothing more than a surface for other people to write on. The same principle is true for other people, as I am written on; I continually pass the message on to other people, even without knowing it. It’s similar to the Law of Conservation of Matter and Energy. The traits that make up our personalities do not spontaneously “poof” into existence. They shift from person to person, changing forms along the way. Inbar drew on my chalk board; I learned the joys of Magic and then proceeded to pass them on to other people. The individuals affected by me drawing upon them could quite possibly continue the chain and find more people to affect. In this way it is like a virus, constantly spreading without any conscious effort and action. Once again, this is not a horrible thing to shy away from; it is just a fact of nature. Determinism shapes people due to information being passed around constantly.
Although we cannot willingly change who we are, just as we cannot break the laws of physics, we are shaped into individuals by our past and present experiences. As a baby learns to like reading, or a teenager learns to drive, some outside force is always pushing them in a direction to become who they are and will be. People do not choose to become addicted, some spark ignited the fire that the addiction becomes. Rather than feeling bound and gagged due to fate’s hold on us, people should realize what happens will happen and worrying about it will not change anything. I am who I am because I was designed that way, and it feels good.
