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November 4, 2003
I'M HUMAN, AND I GET TO CHOOSE
It's early and the only thing that's really on my mind right now is the very simple fact that I'm human. As a human I'm capable of many extraordinary things... some good, some not so good.
Some days, even though I know better, I put my petty feelings above the real and serious feelings and needs of others, while on other days or in other situations I choose not to. Sometimes I surprise myself and those around me by coming up with a really profound or insightful observation, while on other days I struggle for what to say or say the most obvious sorts of things. And while I never intentionally try to hurt someone else, sometimes I do; and sometimes, when I'm trying to help someone, it actually works out. I drive fast, I drive slow; I gain weight, I drop weight; I over think some things while under thinking others; and I sometimes talk too softly and smile and fail to smile when I shouldn't.
More often than not I fail to give myself credit for the good things I do, have done, or think I can do, while at other times I catch myself saying "good me" when I probably shouldn't. I don't update this blog as often I should, while at the same time I probably write and share too much info.
At the end of the day, most of it bolis down to one simple word... Choice. Most of the time I get to choose. Do I always make the right choices? Certainly not, but that potential is always there, and that's what's so exciting about being human... we get to choose. Moving forward... I choose to try harder and to not try so hard.
Posted by Mikal at November 4, 2003 5:02 AM
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Do all humans really get to "choose"? Is everything really "choice"?
-Women still can't choose their husbands in many countries.
-Women still can't vote in many countries.
-Women in our country are losing the right to choose thanks to the Republicans.
Men always get to make choices. Women only sometimes do.
Choice is a wonderful opportunity and a huge responsibility. As you say, we don't always make the right choices, no matter how well intentioned we may be. As Christina says, not everybody has that luxury. In this country, we have more choices than most. I disagree that men always have choice. There are many times they are left out of the equation. They might just have different choices. We need to be very thankful for our good fortune.
Choice...an act of free will...is determining whether choice is a process in which different desires, pressures, and attitudes fight it out and eventually result in one decision and action, or whether in addition there is a "self" controlling the conflict, in the name of higher desires, reason, or morality. The assumption is that the free will of choice will always result in "good actions". Is not Christina's issue here really dealing with the choices others have made, and the resulting consequences --> determinism? While Christina still has the act of free will to make a choice, not everybody makes "good choices". So, in my mind, as agents of free will, it's our duty to make "good" choices that use higher reasoning and morality.
Interesting word to debate - "choice". Maybe choice is in the eye of the beholder. :-)
Christina, I find it interesting that you comment on other cultures and their traditions, which we might find "different." We are asked by society to be tolerant, and if not, we are called ignorant (absence of knowledge). Many say moral choice is relative to every paricular culture and individual. However, this ethical relativism view then supposes there are no common moral principles binding all human beings. It would then be right for those of us who have the tendency to believe there is a difference between right and wrong, and that we can arrive at common moral principles, that "we" can make good moral choices, and bad ones. Since we are human, we are not perfect, and will learn either through intuition, nature, or from others what the right, good, useful, moral choice is.
So Mikal...you've opened a can of worms on this one!
Brad, I recently read "Ethics for the New Millenium" by the Dalai Lama. You may enjoy that book if you haven't read it.
I find it quite interesting that I can write a blurb noting women in many countries across the world do not have choices - a proven and well-documented fact - and my expressions are questioned.
Cindra writes "We need to be thankful for our good fortune." Ask some women in the third world countries rounded up by men and forced into prostitution whether or not they have good fortune.
Brad writes "I find it interesting that you comment on other cultures and their traditions, which we might find 'different.'" I may have no tolerance for a culture that denys women the right to vote. This does not equate to me being ignorant.
I am making a simple fact. Women do not have as many choices as men. No, it's not that they have different choices. Women really don't have as many as men.
Christina...I think you read it a little wrong. I did not say you were ignorant or intolerant. I strongly believe that there are universal moral truths that transcend human cultural traditions, so any kind of act that limits the act of free will is wrong. So, I completely agree with the fact that we face today unprescendented pressures from the way we view and the way others view cultures around the world...including ours. I only wanted to clarify Mikal's and my own view regarding those many "ethical relativists" out there. The attrocities that these women, men, and children face is bad, wrong, lacks virtue, and is not useful to society.
Mikal: what an interesting subject. My apologies for weighing in a little late. HOWEVER, it seems to me that while some may hold certain moral truths to transcend all cultures, that positioning of the argument belies the fact we are not not talking about universal moral truths. Perhaps we ARE talking about a moral relativism - esteem (to the point of obedience?) for elders is mantra in some village, localized, and ancient traditions, but rather detached or even foreign in modern indistrialized Western societies where social security income, hospice care, and retirement homes are the height of respect and esteem.
Men do have more choices than women, generally and historically, in this country and almost every civilization, past or present. However, if we are to note that, it would be prudent to note that anyone disenfranchised and not part of the governing (literally or otherwise) structure has fewer choices than those in power (by whatever means): women, the poor, gay men, the illiterate, persons of color (in the US, for example), even the shy and the timid.
Plus, I don't see anything inherently wrong with moral relativism. It's the belief, de riguere and de facto, in most modern Western, democratic, and free market nations.
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