TOPIC: ISSUE136 - "The absence of choice is a circumstance that is very, very rare."
WORDS: 490 TIME: 00:45:00 DATE: 2008-8-5 13:27:25
I fundamentally agree with the statement that the absence of choice is a circumstance that is usually quite rare, considering the common experience and the inherent nature of a democratic society.
Admittedly, there are some cases in which we have no choices to choose from. Some things are naturally determined, which is usually called "God-decided facts". For example, you cannot choose where you were born. You can not choose your born conditions-highborn or lowborn. And your gender as well as complexion is beyond your choice, neither. These kinds of things are out of our human power and leave us with no choice. However, these circumstances are very few, for the most times there're choices for us, as I discussed below.
On a personal aspect, we meet with many kinds of choices in our daily life, which is also a symbol of a democratic society. We need to look no further than the individual affairs we have to address every day. From trivial things like the food you choose for breakfast, the way you choose for going to your work company-by bus or on walk, the plan for a weekend-enjoy a good sleep at home or have a tourism outside, to important things such as where you will work, what kind of career you prefer and so on, we have to make so many choices in our whole life. Hence, who can assert that there are few choices? Some detractors may indicate that disabled people are not the same and the absence of choice is a usual circumstance for them. But in my opinion, even for the disabled, they have many choices specially designed for them. The example of Helen Keller well demonstrates this point. She, who is blind and deaf for almost a life time, was considered "the miracle worker". Helen Keller chose to commit herself to the welfare and education of the blind people in spite of her disabled body. Therefore, life provides us with quite a lot of choices.
For those who consider they have no choices, it is usually the subjective confinements they put on the circumstances that lead to the absence of choice. People rule out those choices that they don't like and find that no one left for them to choose. So they complain about the conditions. Nevertheless, it is themselves who shout to blame for no choice. Consider such an example, there are two jobs offered for a man who are hunting a job. One job provides with a relative low payment while the other one seems impossible for him because he is not capable of it. Then the man may conclude that he have no choice, which actually is wrong. He can choose the job with a low payment. From this example we see that usually people are to blame for absence of no choice because the restrictions they add to the circumstances.
In the final analysis, the absence of choice is a circumstance that happens rarely. Common experience tells us that there are always many choices for different kinds of people including the disabled. The case with no choice is for the most time a result of the confinement people add to it by themselves.
