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TOPIC: ISSUE136 - "The absence of choice is a circumstance that is very, very rare."
WORDS: 708 TIME: 0:55:00+修改 DATE: 2006-8-28
I strongly agree with the speaker that the absence of choice is a very rare circumstance, not only because choices have occupied nearly every inch of our lives, but also for it does rarely absence in the situation of so-called "no choice".
To begin with, people can easily find that choices encompass them in every field of modern society. Such as in education field, college students can freely select some courses according to individuals’ interest. In political region, residents are franchised the right to vote for their political leaders in elections. And in the shopping malls, a consumer can make decision to buy whatever needed and affordable. We are so used to them in our daily lives that sometimes even neglect the existence of these choices. Without choices, life is like a computer program that progresses step by step, boring and tedious. Fortunately, it is choice that saves us from such disaster and makes our daily lives colorful.
While to the contrary, some people complain that they have no choice on some issues or their choices are greatly limited. Afro-Americans find they are usually in the lowest social class just because of their skin color. Women are discontent with their gender since female are always regarded as better suited for childbearing and homemaking rather involving in the public life of business or politics. Some students even feel unsatisfied with the final term examination that they have no way to escape in order to get the diploma. And many constituencies get disappointed by politicians who are always full of shortcomings. These people, however, do not realize that their choices are not deprived since can at least choose their lives to achieve the fruition in either subjective struggle or objective analysis.
On the one hand, choices are available even for those who believe themselves are born unequal. As we all know, one’s skin color and gender are decided by his or her gene passed from parents, which has no mean to be changed by oneself. However, if they just accept this kind of life and do nothing at all, we say, they really choose not to change their situation. But Martin Luthur King chose to antagonize the unjust social reality and he leads the civil rights movement which finally achieves its goal by enacting the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act which made his “dream” came true at last. The famous feminist Gloria Steinem also chose to stand out and speak for women to strive for their equal opportunities in working professions and social status as men. These two examples illustrate that choose are always around us and if subjectively have the thought of fight for life, even born with differences, one can have choices--opportunity to get his or her lives changed.
On the other hand, even if the choices are limited or hard to decide, in some degree, one can still exert the right of choose. For one thing, one may find there is merely one choice for him, but if only there is one road, one has at least three choices: go ahead, stay, and move backward. So for those students’ harassment on exams, they could at least choose to go on with the schooling or quit to be self-made person like Bill Gates. For another thing, one may find himself facing a dilemma in which both sides have its pros and cons. Under this circumstance, the choice we are looking for is an optimized one that comprehensively evaluates both sides. As in the elections, every candidate has his Achilles’ heel, so we should pick up the best one in terms of our full-scale judgment. Hence, everyone can choose even from the situation seemingly limited or hard to handle and the choices are finally made by us according to the objective analysis
Accordingly, in my view, despite the fact that we all experienced the occasional feelings of being trapped in seemingly unselective situation, our lives are full of choices that the absence of choices is a very rare circumstance. The so-called “no choice” situations we heard from others, is just because of lacking of either subjective struggle or objective analysis. If only we care those choices, our lives could be changed in accord with our thoughts. |
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