No, you won't be President one day

This is a rant against liberal fairy tales that adults believe - when they really should know better.

But first, a note on terminology: I use the words "liberal" and "liberalism" to refer to beliefs and ideas deeply rooted in individualism; a "liberal" is someone who believes that the primary (and perhaps the only) purpose of society is to maximize individual choice. In the United States, this group includes all Republicans and most Democrats. Yes, the American political mainstream is pretty much composed of different shades of liberalism, and I cringe every time I hear an American politician being called "conservative." O Bismarck, where art thou?

We now return to your regular scheduled rant.

I have been pondering two related ideas: First, the way we often tell each other that we can be whatever we want to be, do whatever we want to do, achieve whatever we want to achieve. Second, the much-trumpeted concept of "personal responsibility," greatly loved by liberals, which basically holds that you have control over everything that happens to you, and therefore you should take the credit for your successes and suffer for your failures.

These two ideas are closely related. They are based on the belief that your entire life is in your hands, that your fully and absolutely control your own future. You can do anything, and if you don't, it's your own damn fault for not trying hard enough, you lazy bum!

If you don't see anything particularly unusual about this view of human beings as having near-godlike powers to shape themselves and the world around them, that is a testament to the level of acceptance enjoyed by liberal ideas in our society.

You think you are in control of your life? Heh. Let me tell you a story. How do you believe I got into this university? No, I don't mean the usual answer - "oh, I studied such-and-such, and did this-and-that extracurricular activity, and applied and wrote an essay." That is how I got to university in general. But how did I get into this specific university? I read its name from a list of hundreds of colleges. I skipped over many other names - I could have skipped over this one too, but I didn't. I noticed it had something I liked, and wrote its name down in a list of about 20 colleges that I wanted to examine further. Then I went on the internet and browsed the websites of the 20 colleges, picked a few I liked (no, I won't tell you what criteria I used), and I applied to them. And finally, I picked the final choice from those who gave me an offer.

Notice how much pure random chance was involved in that process. I might have skipped over first choice in the first list entirely and I would have never known it even existed. It might have had a bad website, causing me to apply somewhere else instead. The Admissions Department might have rejected my application. And finally, I could have chosen to go to a different college.

College experience is life-defining. Many people choose their future careers or find their future spouses in college. Your life may take radically different turns depending on which college you attend. And how did I make this life-defining choice?

I read names from a list and browsed some websites.

The future course of my life was determined by factors utterly outside my control, and by a few mostly-random guesses on my part. Perhaps you were different. Perhaps you chose your college differently. But how did you first hear about it? How were you admitted? What courses did you take once you arrived on campus? How did you choose your major? How many random events had to happen in just the right way in order for you to be reading this text right now?

To claim that you are where you are today through the sheer force of your own will is hubris. You are where you are today largely as a result of thousands of events outside your control. Your life may be in the hands of chance, or perhaps the hands of God - but certainly not your hands.

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