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Chance plays a big part in our lives
Wednesday, 31 August 2005
There is a modern fad for claiming that we are entirely to blame for anything that happens to us. This philosophy is complete nonsense, as anyone who thinks about it even for a moment can surely deduce. Our decisions do play a part in our lives, but chance has a just as large, if not a larger, influence.
That luck doesn't exist is the claim of the lucky. They're the winners in life, they tell us, and it couldn't possibly be because of so accidental a thing as fortune. It was all down to their hard work and cleverness, don't you know.
But the influence of chance is everywhere you look.
Is the situation an orphaned African child, who was born HIV positive, finds herself in the fault of that child? Can a handsome lottery winner in California really claim complete credit for his success? Of course not.
Even in circumstances where hard work and good decisions played an obvious part in the outcome, there are often many chance elements at work.
Tiger Woods, for example, has clearly put in a lot of work into getting where he is today. What is also clear, however, is that he was born into the right family and with the right natural abilities to become the world's greatest golfer. Tiger's father had him practicing with a putter at nine months old and Tiger was so good by age two he made it onto television.
What if Tiger had been born into a different family where golf wasn't seen as so important? Nobody in my family plays the game, for example, and I never tried it until I was well into my 20s.
Even more to the point, what if Tiger hadn't been born with his enormous natural ability? Many people undoubtedly work as hard as him on their game, and yet can never hope to reach his achievements.
Looking back on their lives, most people can see the influence of luck in many important areas. A chance meeting can eventually lead to marriage, a career change or even a tragedy. Buying a house in an area that suddenly becomes fashionable can have a huge effect on people's wealth. While they may kid themselves they were clever, often it just comes down to dumb luck.
Where you were born, what family you were born into and what natural abilities you were born with can define your entire life.
Those who proclaim that your choices are the only influence on your situation are just selling you a line. It's obvious to anyone with open eyes. Such falsehoods may be great for motivation - but ultimately lying to yourself isn't going to help things.
This doesn't mean that your decisions have no influence on your outcomes, or even play only a minor part. The balance between chance and free will in determining where you end up seems to be about even.
Like players in a game, we have no control over the cards we are dealt, but we can influence our chances of winning through the skill with which we play. A great card player can still win from a bad hand, but he can't direct what gets dealt to begin with.
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