Predetermined by Our Environment

September 26, 2013

How much does where we come from affect who we are? I was wondering about this because in our synthesis the subject of how our environment affects us came up and I couldn't help relating it to chapter two of Human Action. This is something that really interested me while I was reading it and of course more questions came to my mind.

In Human Action there were a couple of phrases that caught my attention. One of them was this one: “When he is born, he does not enter the world in general as such, but a definite environment.” I have always found it so interesting how we have no power over where we are born, and of course I believe that who we are depends a lot on where we are born and who raised us.  I don't think I would be the same person if I was born here than if I was born Russia.

Another phrase that I liked was: “Inheritance and environment direct a man’s actions. They suggest to him both the ends and the means. He lives not simple as a man in abstracto; he lives as a son of his family, his race, his people, and his age; he is a citizen of his country; as a member of a definite social group; as a practitioner of a certain vocation; as a follower of definite religious, metaphysical, philosophical, and political ideas; as a partisan in many feuds and controversies. He does not himself create his ideas and standards of value; he borrows them from other people. His ideology is what his environment enjoins upon him.”

So having mentioned both quotes, is it impossible to ignore where we come from? How much does where we come from affect who we are? I think that it affects very much and it determines a great part of who we are and what are actions are. But then if you are really trying to change and your environment or certain values don't go with what you want to be or what you want to reach, you can always change them; as Mises says: “As soon as he discovers that the pursuit of the habitual way may hinder the attainment of ends considered as more desirable, he changes his attitude.” So, I guess we can always ignore or set aside our origins.

But then I think that you cant absolutely change, there will always be a part of tht past that remains with you and will always affect your decisions and actions. So then this got me thinking that where you were born and how you grow up really, really matters. It is something that will cause a great impression on your life and will determine certain things. And it is also important because even though we might want to change them; there will be parts of us that will always remain the same. We will always be predetermined to choose certain things over others,  because we were ‘trained in our childhood to do them’. “His will is not ‘free’ … it is determined by his background and all the influences to which he himself and his ancestors were exposed.”

Being predetermined sounds bad, it gives me the shivers but then, the beauty of it all is that even though we might be predetermined  in some aspects, we still get to choose. And this is what is important because in choosing is where imagination and creativity comes.