The Lottery of Birth

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In the video “The Lottery of Birth” they talk about how our “birth is arbitrary, but the world that greets us is not.” This means that we cannot choose how we grow up, however; the society in which we live in does and even conditions us. The society that we live in shapes us greatly, it tells us how to think, act and how to live. How we are conditioned to accept everything that happens because “there is nothing we CAN do.” It talks about how to be able to be free of these norms; we have to realize that we have been conditioned in this way and must question ourselves and react if we want to change the world in which we live in. One claim that they made was that “society condition individual in such a way as to minimize the work and moral thinking.” I agree with this claim because as young children, we are taught to always listen and do whatever the adults tells us to do, no questions asked or be punished. Teachers tell us that we have to think on our own, make our own choices, but if we have a different opinion from them, they tell us that we are wrong and that they are right. So when we grow up following the lead of our parents, teachers, bosses, our authorities, we never question their actions or what they tell us to for fear of being punished or fired. We think that because it is only happening to us, or maybe not enough people collaborating, there is nothing we can do to change anything. For example, myself, I was working at a fast food restaurant, and I would always do whatever my manager said because I was too scared to say no because I did not want to be fired. I would always be called in to work even though it would be my day off. I was sometimes lucky to be able to at least get one day off a week. I felt that I was being taken advantage of but I would never say anything out of fear of making my manager angry. I felt that there was nothing I could do.

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