Week 9--Thinking about our election choices

I think that people do have power over their lives and the ability to make choices that have weight. The kind of choice that Kingsolver writes about is actually about instinct: we do not have power over our biological choices. For example, we don't have power about who we fall in love with, because attraction is based on unconscious forces, namely pheromones--sex attractants that we cannot smell, but others pick up on and are then attracted to us.

However, we do have the power over where we live (mostly), and what kinds of people we meet, so in a way, we do have power over who our friends and lovers are.

And as far as elections are concerned, I strongly disagree with people who say their vote doesn't count. Of course it does! Its not like there are billions of people in America voting, so every vote does count if you consider all the people who came out to vote in this election and caused something like 99% voter turnout in some counties (like Montgomery and Bucks County) that ultimately helped win the state of Philadelphia and secure the win for Barack Obama.

I was talking to a friend and he asked me if i believed in free will, I said yes. He asked me if i believed in fate, and i said yes. Then he said, you can't believe in both free will and fate, it's contradictory. So does it matter what we choose? In my opinion, it depends on the types of choices we make and big the choices are. For example, it matters what choices we make for little decisions that immediately affect us, like what we eat or what time we choose to sleep. However when choices and the results are bigger than just are individual decisions, like the election, I think it matters to ourself which choices we make and if we really believe in those choices. However because the population is so big that it does not really matter if I voted for Obama/ McCain, becuase even though they say one vote can change everything, the chances of one vote making the final decision is rather slim.

Choice is an integral part of our political system. That also means that citizens must believe that choice matters. For a long time voters felt disenfranchised and stopped voting. The low voter turnout left many groups voiceless and powerless. After watching the elections and the focus on the disenfranchised, the first time voters, and the youth, rather than the "likely voters". I was never convinced that choice wasn't powerful. I have always believed that voicing your opinion and your choices has been incredibly important. But i think for the rest of my generation this could be the evidence they were looking for.

I really believe our individual choices do matter.  Sometimes it is hard to imagine that our choices can really affect more people than just ourselves.  For example in this election, there were many times when I thought it really didn't matter who I voted for or even if I voted at all.  But what it really comes down to is, if everyone thought that then no one would vote.  So in situations like that, you can't be apathetic because if you just wait for everyone else to do something, then it might never happen or not happen in the way you want it too.  There are hundreds of examples of one person making a difference, and that can be countered with there are millions who haven't.  But those people who made the difference certainly weren't thinking that.  We have a lot of power with our choices, and when we don't make a choice we are allowing others to make a choice for us.

I almost completely agree with Natalie. The simple, almost obscurely miniscule choices I make out of repetition and self-structured procedures all act as stepping stones for the greater decisions in my life. Though my choice of lunch today may not immediately affect my long term health if I continue to make a choice to choose food unwisely I could feel the effects of those long-term misfortunate choices in my overall health.

As for the election, I believe it is the civic duty of every American citizen to vote in elections for elected federal and state officials etc. However, it is a voter's choice whether or not they make informed voting decisions. If voters choice to be informed about candidates  running they can use their vote as an "opportunity of choice" in which they as well as other voters pull together in order to enact change on a LARGE SCALE. It is a choice to abstain from voting, however that choice is indicative of a distancing from the electoral process and therefore and concession of ability to dissent from an elected official's policies. To vote it to be an active enabler of change in one small entity and to hold that power as an American citizen is incredible. 

As I mentioned in class, I think that how I choose to respond to external factors matters a great deal to me, but that I have very limited control over external events.  When it comes to the world at large, and, specifically, the election... I don't know what large policy difference our choice of president will make. I have personal hopes for certain issues, but no real expectations.  When I walked through my West Philly neighborhood after the election was called, however, my (primarily African American) neighbors filled the streets making music on pots and pans, dancing, cheering.  The look of unrestrained joy on their faces jarred me out of my typical tunnel vision and I realized that this moment made a huge difference for these individuals as they saw the potential for the lives of their children dramatically expand.  It was a big margin and if I hadn't voted (and if everyone I knew hadn't voted) it wouldn't have changed the result a bit, but the fact that I participated welcomed me into the celebration.  I think the fact that my neighbors voted empowered them and personally connected them to historical change. So I guess I think that the choice that makes a difference is the choice to choose, regardless of the long-term effects of whatever choice is made.

My instinctual response is -- YES! Of course your choices matter! Speaking strictly about the election; regardless of the outcome in whichever state you voted for, if you voted, you supported a candidate based on your own personal opinions. Even if the candidate you supported didn't win the state you voted in, your vote still mattered. How so? Because voting, or in general making a difinitive choice, you are solidifying and supporting your opinions, whether publicly or to yourself. Perhaps it's an idealistic view point, but your choices should matter to you even if they don't matter to anyone else.

I have a friend from home, who is a socialist. He is registered to vote and consistently goes to the polls to abstain from voting. To most this may seem like a ridiculous idea, but his ability to choose -- or in this case to abstain from chosing -- really does matter to him. His opinion is that he does not support any of the candidates, but instead of passively sitting back and complaining, he makes an effort to solidify his opinion in his own eyes and in the eyes of the government. My mother's addage rings out in my head: "If you don't vote, you can't complain!"

A while ago (as in probably until senior year of high school) I looked at voting as rather pointless.  I couldn't see the point of voting when I was up against millions and millions of other people.  I still would have voted because I think it's a social responsibility, I just wouldn't have felt very impassioned about it.  However, as this election has neared I found myself more and more invested in the election than I ever expected to be.  In this same time period I also started to make more of my own opinions.  I have always been an extremely indecisive and un-opinionated person. While I did have preferences, I never felt strongly enough to want to counter someone else's opinion by sharing mine (some may say this sounds like lack of confidence...I'm not sure). This always bothered me because I never felt like I knew who I was. However, in the past year or so I have found myself caring enough to create stronger opinions and share them.  This is connected to choice because, to me, having opinions is a large part of making choices.  So, I guess to me it does matter what I choose (even if I don't share it) in that it helps me define myself.

It would seem that to the person making the choice their decision would matter to them because it would have an impact on their life. But is that really the case? When you think about it on a much larger scale, one individulas choice doesn't have much of  an impact  on the world. In Deanna's case she is reflecting on the fact that what she wants doesn't really matter in terms of how it will affect the world around her. The world will remain the same regardless of what she chooses, "The world was what it was." Just as everything in nature people live and die so in the long run individual choice really doesn't matter.

 

i think we would all like to believe like our choice matters. in my opinion, my choice didn't matter.  i wish i could say that voting made me feel like i could help make a difference, but i feel more like a fish lost at sea. i feel like it was just another persons opinion but didn't make a difference. hopefully one day i will realize the effects one vote can have.

I think that our choices do matter.  Deanna might have thought near the end of the novel that her choices didn't matter because she realized she could not control how Eddie Bondo thought or acted.  However, the last line of the book is "Every choice is a world made new for the chosen."  Our choices about how someone else should be does not necessary have the ability to change them, but it still have the potential to.  Any choice Deanna makes, or I make or anyone makes, is going to affect something or someone, somewhere.

Even though thousands upon thousands of people voted today, my vote still counted.  It doesn't feel like my vote alone will make all the difference, but my vote along with others votes will help choose a very important aspect of everyones lives.

Every choice I make directly affects my life at least.  My choice to come to college will have an immense impact on my life.  And even on a very small level, my choice to be sitting in collier library right now and working on my homework will affect the amount of work I have tomorrow and therefore my stress level.  I think that this course has proven to me even more that my choices do matter.

I do agree with Deanna - it does not matter what we choose, since some things are not within our control. It may be to the best of someone's interests to act a certain way, but that does not mean they will choose to act that way or that an external force can necessarily persuade them to act that way. We are on a daily basis thrown into situations we did not choose to put ourselves into. Our authority lies over how we react to the situation at hand. We do have agency over responding to choices, not so much certainty that what we choose will deliver the result we desire. That said, I do not want to be completely reductionist. Not everything is beyond our control, and to an extent it does matter what we choose. What I am trying to say here is that - within limits, what we choose does matter, yet in the larger sphere of action and consequence, our choices are like an individual atom is to a bigger molecule - a randomly orientated moving particle.That particle can make a difference to the molecule, but statistically the chances are not very high - that does not mean it does not happen. That is how it is with individual choices.

 

In terms of the Presidential election, it really does not matter at all who I choose.  It would, if I were, you know, American ...