So here's my midterm paper for Philosophy, if anyone cares to read it.

I'd love some feedback.

It's supposed to be a paper about a belief, using an allegory to support it.

Considering it's 1100 words and I wrote it in about 70 minutes, I figure it might be a little wacky some places...

So yeah, any comments would be AMAZING.

 Ella
Wheeler Wilcox once wrote a poem, and it went a little something like this:

 One ship sails East,

 And another West,

 By the self-same winds that blow,

 Tis the set of the sails

 And not the gales,

 That tells the way we go.

 This
is not only a perfect introduction to my allegory, but also to my belief. There
is something that American culture has been trying to sweep under the rug for
some time now, and to an extent, it has been successful. As part of human
nature, we love to play the blame game; of course, above all we hate to lose,
and passionately so. There is one rule that game relies on for its existence:
human choice.

 Also
known to us as our “free will,” human choice means that we all, in reality,
truly do have control of ourselves, and what we do. This is, of course,
regardless of our circumstances, however dire they may be. Just as quickly as
choice enters the equation, the ability to make excuses is intrinsically
required to “up and go.”  Contained
within this power to choose our own path is the choice of the right path, or in
the case of the wicked, vice versa. The part that we as a culture are not
particularly happy about is that this means that when we cause injustice to
others or ourselves, it is truly our fault. There are not any amount of
circumstances that the blame for our individual decisions can be put on.
However, it can be said that there are exceptions to this.

Now, as Aristotle discusses in his Books of Ethics, there are two distinct
situations where injustice should be pardoned on account of circumstances. On
the one hand, you could have been forced or used against your will, and on the
other, you may not have had correct knowledge of your situation. However, I do
not believe it to be unreasonable that one should not assume a position of
authority without having appropriate—if not exceeding—knowledge of the field
which he or she will set over. Also, as this discussion is specifically on the
topic of personal choice, circumstances involving physical force against one’s
wishes will not be involved. For clarity, personal choice can be allegorized by
whitewater kayaking.

In a kayak, you are alone. You are in sole
control of your kayak. The rapids whisk you along, but you have the power to
steer yourself through them with your paddles. Now, unfortunately, some people
are not very talented rafters, and concordantly are not very dexterous with
their paddles. They fly to and fro across the river, barely missing the
occasional rock, yet occasionally smashing head-on into a fellow kayaker or a
very large boulder. Ever more
unfortunate are those rafters that are completely unaware that paddles were
even given to them. They find themselves wherever the volatile waters care to
take them. The damage caused to others’ vessels, as well as their own, runs
high and rampant; yet, we only hear them complaining that they are not in
control of their own trajectory. They show no sign of even the slightest realization
that they could direct themselves, and rather deftly at that, if they would
simply pick up their paddles and start steering. But it is to no avail; they
are blinded by the spray of the river, thrown by their ever more chaotic ride
towards destruction.

To the amazement of many, these are, oddly, not
the most destructive riders on the river. There are some that may try to guide
you right into a rock, saying it is only a wave; they may push you such that
you ram into others, damaging both of you; they may even fortify their boats,
such that they may purposefully ram you or others, with little to no damage to
their own raft. The best way to avoid such downfall is to steer clear of these
folk, as soon as you know they are trouble.

To our great joy, these are not the only three
types of rafters on the river. Some wisely chose to pick up their paddles early
in the stream, when the going was not so rough. These rafters, like any other,
did not magically have the coordination necessary to go precisely where they
wanted to be at any given time. But, with practice and enthusiasm, they slowly
gained knowledge of all of the intricacies of the river, and how to tame it
with their plastic swords. The oldest of these rafters could almost take on
waterfalls without flinching. As was said, they were not such experts; nay, we
must all start somewhere.

In this allegory, the river is life, and we, the
rafters. Each of our kayaks represent our individual experience of life. The
incapable rafters are those who try to make choices, but are not well
practiced; we may at least applaud their efforts, and in most cases, they will
eventually gain more ability. The ones unaware of the paddles are the people
you will find who refuse to take any sort of responsibility for their actions.
They can cause great personal damage, but you would never hear that from them.
They do take damage as well, however, and will eventually sink. Those who
misguide or even attack others’ kayaks are the day-to-day foes of the world;
they often cannot be helped. They are more obnoxious than evil; the best course
of action is often to simply avoid them.

Finally, there are the wise: the ones who see the
potential in their paddles early on, when the river is not so rough that it
will be difficult to learn to maneuver it. These are the people that take
charge of their lives. They have responsibility, and integrity. Through
practice, they have learned to make wise decisions, and these decisions keep
their lives above water. It may take a little (well, a lot) more effort at
times, but in the end, it is the best path to take, for yourself, and others.

I believe that this example makes it fairly clear
which role one would wish to play in this river ballet. As the Christian
philosopher Origen once noted, “The power of choosing good and evil is within
the reach of all.”

When the ships leave the harbor, which boat will you be on?