Circumstances make the man

http://www.youtube.com... I'll start out by playing a very relevant song. It's my personal favorite. Con's stance of being able to define one's self does not conflict with my original argument of one's culture defining them as a person. While there will always be amazing people who change the world like Nikola Tesla did, they are not the norm and are still defined by their culture. I don't mean to assume that Con is or isn't a fan of Tesla, but I most certainly am. I first heard of Tesla while Listening to this song on Joy Electric's album 'Hello Mannequin'. It quickly became my favorite for it's message of the futility of building a legacy. In the coming weeks I did a lot of research on who exactly this man was, and I was blown away. Tesla made some amazing discoveries, and it is an utter tragedy that he isn't remembered for them as much as he should have been. That said, Tesla's advances where naturally limited by the time-period he lived in. Remote control, alternating current and basic radar are but a few of Tesla's inventions, and to be honest these things aren't all that impressive anymore. They were amazing discoveries back in Tesla's day, but they're all very commonplace now. You can see a child utilizing all of these things just to play angry birds or call his parents to pick him up from soccer practice. As science has grown and literacy has expanded, these discoveries aren't as amazing as they were back in Tesla's day. Don't get me wrong though, I in no way intend to undermine what Tesla did for our world. But if Tesla where alive today, I have no doubt that he would create even more amazing things to revolutionize our world compared to what he made in his lifetime. He would have more advanced technology at his disposal, a plethora of different literature to study and he would even have different prevailing ideologies to work with. He would be a different man, because he would have different circumstances he lived under. On a similar note, had Tesla gotten brain damage before creating the Tesla Coil, those circumstances would have made him different man. He wouldn't have been remembered as the bad@ss who knew how to create a tower of lighting that could kill a man from a mile away[3]. In fact he probably wouldn't have been remembered at all. [3] http://www.damninteresting.com... There is a huge impact here; Circumstances can make or break a man. Free will has it's place to a degree, but no amount of free will could make a person have been born in a different time period. My birth date wills still be in 1993 no matter how hard I will it otherwise. However when we understand that even the most seemingly insignificant detail about a person's life could fundamentally change who they are, we realize that the circumstances surrounding our lives mean a lot more than our will live a certain way does. I have loved argumentation and clash since I was very young. I adored it when my step-mom, would engage me by arguing with me over anything and everything. However I probably wouldn't want to be a debate teacher had I never taken debate 1 my freshman year of high school. I would probably still enjoy argumentation because that's something intrinsic to my nature. and I may have even pursued a different career where I could still use those skills like being a lawyer or a politician -- but because of my circumstances in high school, I chose to go to school to study education so I could teach debate. Because of Tesla's circumstances in being born in the time he was, we studied electricity instead of computers. In conclusion, free will doesn't mean much in the way of changing a person's circumstances. Especially if those circumstances are not negative or if the person is not particularly aware of them. Circumstances regarding one's culture still define them and make them who they are, even if only to a small degree. Back to you Con!