Self-determination: The Essential Key to a Human Life

n. Determination of one's own fate or course of action without compulsion; free will.

Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., described this concept very clearly and very accurately-- not only the need, but also the repercussions of its lack, the consequences when that which is a God-given right, a right to be protected uniformly amongst all people, as seen not as being every person's birthright but something which can arbitrarily be decided on, "given" or "denied" on the basis of the notion that some are more or less "deserving" than others. It is important to keep in mind that the attempt to assess someone else's value or worthiness for a life of self-determination, bypassing the simple fact that it is every human being's birthright, is based on power, and, quite frequently, selfishness.

"The absence of freedom imposes restraint on my deliberations as to what I shall do, where I shall live, or the kind of task I shall pursue. I am robbed of the basic quality of (humanness). When I cannot choose what I shall do or where I shall live, it means in fact that someone has already made these decisions for me, and I am reduced to an animal. Then the only resemblance I have to a (human) is in my motor responses and functions. I cannot adequately assume responsibility as a person because I have been made a victim of a decision in which I played no part.' (from Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? Martin Luther King, Jr., 1967).

Although Dr. King's book was specifically covering the unsatisfactory living-state of Black Americans in that time-period, the concept is no less accurate and no less valid in reference to individuals. The term "self-determination" is preferable over the word "freedom," for "freedom" can be taken in a negative light to mean freedom from-- such as responsibilities and obligations; but there is no such negativity connected to "self-determination"-- except from those who truly believe that a "life" should not be in the hands of its owner. In the real world, real life consists of responsibilities and obligations; this is rarely without some degree of sacrifice. But the deciding factor is whether sacrifice is chosen by an individual's own free will, based on it being "the right thing to do" under specific circumstances, or if it a matter of another person or people's selfishness, insisting that the individual should not have the free will to make such decisions in the first place-- that it is "all about" what someone else wants, "all about" what someone else gains. And this Oppression contains a factor which is all-too-similar to what Dr. King spoke of-- that some people are considered to be less deserving of human rights, and to hold the full status of human beings based on a life of self-determination, than others.

The line between sacrifice and oppression is much more obvious than one might initially consider. Less obvious, unfortunately, are the devastating consequences which occur in the latter-- not only in the wasting of the two most precious resources, time and life, but the consequences to any human being who is relegated to the position of "less than fully human" status by, in one form or another, being stripped of one's right to a life of self-determination-- that in which one "chooses," "decides," "determines" one's own course of action for one's own life. Sacrifice is a decision, made of one's own free will; Oppression is when others grant themselves the "right" to make the decisions for you, dismissing the fact that they do not have such a "right" at all. Whether oppression is attempted and/or accomplished by guilt-trips, threat, coercion, or any number of means, the "how" is far less relevant than the "why"-- some individuals simply have no qualms about viewing a human being as nothing but an object, a means to the end of gaining something, rather than acknowledging one as having full human status and full human rights to make and carry out the decisions for one's own life by one's own free will.

What you should or should not do with your life, what you should or should not do in your life; where you should or should not live; whom you should or should not marry; what type of work you should or should not do; these are personal decisions, and to make and carry out these decisions is a birthright. When someone else feels that it is his or her or their "place" to make these decisions for you, what they are really saying is that you are, in their eyes, a robot, an animal, an object-- lacking the basic quality of a human being.