Life's course can be explained by agency and environment. We all know environment, including luck, is important. But what motivates people to write agency out of the picture? Agency is what makes us distinctly human.
Perhaps by belittling agency, people feel better about their own disappointments?
I see people from similar backgrounds achieving very different outcomes in life. Myself, I come from a poor rural area that many people of my peer group did not escape. I'm proud of my life today, though it is not perfect. I can say it was damned hard to get here and I am happy to be here.
What role did agency play in separating my more successful peers from the ones at home in their parents' trailers with no meaningful occupation, often accompanied by unplanned children and drug problems? I think it is greater than 0%.
I honestly believe that you have to be born into privilege to believe something like "You are the least important factor in your success". I cannot believe it after seeing what I have seen.
Moreover, when privileged people tell the world that success is all luck, I fear that it has a poisonous cultural effect. You are telling all the would-be strivers in the world "Give up. You lost the lottery at birth. What will happen will happen". I tell them "Fight harder! You'll make it! Keep trying!". Yes, the reality is that some of them will never make it. But if they fail, they'll fail with dignity and self-respect. That's worth something.
Are you male, white and born in America? Sounds pretty lucky to me.
But then again - you probably can't see past your own ego (fundamental attribution error FTW). Let's see you fight your way out of being an AIDS infected baby born somewhere in Sudan.
> I see people from similar backgrounds achieving very different outcomes in life
Similar backgrounds. Different outcomes. Take the delta - you get luck.
> I fear that it has a poisonous cultural effect
Ah yes - attributing success to oneself is soooo much healthier.
> You are telling all the would-be strivers in the world "Give up. You lost the lottery at birth. What will happen will happen".
Straw man. Never said that. Only indicated that your success is dictated to you by both your environment and your DNA.
> Yes, the reality is that some of them will never make it
s/some/most/g
> privileged people tell the world that success is all luck
You are privileged - but you obviously can't see that (how many people have access to safe water again?). It's to your own benefit that you attribute success to yourself.
>"Let's see you fight your way out of being an AIDS infected baby born somewhere in Sudan."
Oh I certainly agree with you that there are people born in terrible circumstances, much worse than anything I will ever experience! But I fear you are setting up something of a straw man by picking out the worst case scenario. The truth is that people are born into a range of circumstances some of which are easier to work with than others. But being dedicated to doing the best with what you have is important if you want to get anywhere in life.
I know that good choices and the willingness to tolerate a lot of pain can send you out of the rural south to a tech job in California given enough time. And I know that bad choices and shortsightedness mean you are living off government benefits in a skeezy trailer park, a parent before the age of 20, and never leaving your home state.
I do count my blessings. And I know there are some circumstances which I would not be able to overcome. But I can't believe that a person has no agency in his life.
You seem convinced of your position. I wonder what evidence convinced you of it?
(And I often find racial stereotypes to be numerically ignorant. The complete distribution is not described by the mean or the outliers.)
I just want to make it clear - one should not attribute one's success to one's own hard work. Nor should one blame one's failures solely on oneself. Both make the fundamental attribution error.
> And I know that bad choices and shortsightedness mean you are living off government benefits in a skeezy trailer park, a parent before the age of 20, and never leaving your home state.
Being born in that area is a strong predictor of ending up in that skeezy trailer park. I don't particularly blame them from ending up there. No different to poor Africans really.
Your other comment said that you try to make sure you don't attribute any of your success to your own hard work and study. Um, what does that even mean? You think the actions and mindset of the individual have absolutely zero effect on the outcome? As an experiment, why don't you try completely eliminating that variable and just stop trying, to see if it has no effect on where you go. Not only that, but how do you account for two people who are born in roughly symmetrical situations who go on to have completely different outcomes? While I like the part of your philosophy that acknowledges grace and appreciation for what you've been given, I think it's a bit absurd to remove yourSELF from the equation of where you're going, unless you have some massive guilt-complex that follows you around biting you in your own ass and this somehow alleviates it.
Okay, so you appreciate that your environment has played a role in where you are and where your going. That's valuable to acknowledge and - as an egoic and often delusional species -sometimes we lose track of that. But all your comments seem to reflect that you think the agent plays zero role in it's own outcome. Or, if you have refined it to a more plausible second point, what evidence can you provide me that the environment plays more of a role than the agent. If you want to start talking philosophy and determinism, then I'm happy to, but I really urge you to start making some really bad decisions to see how much effect your actions make. Seriously, stop wearing a seat belt, start yelling at every person you meet and being hostile to them, stop wearing clothes in public, stop working or taking any risks whatsoever, stop applying yourself to anything you love, go drink a handle of whiskey every night, completely stop exercising, play WOW for 18 hours a day, don't study philosophy, be close minded, tell yourself you hate yourself everyday. Just stop evaluating the effects of any decisions you make whatsoever. Seriously, lose all ownership, after all, the environment is the major determinant of what happens to you, so it literally doesn't matter if you decide to do these things. What've you got to lose?
> stop wearing a seat belt, start yelling at every person you meet and being hostile to them, stop wearing clothes in public, stop working or taking any risks whatsoever, stop applying yourself to anything you love, go drink a handle of whiskey every night, completely stop exercising, play WOW for 18 hours a day, don't study philosophy, be close minded, tell yourself you hate yourself everyday
My environment has disincentivized me from such behaviour - either by law or upbringing. Hence I don't partake in it. I'm sure if my environment was different - I would act differently. If I was brought up by a drug addict, there is a high likelihood I would also become one. If I was brought up poor - I'd likely stay poor (due to structural factors).
The point is the environment predetermined my values and actions.
So why not control the discussion for the role luck plays for white males born in the U.S. between 1950 and 2010? It's obvious that factors outside our control are major factors in what we can accomplish in our lives, but that doesn't mean that within a controlled group the question of luck vs agency shouldn't be examined.
Oh, striving is certainly necessary to succeed at all. But empirically, things still seem to be zero sum. Out of a group of people with dreams and motivation, some will connect up with opportunities to express and manifest them, and some will not. There are gatekeepers everywhere, in every institution, at every level, in every sphere. I've experienced dire poverty and luxuriant affluence, in cycles, multiple times. Yet I've always been the same person. Always smart, motivated, and hard-working. Sometimes the right series of gatekeepers says "Yes, welcome aboard," in series, and it rains. Other times, they say no. If you've experienced a lot of 'yes' lately, it always seems like it was due to all that perseverance. And if you've had a run of 'no thanks,' it'll seem like your luck has turned.
Perhaps by belittling agency, people feel better about their own disappointments?