Mr. D. Goes to Washington: Luck (Addendum II, Choice)

Can't find a link to Mr. D privately so I'll just register my surpise the his Youtube page show a sub to EazyOnMe. Get Lucy's opinon.

Very well done.

Great points Mr. Deity. My Caucasian friend ascribes by notion that hard work and good choices will fulfill your dreams. He uses the example of growing up in Section 8 housing and being the only white person yet he succeeded in this society and if he can do it so can other people of color. I wasn't far behind economically but no matter how poor I was I could walk down the street or go into a "Macy's-type store" and not given a second look because I'm white. The jobs were crappy for years but there was never a problem getting hired on the spot. I recognized a long time ago that I had to work hard to overcome a lacked of good looks, money or intelligence to reach the top tier of society but at least I started out on first base in this country because of my skin color.

Excellent. I've had to deal with that myopic view of the world way too much lately. I can only conclude that far too many people never took Psychology 101 to learn about the Fundamental Attribution Error. By default, they always assume that someone else's problems are dispositional, never situational. When I point his out, their kneejerk response is that one's "choices" can determine one's situation. Never does it occur to them that one's situation all too often determines whether or not one even HAS a choice. It always makes me think of the tortuous hours I spent in fast-and-testimony meetings, in which a parent would stand up and say: "I'm so proud of Brian for CHOOSING to be baptized." Oh… my… Mr. Deity!

Again, effing brilliant. BTB, there probably is no such thing as Natural Talent to be born with. We assume, again, some "god-given" ability but that is based upon that mistaken world view involving magic. Being tall doesn't automatically make one a good basketball player, but being short does kind of rule you out. Even is you are tall, strong, and well coordinated, you may not like basketball, but in general we enjoy those things we are good at (not always, but in general). So, if one has the physical/mental attributes that makes one able to perform some tasks well, then one is inclines to continue doing those things and acquire more skill along the way. What we call "natural talent" is learned skill. If there were such a thing, a person would be able to pick up a previously unplayed musical instrument (zither?) and play tunes on it because they had a talent for playing the zither. This we do not see.