Stupid Argument I Thought Of

[Zenith]

How about "We are what we choose to do"

There are many things we have to do, work, pay bills, have a crap, etc, etc.....

These however won't define a person.

The things that we choose, to be charitable, to be mean, to start a fight at the pub for fun, to take up bunge jumping or lawnbowls. These are the actions that state who we are.

And the the things you choose to do speak volumes above that which you merely say you are.

For instance, think of the TV evangelists and the like who preach about "family values", chasity etc and then get caught with a prostitute or rent boy. What speaks louder to you?

these do not fully define a person either.
Consider a person X, that was born in a gang and has been taught since early ages to steal, kill, etc. If that same person had actually been born in a nice family with economic sufficiency (i.e. to be able to live with those money) and all things needed, etc. he would have been a totally different person.

Moreover, if you or I or anyone else would have been born in the Nazi Germany, we can't tell who would have believed Hitler and would have been ready to kill all jews and gypsies and who would have had mercy on them. Also, of those that would have believed Hitler, we can't tell who would have finally realized it was wrong, and who would have died as a nazi. Perhaps even the "angels" of the society would have turned to "demons" and former "demons" of the society would have turned to "angles" (metaphorically speaking).

No matter what anyone DOES, there can be no answer to these questions. Because, by the DEEDS done, one cannot KNOW what a man would do and what not. Even oneself cannot KNOW, what he would have done in a situation like that (if he was born in Nazi Germany, etc.).

Perhaps a man that killed other people, but was born in a gang (the gang was doing things like that) had the same good intentions as an ordinary "good" man, only that he hasn't be given the opportunity to be different (which includes, to know how it is and what it means to be in a certain different way, and to be able to get out of the gang).

So I believe that our actions (along with what we say, our behavior as a whole) do model us, but do not define us. They can be evidences of what we already are, but we are not them. I also believe that we are unique by the simple fact that we are not others - this sole fact makes us capable of doing different things than the others.

as about these particular choices - "to be charitable, to be mean, to start a fight at the pub for fun, to take up bunge jumping or lawnbowls." - do not fully define us either. If I'd say "choices", I guess they are too similar with deeds: they are evidences of what we already are, they do not define us. However, dilemmas are more interesting, because our choice here does not quite reflect what we already are. When you are put in a hard situation in where it is very easy to fall to either of the two sides, you finally take a decision, which transforms you, much more than the easy daily choices of your life.

But, I don't think the decisions taken in dilemmas fully define us. Our intentions and our desires, which are hidden, also define us, but still, I'm sure that there are others as well.