Excerpt from Mill’s The Subjecti

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For, what is the peculiar character of the modern world-the difference which chiefly distinguishes modern institutions, modern social ideas, modern life itself, from those of times long past? It is, that human beings are no longer born to their place in life and chained down by an inexorable bond to the place they are born to, but are free to employ their faculties and such favorable chances as offer, to achieve the lot which may appear to them most desirable. Human society of old was 60 constituted on a very different principle. All were born to a fixed social position and were mostly kept in it by law or interdicted from any means by which they could emerge from it. As some men are born white and others black, so some were born slaves and others freemen and citizens; some were born patricians, others plebeians; some were born feudal nobles, others commoners...

This passage reminds me of my father’s stupid and pessimistic views about fate. A poor family’s son, he did manage to carve out a life of his own, though not very successful in my view. My father holds that each person has his destiny, and this so-called destiny has to one’s appearances, i.e. whether one has a pair of big and round ears; whether one has a large and round skull, and so on. Such superstitions apparently have no scientific basis, which are caused, I think, by the ignorance of my father and perhaps an inherited thing from my insane and superstitious grandmother. My father isn’t really a fan of education, who does not believe  education has the power to change one’s life trajectory. Instead, he trusts in money. I don’t think him as a person who holds true love and care for his family, especially his children. He has made it quite clear that the reason he opted to raise children is in prevention of loneliness and poverty in his old years, which I couldn’t despise more. When I proposed to my father that I wanted to take another exam for the graduate education after I failed my first attempt, he bluntly refused, saying, “I WOULD not fund your proposal.” But I insisted on and, eventually, he gave me his lukewarm support financially, and I passed the exam and enrolled in a new university to pursue a graduate degree. Soon after the examination, my grandmother met her death. At her funeral, my father began to mock my pursuit again, dredging up the fate stuff again, implying that I should stay at my place and be an ignorant redneck just like him. I was quite furious and stood right up against him. What I said at the moment was to the effect of what I just read from Mill’s The Subjection of Women, quote “…human beings are no longer born to their place in life and chained down by an inexorable bond to the place they are born to, but are free to employ their faculties and such favorable chances as offer, to achieve the lot which may appear to them most desirable”. I disdain my father’s ridiculous fate stuff, and I do believe anyone should be free to employ their faculties and favorite chances to lead desirable lives for themselves. I am to determined to be an example of this faith.