Space VI

In defining space, I have brought about another term that needs further explanation—choice. To summarize, I have stated that space is defined in the ability for a human to make a choice…but what is a choice?

G. K. Chesterton has written about this topic in his book Orthodoxy. In summary, he states that the human ability to make a choice is not in a sense an act of freedom, but limitations. Making choices is freeing, but confining. One can oppose this in an argument based on the fact that to have a choice is to be free in the first place and I would concur. However, when we go back to the definition of space as we have defined so far, there are limitations wherever we are at regardless of our race, culture or class. We, as humans, are limited because we can make a choice.

In this day in age, I have observed the seriousness and weight of the ability to make a choice. As a young child, “ignorance is bliss” can be proven and children are innocent to the choices around. One reason is they have not been given the ability to make a choice by their parents and the society they live in. Take the consumption of alcohol as an example. In this area, a teen (if he or she is an obedient teen) does not have to even worry about the decision to drink or not to drink until they are twenty-one years of age. This choice is completely eliminated by the society we live thus “freeing” the young person from the limitations a choice would impose, all the while being limited by a choice that the society has imposed on the young person. Driving is another example. In this country you cannot drive legally unless you are sixteen years of age. Once again, a choice has been eliminated from the obedient, teen-age’s world because of the limitations placed on them by society. In both situations, the teen does not have a say in a choice because they are restricted from society to make that choice. In both situations, the teen cannot discover their limitations to a greater extent, because they have not been given the responsibility to posses the right to have a choice.

Now, let us fast forward several years when this teen has legal rights to drive and consume alcohol. The exploration of limitations is quickly experimented when the person soon turns the legal age of alcohol consumption or driving. This “insanity”, shall we say, is very observant when the teen races to every event, shows off to other peers or drives in an abnormal way, not adhering to traffic laws or other laws in affect. The same is in the consumption of alcohol. Once they are able to drink, the problem of drunkenness is suddenly a problem as this one with new freedoms experiments these limitations of the freedoms. Both the crazy driver and the drunk have experienced something and will learn the lesson eventually, unless they are destroy by the lack of responsibility or are placed in an area where their irresponsibility cannot damage other citizens (jail.) They have experienced the limitations of themselves.