To be yourself

I shall allow myself to do an absolutely unforgivable thing, which is to divide people. On those are able to make decisions about themselves and on those who follow the body. No one is surprised when animals behave as they have been taught - wild ones growl, and domesticated ones seem defenseless without you. The same goes for children. They are simply trying to survive a difficult period of vulnerability. Their bodies are mechanisms oriented towards survival. We understand that as we grow up, we become less and less animalistic and more human. After all, we adults are free beings. I do not disagree completely. I understand why we should believe in our free will. Judging citizens and maintaining order requires us to assume that people are responsible for their actions. Of course, there are extenuating circumstances. It is easier for us to understand the brutality of a person who was treated this way as a child. It is easier for us to understand inhuman acts when people are in extreme despair, hungry, tired. I believe that in every good person circumstances influencing both their own and others' behavior should arouse sympathy. However, we would not be able to function as a state, turning every court hearing into family therapy to find out the first one to blame for actions of the criminal-obviously-someone's-child. We would not be able to function by holding parents responsible for the actions of their children, or by explaining every harm by disturbed homeostasis of the body caused by hunger or nervousness. Primarily, because if one person were forgiven because they were actually frightened and justifiably angry, other intelligent speakers would use this example to obtain an innocence verdict for their definitely guilty clients. And it hurts. But that's the way things are.

However, I do not want to talk about extreme situations...