I have been making decisions in my life since I can remember myself. With every decision, a number of uncertain events unfold. Usually, I  have a reason to make a decision, in order to cause a specific outcome but the outcome can turn out to be completely different from what I had in mind. That happens because my decision is not the only factor that can determine the outcome. To me, there seems to be a connection between my decisions and the outcomes. Each outcome caused by my actions creates another event, making a “chain” of events out of my decisions.

            Every day I notice how my decisions affect my life. When I have to take the train to go to work but by the time I reach the door of the train, the door closes and I miss the train. The first thing that comes to my mind is that the reason I lost that train was that I waited 30 seconds on a traffic light, right before I reach the station. But then I realize that before that I stopped for 10 seconds to stare at that good looking red car and before that, I had an old lady in front of me who walked so slow that caused me to lose another 5 seconds. And it goes back to the time where I wake up late because last night I slept for 3 hours. If I keep going back I will reach the point of my birth. I was making this “chain” of events since I was born, but before I was born, even though I wasn’t self-conscious, I existed and I was affecting my mother’s decisions.

            So when I say that one thing causes another thing, what I think is a chain of reactions. Like in the game of chess. Each player makes a move and creates a number of options. The other player will have to choose one of them and then that move will cause another number of possible moves. That number of possible moves for each player in every turn seems to be countless, but like in every game, chess has certain rules, and the rules will determine the next move.

            In real life we have rules too. Our society has set certain rules based on morals, ethics, Justice, religion and other factors that target on achieving for any living being or not living thing to coexist in harmony and peace, eliminating any possible threats leading to chaos, aiming for the development of our society and human relationships as well as the enviromental protection which is vital for our survival, etc.

            In some degree these rules limit our freedom of choice. Let me make an example. China is known to have some strict rules with regard to internet. People living in China are not allowed to use internet that has access to any web site outside their country, which makes it nearly impossible to communicate with people from China nowadays. That means that  their access to online information is limited because it is against the law to access foreign web sites. This restriction limits not only their options online but also their communication around the rest of the world.

            Examples like the one above prove that our number of choices depend on the rules we set as a society.

I believe society limits my freedom of choice. My family helped me to grow in a healthy environment in which I respect the rules, even though I know I can break them. So my childhood environment affects my choices, and there are probably other factors as well, in which we can not prove at the moment. But for those who break the rules, we should blame society, more than we blame them. By letting a child grow in a wrong environment, the chances of having problems in the future are higher. If society wanted to protect the child, then the child would be protected.

In a world where everything depends on those rules, we should at least demand to make them fair. Otherwise, if we let the problems unsolved the future will inevitably be problematic as well. One problem will lead to another problem, and that is how one thing can cause another thing.

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