Making Decisions
According to, the average person makes around 773,618 decisions in a lifetime, and 143,262 of those decisions are ones that he or she regrets.” With so many decisions, people tend to make a few bad ones. There are so many factors that play into every decision that one makes. The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult, along with “Athlete Activism Should Be Cheered”, by Terence Moore, and “The Lottery”, by Shirley Jackson, explain the factors which contribute to unjust decisions. In a situation of stress or survival, people can do unthinkable things to save themselves from harm. Factors such as stress, survival, and power can contribute to an individual acting in a wrongful way.
In “Athlete Activism Should be Cheered”, a huge controversy based on racism in the United States puts stress on the NFL players. This causes many of them to kneel during the National Anthem to show their opinions on racism. Terence Moore states, “With the blessings of head coach Hue Jackson, who previously was against such actions, several of his players began the transformation of these national anthem protests over social injustices” (“Athlete Activism Should be Cheered”). Players decided to join well know athletes like Colin Kaepernick in the protests against the social injustices against African-American citizens. By creating such a large controversy, they were able to shine light on the problem. Although these protests were in good thought, many of the players and teams got serious criticism for their actions. Moore explains the problems some players are having because of the protests. He says, “Despite Kaepernick taking his team to two NFC Championship games, including a Super Bowl trip, he can’t find a job” (“Athlete Activism Should be Cheered”). Players like Kaepernick who have had very accomplished careers cannot find a job because teams do not want to deal with the politics coming from protests. Kaepernick and other NFL players under stress from the recent racism in the United States, feel the need to stand out and consequently act unjustly.
When one has power over another, many times these people will abuse their power. This is evident throughout history. When one comes to total power they do things that would benefit themselves. For example in “The Lottery” the community goes through a unique lottery-type event. When they do this lottery, the unfortunate person who is chosen is to be stoned by the rest of the village. This happens because of the power some characters in the story hold. One victim of the lottery says, “I tell you it wasn’t fair. You didn’t give him time enough to choose. Everybody saw that” (Jackson). The character in the story points out that they cheated the lottery to increase the chances of someone being chosen. With power people can do anything they feel fit, as a result, they can take advantage of other people. When the pick was final, Tessie Hutchinson was forced to be the one to be stoned. The story then states “‘It isn’t fair,’ she said. A stone hit her on the side of the head. Old man Warner was saying, ‘Come on, come on, everyone.’ Steve Adams was in the front of the crowd of villagers, with Mrs. Graves beside him” (Jackson). Her along with the village knows that it is not fair, but those with the power control the situation and all the rest of the people can do is watch. Overall when one acts with power, many times they also act unjustly.
Finally, in survival situations, people are forced to make radical decisions in order to save themselves. For instance, The Storyteller takes place during the second world war in the Holocaust. The characters in the story are put in survival situations where every decision means life or death. When Minka manages to escape the horrific death camp, Auschwitz, she finds herself inside the barn owned by a German farmer. She says, “I dug both hands into the barrel and ate fistfuls of the food, which tasted of sawdust and molasses and oats” (Picoult 348). She begins stealing as much food as she can take, not because she is a bad person, but because food has been so scarce and she may not survive without it. Later in the story Joeseph, a former Nazi soldier, confesses to his worst crime, “‘We had picked sour cherries, stealing from a farmer who would never notice the handful missing from his crops. That was our dinner. We were arguing while we ate, about which route we would take. And my brother… he started to choke. He fell to the ground, grabbing his throat, going blue,’ Joseph says ‘I stared at him. But I did nothing’” (Picoult 453). Joseph and his brother, who was also a Nazi soldier, were fleeing from the concentration camps to escape the consequences of their war crimes. Joseph then states, “I have done many things of which I am not proud, but they were during a time of war. The rules don’t apply them. I could excuse them, or at least rationalize, so that I stayed sane” (Picoult 453). He explains that in a time of survival things that one does do not seem unjust at the time. By being in this survival situation Joseph was able to rationalize the action and give himself an excuse for what he did. Without doing this Joeseph and his brother would have most likely been recaptured. His final decision to save himself. He committed murder under the rationalization of a survival situation.
In times of stress, survival, or power, people are forced to make unjust decisions. In these situations, people are put into selfish mindsets, and that is not necessarily bad, but in a selfish mindset, people tend to make unjust decisions. People face these factors similar to those almost every day of their lives, making it important for everyone to understand why people make bad choices. With the 773,618 decisions that people make in their lives and the 143,262 of those they regret, people have to worry about what makes these regretful decisions.
Works Cited
- Jackson, Shirley. “The Lottery.” 1948.
- Moore, Terence. “Athlete Activism Is a Good Thing: Remember That.” Sports on Earth, 23 Aug. 2017, www.sportsonearth.com/article/250115044/athlete-activism-browns-kneeling-kaepernick.
- Mirror.co.uk. “Average person makes 773,618 decisions in a lifetime.” Mirror, 12 Mar. 2012, www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/average-person-makes-773618-decisions-90742.
- Picoult, Jodi. The Storyteller: a Novel. Emily Bestler Books/Atria, 2013.