Glorified Clockwork; Determinism vs. Freewill; and the False Notion that People are Instinctless

The following exert of Steven Pinker's, "The Blank Slate," speaks volumes to me: 

"The ghost in the machine also has considerable appeal.  People don’t like to think of themselves as heaps of glorified clockwork.  Machines, we like to think, are insensate and have some workaday purpose, like grinding corn or sharpening pencils.  Humans, in contrast, are sentient, and have some higher purpose, such as love, worship, and the pursuit of knowledge and beauty.  Machines follow the ineluctable laws of physics, whereas behavior is freely chosen.  With choice comes optimism about possibilities for the future, and with choice comes responsibility, the power to hold others accountable for their actions. Finally, if, as Descartes said, the mind is entirely separate from the body, that holds out the hope that the mind can survive the death of the body, an idea whose appeal is all too obvious" (Pinker 2).

I dread the notion of living in a nine to five world where each day is as forgetful as the last and being surrounded by four walls and artificial air on a daily basis. I don't see myself as a machine who has to pay my dues to finally go on vacation once I legally become a senior citizen who will not retire for lack of a retirement fund, social security, or pension. I have no problem with working like a machine for something I love, for a cause, and to better serve the world around me, but I will never consider myself a machine whose sole purpose is to avoid the snooze button and rise before sun to lead a life of misery only to pass on with pangs of regrets surrounding journeys I did not take. I agree that people do have a higher purpose and experiencing all that the world has to offer, as well as love for one another, is the reason we are here. I believe that our thoughts and adventures live on through others, thus our minds can survive the death of our bodies, as Descartes claimed. 

In determining whether destiny falls into the category of determinism or whether people have free will is a debate that I have with myself on a regular basis. I would like to believe that we are what we make of ourselves and that our fate is determined by the decisions we make and actions we do out of our own free will, however I simultaneously comfort myself with the notion that "what is meant to be, will be." Pinker's emphasis on Ashley Montagu's philosophy that people are what they are taught by others and that "the human being is entirely instinctless. Man is man because he has no instincts, because everything he is and has become, he has learned, acquired, from his culture, from the manmade part of the environment, from other human beings" (Pinker 2) absolutely sickens me, because people I believe that people are individuals who are born with innate qualities in addition to the characteristics gained through observing others and live experience. Montagu's statement which is reiterated by my home-state's former "Governator," Arnold Schwarzenegger, who states that "When kids go to school at the age of 6, there’s an empty bucket there" (Pinker 2). The terminator goes on to emphasize that members of society fill the "bucket." 

In my opinion it is evident that people are partially formed by their relationships and experiences with others, however there are so many so-called exceptions of people who disprove their supposedly determined lives based on their own intrinsic self-character. An example of peoples' strong wills to surpass expectations and paths laid out for them by their parents and surroundings would be my mother. My mother grew up on a farm in Norway and spent a solid chunk of her childhood in an orphanage due to her family being so impoverished that her mother had to go to work at sea and put her four children in an orphanage. My mother's parents were both alcoholics and her father was kicked out of the home when she was two. According to some perspectives, due to the social surroundings that she grew up in, she should have fallen to alcoholism herself, or at the very least not have made anything of herself and remained at a lower economic level and battled emotional trauma. However, she went on to be the only one in her family to go to college, lived in various countries, excelled as a motivational speaker, became a published author, served as a loving mother, and has been a spokesperson and a model. 

To summarize, I have issues with the perception of people living as though they are machines and missing out on life and on love, because I believe that people must be accountable to themselves to live their life to the fullest and experience the world. I believe that there are uncontrollable circumstances that arise in life, but how we react to them helps determine who we are, and our ability to react to circumstances reiterates our free will, therefore my perspective that "what will be, will be" is probably like a child's lullaby comforting me through life, but I value it nonetheless. Finally, I disagree with Montagu and Schwarzenegger, as I believe that people have instincts and qualities aside from the impressions left on them through their experiences in society. Although children (as well as adults) are impressionable, I do not believe that society is the only influence on the self that dictates a person's character or fate.