Member-only story
Did Abusive People Choose To Harm Us?
The question of free will might hold the key to forgiveness
Does free will exist? I pondered this question a lot.
My interest in free will goes well beyond existential; I want to know if people deliberately choose what they do, or if their actions are driven by a cosmic force that is beyond their conscious control.
I wanted to know if my parents chose to abuse me.
My Story In A Few Paragraphs
At age twenty, I left Taiwan for the United States. It was the realization of the grand escape that I had diligently planned for many long years. When I decided that I would leave for the US, I was just a small child, but there was never a question in my mind that I would make it, and that it would be a one-way ticket.
The alternative for me is worse than death.
My father is sadistically abusive, and he is delighted to see people suffer, his own children are no exception. Both my parents believed that since they gave us life, we existed only to serve their needs. They reigned over us like vicious emperors toying with gladiators ― they propped one up while putting another down, provided insufficient resources (i.e., school supplies), so if one has it, the other does not.
