Oh, interesting. Now that I think about it, this really is the same as the Nature vs Nurture argument..
Some people believe that our circumstances create us. We are molded from whatever events we experience in our lives and we adapt to future events accordingly. Thusly, we are our circumstances. Because we are shaped from them we can blame (or thank) the random cards we are given throughout our lives.
...
Flip the token and you get another idea. We create our circumstances. Let me clarify: circumstances still happen but it is up to us to appraise them. Therefore our circumstances are what we make of them....
The reason the argument "continues" is because it's both.
The paradigms are "ways of seeing" rather than exclusive truths.
When you look at the infamous silhouette, where you have to decide whether the shape is a woman or a duck, (or perhaps the other picture, where the subject is either an old crone or a young woman), you cannot say it is one or the other. As human beings, we usually only see one of the images at a time... but they're both superimposed on each other. They both exist at the same time, and we cannot be more specific.
Likewise, when you look at a gemstone, you cannot say the gemstone is one facet or another facet -- you can merely say it is a gemstone.
Likewise:
I create my circumstances.
I am created by my circumstances.
There is no either/or.
There is only "I."
...When it comes to what goes on inside, I really do believe that one can rise high, high above what circumstances you are in or have experienced in the past. It is a powerful and wonderful thing when it finally sinks in.
The bold part is what makes this work.
Sometimes I can change my external circumstances.
Sometimes I cannot (especially where the will of other people is involved -- we can't actually force anyone to choose to favor us).
All I change is how I view my circumstances and how I let them impact me.
Some people are in wonderful circumstances and yet are miserable.
Others are in miserable circumstances and yet act wonderfully.
We know which type we are attracted to more easily.
Which ones we would rather be.
It's because we are responsible for the things we can control.
The rest is a matter of perspective.
Put another way, how I see it is that we all start out in cages.
We think we're locked inside the cage and can't get out.
Actually, though, the cage is not locked at all.
We either tell ourselves it is, or we're scared to push open the door.
It's scary to be outside the cage.
There are no bars.
You can do anything -- ANYTHING -- you desire.
Which is terrifying because now you are totally responsible for your life.
You can't blame anyone else for how it turns out.
If you leave the cage, you might starve, or you might freeze, or you might swelter, or you might be assailed, or you might not get everything you want.
But you're free.
That's the plus.
And if you choose to step outside anyway, everyone else in their cages will yell at you and tell you that you're not allowed to do that.
They'll do everything in their power to get you to go back in, sit on the ground, and live in the cage like they are.
Because It scares them to see you free.
Because they realize they too could be free.
But they know at some level they're too scared to be free.