These expressions come to mind: "My parents beat the snot out of me, and I turned out okay", or, "My father was a jihadi, I am a jihadi and my children will be jihadist too".
Free will is sadly seldom exercised or even experienced. Free will would mean that an individual would be born in Saudi Arabia with the last name Saud and to not be Muslin against all family expectations or impositions. Free will would mean that an individual from a staunch Mormon family in Utah is able to see the advantages and disadvantages of his parent's religions and decides not to follow it. Free will would mean that people would be able to see the point of views of others without the prejudices of their own clan and make decisions based on the best and most logical options possible.
Free will takes courage and the individual exercising it will always face opposition and hostility from his/her clan. Most often, the individual exercising free will would have to remove him/herself physically from his/her clan, start anew elsewhere and stay away until that individual is fully developed as an individual (as opposed to an individual clan member). On his/her return, some in the old clan will acknowledge that individual’s superior maturity, and some will resent it, but all will admire it deep inside. That takes a decades, hard work, and success.
Free will is the trademark of a true leader, but true leaders are rare. Most often, most of us "follow the leader" because it is easier intellectually, emotionally, physically (some people get beaten and even killed for disobeying the clan's rules), and financially. I contend that the ones that follow the given path and take hold of the leadership of the clan are not true leaders. They are simply opportunistic predators.
The ones that started each of the religions were leaders. Their successors most often are not. In fact, the successors are the type of people who would have opposed the free thinking behaviour of those that start their own religions.
The clan does not only include your immediate family because, with the advent of television, people are indoctrinated into specific assumptions and beliefs as early as their infancy through commercials, cartoons, and most forms of "entertainment".
My experience tells me that to know my country's flaws I must listen to my countries enemies. To learn, I must listen to those with opinions different than mine, and to know my flaws, I must listen to my enemies.
When you travel around the world and realize the facts and fiction of your own upbringing, country, and other assumptions, you are exercising free will. When you travel and travelling reinforces all your previous assumptions and you return home more determined than ever that your clan is “right” and all others wrong, you are exercising the “don’t confuse me with the facts. My mind is made up” mentality.
