Wow, that was mindblowing! The position was nicely substantiated, and there were examples too.
Here's mine, which is comparatively vagues, adn not so well substantiated.. what do you guys think?
To state that a person's reasoning has little to do with their values is tantamount to saying that a man's destiny has been written before his birth on his forehead, and that he has no control over how his life will unravel. To be able to choose one's values through rational thought is to be able act on the basis of rational thought, through realizing these values, and these actions together cumulate to decide the unfolding of our destiny.
It is true that many factors influence a person's values, such as one's parents, teachers, and peers. It matters what the value of the times one is in, one's culture, what one's social and economic status is. However, to claim that a person is subconsciously influenced by all these factors and has no selection or control over what he imbibes, is erroneous. While a person certainly listens to their parents, there are many times that there are differences in opinion. A person incorporates the influences on his value system from a variety of sources, and processes these to have a coherent and consistent world view. There is a conscious decision of what to imbibe, what to ignore, and what to take with a pinch of salt.
Often, a person may be unduly influenced by a single incident in his or her life, for example, a person may have generalize their dislike for a certain religious or ethnic group based on a particular interaction with a person from the group which had a negative outcome. However, over time, intuition gives way to reason, and the individual realizes the error in generalizing from a single incident. This process of change in one's attitude is an incidence of the change in a values. It may require a single external interrogation or may result as an outcome of internal discourse and deliberation over time. But to know that one has a particular value concretizes that particular value, and it forces us to consider this value rationally. Thus, any value we know we have, we have thought it out rationally. However, there are values that a person has which they are not aware of, and such values are still in the process of being concretized.
To substantiate my argument, I point out what a common situation in a court of law. A person defends a certain position, or defends his actions on the basis of certain values. This defense of a position is extremely rational, premeditated, and reflects a coherent belief system; it is necessary that the beliefs be consistent to be tenable in court. To defend one's position in a situation such as a court of law or a political debate, requires one to consciously clear out one's value system, the basis for one's belief in a position.
To conclude, I believe that humans do have control over their destiny, a destiny decided by their conscious actions, which are in turn dictated by conscious thought through reference to one's values. These values are in turn consciously determined, and thus we are not mere puppets of fate, we do not merely implement what our parents, peers, and the media has taught us, we think of our own accord, and act in a manner consistent with our value system and world view. We are truly conscious beings.
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