Hurricanes and Fate

Today in class we argued for quite some time regarding question number 7 for the Oedipus Socratic seminar about whether Oedipus had a chance at all to relinquish the fate the oracle had made for him. This fate was that Oedipus was to kill his father and marry his mother. I believe he had no chance what-so-ever to change the fate he was given. By definition, fate is the development of events outside of a person's control. To me 'outside of a person's control' means they have no way, at all, to change the fate they were given. You may go down different pathways and choose different events along the way, but the end result is already chosen. Even if they go specifically out of their way to avoid it, them doing so is still the fate or 'plan' that was set for them. Some people said that if Oedipus' mother and father had kept him and had told him that specific fate, then it would have been avoided, but I believe somehow it still would happen. Even though marriage is between 2 people there still could have been some twisted event that could bring Oedipus and his mother together, like both of them getting drunk and accidentally marrying each other in their drunken state. Also, if Oedipus tried to avoid his father at all costs so that he wouldn't kill him, something still would probably happen like Oedipus accidentally leaving some food out that his father was allergic to. There is absolutely no way Oedipus could have avoided the fate that was already set for him, the Oracle had already seen it coming and knew that those events would occur. The length at which Oedipus' parents set to avoid the fate, and it still happening even proves that fate cannot be changed. The death of Oedipus' father and the marriage between son and mother happened in the most round-about way possible. Fate could be linked to almost any current event in society today. Many people believe that every possible thing that happens today is because of fate. There are even some cases involving the upcoming election where some people aren't even going to vote because they believe fate has already chosen who is going to be the next president. Also, regarding hurricane Sandy, some people even go to the extent to believe that it was fate that brought all the destruction and chaos in just the form of a storm, they don't believe that its just a result from intense low pressure areas over warm ocean waters.