>That is how the problem of choice looks from a consumer perspective, but
>there are other perspectives as well. One can chose to spend society's
>resources on trivia, such as fashion, dumb tee-vee shows, or life style
>drugs - instead of putting them to alternative, and I dare to say, more
>productive uses. From a strictly consumerist perspective this can be
>reduced to the sum of individual choices, but that is also a reductio ad
>absurdum, as the "tragedy of the commons" clearly illustrates.
Etc. Fine. If you want to make a systemic critique about how capitalism, esp in its American version, promotes waste and stupidity, I can endorse that. But that's way different from arguing that people are as manipulable as sheep. They're not. They're often very creative, and capable of resistance.
I'm frequently struck by how many radicals/leftists/whatevers are driven by misanthropy and pessimism. That's not the way to win friends or influence people. You conform to precisely the stereotype of the cultural elite that the populist right has peddled with considerable success. There's just enough truth to it that it can work.
Doug