>Where before we were concerned about "freedom" and what that might be
>about, we are now almost exclusively focused on choice. How one defines
>and realizes one's freedom has to do with one's ability to become
>conscious. Consciousness and reflection become the key to growing up
>into life.
>
>But now we are concerned with choice, which has become the incarnation
>of freedom. And one makes choices through shopping. Neither
>consciousness nor reflection are required for shopping, because not
>shopping is not an acceptable alternative.
>
>I am being my usual thick cryptic self, so I'll stop here and hope that
>someone else can come in and fill in the blanks.
I know what you are getting at. Choice is a poor substitute for freedom. What's more, I think people are getting a damn sick and tired of having choice foisted on them at every turn. I know I am. I'm sick of telemarketers ringing me up and offering me choices of this and that. I'm sick of having to absorb and comprehend all the different options of all the myriad brands of every product.
A trip to the supermarket is a fucking nightmare. Even if you know precisely what you want, there's still the problem of trying to locate it among the acres of similarly-labelled products. It requires immense discipline and attention to detail to avoid picking up the wrong product by mistake.
Often I get into a raging foul mood and start destroying displays and labels. Which tends to upset the staff sometimes. One time I was looking for an example of an advertised special in the frozen food bin and just lost my rag suddenly, I began to violently toss frozen chooks out of the chest freezer, systematically working my way down. A store employee hurried over, demanding to know what I was doing. I glared at him and explained that I was trying to find the chooks on special that they had obviously hidden at the bottom of the bin, which was displaying the label for the product I wanted, but appeared to contain nothing of the sort. A good trick that. As I explained this I continued to examine, then toss frozen chooks out of the freezer one by one. They made satisyingly loud crashes as they landed in the adjoining freezer.
I didn't stop until he found me what I wanted (or it might have been a substitute at the same price, I can't recall the details.) Actually, this kind of tantrum seems to happen a lot lately, as I get older my temper, never terribly good, seems to be getting worse.
Well I remember the 'good old days', when choices were few and far between. There was one telephone company and it offered one plan. No stress. There were two airlines, but they tempered this by both offered the same service precisely, at exactly the same price and even the schedule was identical no matter which airline you chose. God, what a nightmare that is these days!
There were the occasional choices to be made even then of course. Not very important ones and few and far between, so that it didn't get on your nerves. But now - the world seems to have gone completely mad about choice! Jesus (don't get me started on religious choice) choice is OK in moderation, but there's never a break from it anymore. Instead of 2 TV channels, there's at least bloody six or seven of them on the air. Who can keep up with that much choice?
Given half a chance, I would choose less choice, but of course that is not one of the options. Which is the crux of the matter, for all the superabundance of choice, what you really want (or would want if you ever had a moment of peace to think about it) is never on the damn menu.
Choice isn't freedom, it's the antithesis of freedom. Choice is slavery! I'm not asking for a return to feudalism, just a wee bit of moderation. Is that too much to ask?
Bill Bartlett Bracknell Tas