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When people have no choice, life is
almost unbearable. As the number of available choices
increases, as it has in our consumer culture, the autonomy,
control, and liberation this variety brings are powerful and
positive. But as the number of choices keeps growing,
negative aspects of having a multitude of options begin to
appear. As the number of choices grows further, the
negatives escalate until we become overloaded. At this
point, choice no longer liberates, but debilitates. It
might even be said to tyrannize. -- Barry Schwartz, The
Paradox of Choice
In general, I feel that choice is
not what we think, or feel.
Choice happens.
It's clear that we are choosing,
the question I raise, is how much is the choosing already
chosen, like in the absence of free will, we see free will, we
also see choice.
Yet, the ideas in The Feeling of
What Happens, by Damasio, call us to the notion that our
stimuli are already filtered before they get to our system of
rational cognition, and Khaneman won a Nobel Prize for showing
that most of our decision making is irrational...so how much
choice do we really think we have?
Or rather, how does choice manifest
itself in our lives?
People in general, do not like to
think or feel they are not in control. For instance, to
the extent that you feel in control, you feel ok, whatever
being in control is for you. (I suggest it's different
for most people.)
Schwartz says, "Choice is what
enables us to tell the world who we are and what we care
about."
And I agree with that, but what
BS
tries to overtly influence us to understand, even though it is
covert in its notions of influence, choosing in most cases to
appeal to our unconscious motivators, rather than what reason
we do have consciously, that we are in fact, the choice
masters, that we are the ones making the choices, even though
most likely we are merely participating, rather than
rationally choosing.
I do believe this particular notion
of choice is the most difficult, along with free will to
swallow in FLOW...yet, until we get to this point, we won't
stop falling victim to those influences that actually benefit
from our ignorance.
Things that will make you go
"hmmmmmmmmmmm" for sure.
Choice & The Fish Bowl
Please feel free to watch this
video from Barry Schwartz, as he discusses the Paradox of
Choice:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VO6XEQIsCoM
Pay particular attention to the Official Dogma of Western
Society, per Barry, starting early around 40 seconds in...
and around 15:30 if you are pressed for time, don't miss the
fish bowl at 18:40.
The conclusion here is that 1), it is limited ANYWAY, and
affluence makes
BS more able to influence us because of our
excess choice potential; 2) that while a fishbowl is limiting,
it may be precisely this set of limitations, which produces
serious gains in happiness, success, and
EES.
Jaques in an indirect way, says it's a good idea to see the
limits of your fishbowl, as much as BS has told us anything is
possible, but knowing and enjoying the limits of Choice
& The Fish Bowl may be our gift in waiting,
and the key to success,
happiness, and
collaboration, which is most likely
through
reaching out to
produce significantly higher levels of
resilience.
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