Unlimited Choice is a Good Thing, right?
Waking up in an anxious sweat this morning, my heart thumping around 100 beats per minute, I realised I was fretting about a lens for my camera I’m planning on buying.
It’s not a cheap lens, and I may well have to mortgage one of the children to acquire it, but it should fulfil a function more efficiently and to a higher standard than one I’m currently using.
So of course there is pressure – mostly self-inflicted – about whether I can justify the outlay. But even once I’ve decided buy it, further choices make themselves felt.
To begin with, there’s another lens in a similar price bracket, which has greater functionality in one area, but lacks in another – which would be the better one to go for? What if I choose the wrong one?
And then, where am I going to buy it from? This site sells it for less than that one, but I’ve never heard of them so cannot be sure they are reliable.
And so it goes on – one choice after another, each one inducing further anxiety about taking the wrong option for one reason or another.
In a rather timely manner, I was scrolling through Facebook and found everyone’s favourite Kitchen Bitch, Eryl, had posted a link to a fascinating 10-minute video about how unlimited choice paralyses us.
Far from making us the masters of our own destiny, it is in fact a superb way to control the masses and keep them from trying to enact social change, while making them believe they are in charge.
Another aspect Eryl drew my attention to, that had never crossed my mind before, is how Choice always involves Loss, and this too is a huge contributor to the anxiety it can create.
If you can spare 10 minutes of your life, I guarantee you will find this interesting, educational or enlightening.
If the above video is not visible, then follow this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bqMY82xzWo
It’s not a cheap lens, and I may well have to mortgage one of the children to acquire it, but it should fulfil a function more efficiently and to a higher standard than one I’m currently using.
So of course there is pressure – mostly self-inflicted – about whether I can justify the outlay. But even once I’ve decided buy it, further choices make themselves felt.
To begin with, there’s another lens in a similar price bracket, which has greater functionality in one area, but lacks in another – which would be the better one to go for? What if I choose the wrong one?
And then, where am I going to buy it from? This site sells it for less than that one, but I’ve never heard of them so cannot be sure they are reliable.
And so it goes on – one choice after another, each one inducing further anxiety about taking the wrong option for one reason or another.
In a rather timely manner, I was scrolling through Facebook and found everyone’s favourite Kitchen Bitch, Eryl, had posted a link to a fascinating 10-minute video about how unlimited choice paralyses us.
Far from making us the masters of our own destiny, it is in fact a superb way to control the masses and keep them from trying to enact social change, while making them believe they are in charge.
Another aspect Eryl drew my attention to, that had never crossed my mind before, is how Choice always involves Loss, and this too is a huge contributor to the anxiety it can create.
If you can spare 10 minutes of your life, I guarantee you will find this interesting, educational or enlightening.
If the above video is not visible, then follow this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bqMY82xzWo
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