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matrixmannWhat is choice?
Is it when I can decide to switch the radio on or leave it turned off because I don't like the music they're playing?
Is it when I can choose to buy the blue disk instead of the DVD to have the extended version?
Or is it when I can decide whether to blow away my head or to jump off a building?
What is a real "choice"?
In the democratic sense, it would be like I wanted to decide between strawberry-flavored ice and chocolate-flavored. Both things are offered to you, maybe even cost the same. All from which you can choose is in stock.
Reality looks more twisted than that.
Even under a democratic system, there is no choice like that.
It is called "choice" if you choose to have a cheap payment job to keep your social benefits and not land homeless on the streets, it is called "choice" if you have the possibility to buy two things from which one won't be produced in foreseeable time and it is called "choice" if you decide to have an illegal weapon in your house to defend yourself against rioters because the police is not going to come.
What kind of choice do I have?
I have the choice between life and death. Between my ruin or between the being of an underestimated modern slave.
What kind of choice is that?
It is a choice of mine when I remain with a person who maltreats and beats me up after I've run away three times, but it's definitely not a choice when I can decide whether to be homeless or to live in home-staged poverty.
There is no decision if I choose from three products with three different names, but they all contain the same.
There is no decision for modern technology if the previous generation can't be integrated with the current one.
The decision's been taken away from me.
Is it when I can decide to switch the radio on or leave it turned off because I don't like the music they're playing?
Is it when I can choose to buy the blue disk instead of the DVD to have the extended version?
Or is it when I can decide whether to blow away my head or to jump off a building?
What is a real "choice"?
In the democratic sense, it would be like I wanted to decide between strawberry-flavored ice and chocolate-flavored. Both things are offered to you, maybe even cost the same. All from which you can choose is in stock.
Reality looks more twisted than that.
Even under a democratic system, there is no choice like that.
It is called "choice" if you choose to have a cheap payment job to keep your social benefits and not land homeless on the streets, it is called "choice" if you have the possibility to buy two things from which one won't be produced in foreseeable time and it is called "choice" if you decide to have an illegal weapon in your house to defend yourself against rioters because the police is not going to come.
What kind of choice do I have?
I have the choice between life and death. Between my ruin or between the being of an underestimated modern slave.
What kind of choice is that?
It is a choice of mine when I remain with a person who maltreats and beats me up after I've run away three times, but it's definitely not a choice when I can decide whether to be homeless or to live in home-staged poverty.
There is no decision if I choose from three products with three different names, but they all contain the same.
There is no decision for modern technology if the previous generation can't be integrated with the current one.
The decision's been taken away from me.
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(no subject)
Date: 29 January 2014 11:22 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 30 January 2014 07:35 am (UTC)There are more than meet the eye of the usual observer.
But, what I discover is more and more the possibility to decide fades away - while the surrounding ideological system tells you the more that everything you do is a decision you make for yourself.
Like "you could have also decided to die".
Which creature would do that?!
It is known to be the urge of every living being to stay alive.
So why do they try to sell it as a "personal choice", if you decide to take the cheap payment job instead of having nothing or your social benefits killed?
(no subject)
Date: 30 January 2014 08:34 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 30 January 2014 07:46 am (UTC)It is a choice when I decide to stay while I do have the possibility to run away and be safe, but it clearly isn't a choice when I have to choose between pest and cholera. When I never had the chance to make my choice.
(no subject)
Date: 21 February 2014 07:14 pm (UTC)So I travel less. That's the choice left to me.