The Illusion Of Choice
This article was originally published on my blog. For more, please visit www.randeastwood.com. Thank you.
Okay, we have Hurricane Harvey, and Hurricane Irma; both are really bad for society, but let's say people are given a choice between the two...
So people argue, debate, persuade…but, since there's so little positive to be said about hurricanes, people instead focus on the negatives:
Which is the lesser of the two evils? Which will cause the least amount of damage? Which is worse—rotation to the right, or rotation to the left?
Eventually, people make their decisions, and cast their votes—then everyone hunkers down to suffer through whichever hurricane is selected by the majority. "Maybe next time we'll get OUR hurricane," the losers are heard muttering to themselves while crouched in their shelters waiting for the current hurricane to pass.
But when I refuse to choose either hurricane, and instead choose to live without hurricanes altogether (which is the REAL choice—hurricanes, or no hurricanes— whereas choosing between two essentially identical hurricanes is no choice at all, but rather the illusion of choice), people are aghast; they call me names, they tell me I'm part of the problem, they say I can't complain if I don't help select the hurricane…
And besides, we HAVE to have hurricanes—otherwise nobody would ever help anyone else, because people won't help each other voluntarily, they must be forced to do so. Just look at recent events in Houston—it took the biggest hurricane to hit the U.S. in over a decade to get those people to help each other!
And plus, hurricanes are good for the economy—just look at all the work they generate!
Upon hearing all this, I've no choice but to sigh, shake my head, shrug my shoulders, and walk away, saddened and perplexed, to lose myself in my books and dream of a world without hurricanes...
The lesser of two evils analogy is also used for voting the politicians. The lesser of two evils is still evil.
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