Little Things 265 : The Freedom of Choice

 

Last week's question: 

is it possible that people these days are more anxious because we have the freedom of choice?

 

Here are the writings I found on the topic:

1) The Dizziness of Freedom, by Soren Kierkegaard, 

the dizzying effect of looking into the boundlessness of one’s own possibilities. Without anxiety, there would be no possibility and therefore no capacity to grow and develop as a human being. What was striking to Kierkegaard was the individual’s complete freedom to choose one’s options; it is this freedom to choose that creates dread and anxiety. 

He claimed that our freedom of will and choice, make us responsible for who we choose to be. We have the freedom to reconstruct ourselves, leave our past selves, and evolve for the better. But this comes with a price: we must be responsible for all our choices and actions. It is a blessing and a curse. 

I love these quotes: "Freedom comes with responsibility which is the opposite of freedom." and "Choices come with consequences, good and bad which are the opposite of choices". 

 

2) The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz

"It is an observation that having many options to choose from, rather than making people happy and ensuring they get what they want, can cause them to stress and problematize decision-making." In his theory, he said that choice has made us humans not freer but more paralyzed, not happier but more dissatisfied. 

• the more options we have, the fewer decisions we tend to make
• the more choices we have, the more we feel about missing out on something 
• more inclined to dissatisfaction, disappointment
• more prone to anxiety

 

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A small example on this topic:

Last week I wanted to eat a cake. This rarely happens because I'm lactose intolerant, but on that day, I even decided to eat lactase enzyme just so I could enjoy the occasion. We had 2 options: Secret Recipe and Richiamo. So SR was located a bit farther from where we were at that time, so we chose R instead. I ordered my slice of cake and ate it. But unfortunately, it was terrible. So due to my anticipation and preparation to eat that slice of cake, my expectation was high, and when it didn't reach my expectation, I was disappointed. Truly, disappointed and I kept on thinking "Why didn't I choose Secret Recipe instead"?

Even after a week, I still remember the incident and wished I chose better. 

Imagine, if there were no options, only one cafe is available and the choice I have is either to have a cake or not. I would have nothing to compare it to, and the decision-making would be much easier. 

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So what's the correlation here? 

I've been thinking about how many options we have nowadays. We can be whoever we want to be, we can eat whatever we want, and we can choose what to study, what to read, who to marry, where to go, and who to be friends with, with the modern world and the internet everything is almost limitless.

Everything is a choice and there are just too many options. Every choice that we make might tell us who we are, who we choose to be, and who we want to be. It's a responsibility in every choice. No wonder we are often anxious, it is hard to have to choose all the time and we expect it to be the best choice for us. 

 

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So if having the freedom of choice is making me feel dreadful and more anxious, my question now is, how to find the balance? How much freedom we are supposed to have to be content with our lives and not be taunted by other choices? Do I need to create my own limitation? Am I anxious because I have too many options to choose from and I'm scared of choosing the wrong ones? Will I be more content with life if I have limited freedom instead? 

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Thank you for reading my questions of the week.