TED Radio Hour: "Decisions, Decisions, Decisions" (If You Think YOU Make Them, Think Again)

"Decisions, Decisions, Decisions"

TED Radio Hour

http://www.npr.org/programs/ted-radio-hour/519264798/decisions-decisions-decisions

Dan Ariely: When Are Our Decisions Made For Us?

http://www.npr.org/2017/03/10/519270280/dan-ariely-when-are-our-decisions-made-for-us

Alan: Choice and decision-making have become American demigods, joined at their Siamese hip. 

It often seems that we distract ourselves with "choices" to such an extent that The System providing those choices (many-or-most of them meaningless permutations and combinations of the same desirable "thing") effectively coopts us away from meaningful political activity, preempting our time and energy into "making choices" in a universe where "choice" is considered the fundamental moral act. 

And so it goes. And so it goes. And so it goes.

We live in an increasingly refined and ever more comfortable bubble.

And now the bubble seems ready to burst. 

And perhaps we are too comfortable to object. 

We are all up against the wall of "indispensable" convenience now!

I believe (and I deliberately choose the word "believe') that it is just as likely -- if not more so -- that we would be better off with a few fundamental "presumptions" (acts of faith?) like positing the primacy of community, love and service - with special attention to the poor who are increasingly excluded even from view. (What would have happened if left-wing political activity had stuck to FDR's "Four Freedoms" rather than splintering into manifold pieces? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Freedoms)

I suspect The Common Good and The General Welfare have been eclipsed by the proliferating choices that Cowboy Capitalism dangles before "consumer units" who used to be citizens before stupefaction set in. For too many moderns, the only behavioral mandate is "s/he who dies with the most toys wins."

Against this backdrop, what we might call "bauble choices" lose their pre-emptive grip.

George Lakoff: How Trump Uses Your Brain Against You And Why His Policy Details Don't Matter
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2016/08/george-lakoff-how-trump-uses-your-brain_26.html

Herman Hesse: The Trance Of Busyness And The Urgent Overvaluation Of Time
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2017/03/herman-hesse-trance-of-busyness-and.html