An interesting animation of the relationship between late capitalism, social change, and choice: could the relative pacification of publics be a problem of choice and the internalization of loss?
An interesting suggestion, no doubt. I know I've felt completely frozen examining a shelf of similar products in the attempt to choose the "best" one. Equally confounding is the experience of selecting an item from a selection that contains little choice- as though there aren't enough options to choose from. On a broader scale I wonder if that sense of confounding choice leads to a kind of routinization-like voting for a particular political party, just because that's what you've always done and not necessarily because you believe in their politics. Choice (leading to social change) also demands attention and participation, which, considering the intense anxiety and stress part and parcel of everyday life, brought on by the increasing demands of capitals machinations, is wrapped up in fear. Fear of the results of systemic change that despite best intentions are, at best, uncertain. What is social change were somehow unmoored from choice (if indeed it is tied to it), what would it look like? I'm thinking more of re-conceptualizations (of the idea of choice) than some kind of elimination of choice altogether (which would of course be quite contrary to the tenets of equitable social change in the first place). Puzzling idea.
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