RSA animate create another gem of animation and insight with their latest release. In this episode Renata Salecl - a senior researcher at the Institute of Criminology, Faculty of Law at the University of Ljubljana and visiting professor at the University of London – explains the Paradox of choice.
In the days of communism choice wasn’t freely available, all resources and the means of production were controlled by the government. When choice became ubiquitous it created a layer of anxiety in people.
Renata explores these ideas in beautifully animated words.
not sure I really saw any solutions in that piece. In fact it kind of reminded me of hopelessness. When combined with the Slavic accent, it just made me want to surrender my belief system to communism.
But not really. I just didn’t see myself painted in that picture.
So there is no such thing a random choice, we choose things either based on our own or someone else positive intentions.
Perception is reality! Our society is like a child in a room full of toys asking for something to play with. We as adults always respond by saying: “When you play with what you have I’ll get you what you want”. So they pretend to play with what they have to get what they want and learn the golden rule. ‘As long as I’m pretending I always get what I want’.
But then again why not: Keep on giving? Spend till you end? If you have it flaunt it; right?
Join the parade and watch the crowd cheer as you pass by in your finely dressed customs wearing the mask that cost you a life of do…get…buy…be loved.
OR explore and challenge the perception passionately every day until you discover. It’s in the journey that we find reality. Now the only problem is; finding someone to share it with.
I liked that animation, it explained in more detail about us making our choices when technically we don’t make our own choices etc. I learnt some new stuff
thanks for posting that up. 
If you guys are interested in a solution you should check this other youtube video out. Don’t fall for the false dichotomy between Communism and Capitalism. The root causes of social problems(related and unrelated to choices) are deeper and more complex.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z9WVZddH9w
That was an interesting & beautifully made video, but it didn’t really tell me anything that I hadn’t worked out for myself decades ago.
If they can make you sweat about the little, unimportant things, like the colour of your carpet or the accessories in your car, then you don’t have time for big questions like, why is the world they way it is & what can I do to make it better ?
Putting an advert at the end of it was stupidly funny !
This is an awesome video, kinda put some pieces of the puzzle together, somethings i had kinda worked out, made everything make sense in a simple way when talking about such complex things, although they kinda said the issue, not the answer? i guess telling people the issue is half the answer, i wish there was more of this stuff available, or there is but i cant find it… cos there is too much choice
If when we have to choose between being right and being kind …
its obvious the amount an individual can give to the world, and what of choices, usually the worlds supermarkets seem amusing and jolly rather than bewildering and corrupting when you don’t sell yourself your mind to becoming a shopper, but the dilemma, to me is finally being shone right back at us, freedom, compassion. Nice animation, I prefer this http://www.cveitch.org/?p=847 as a mission statement, and to a great extent am guilty of apathy also. But thnx for keeping up the posts.
“The Paradox of Choice”
Isn’t a “paradox” an incomplete understanding of reality? Since in the presence of a complete understanding of reality, no paradox can exist.
All this terrible choice anxiety would be alleviated if only there were some benevolent group of Platonic intellectuals to make choices for us, say at Oxford. Then we would no longer suffer the horrors of responsibility. We would no longer have to make decisions. All this terrible stress of choice and guilt could be assuaged.
Perhaps some powerful group of elites such as the Rockefeller, Carnegie, and Ford foundations could use the media tell us when to go to war against the East, what clothing to wear for minimum ecological impact, what jobs we are genetically suited for, which serotonin modifying pharmaceuticals to take for maximum happiness, and the correct number of offspring to produce.
Of course this group of elites would need the full coercive power of the state.
If only. Hmmm.