RSAnimate is here with another anti-freedom YouTube video. As expected, it's factually incorrect and absurd. These videos are obviously a great hit with the anti-market masses.
According to Salecl, supermarkets and the choices they offer make us feel "horrified." Imagine that from tomorrow onwards every supermarket had 80% less choices. It's a safe bet to say that then we'd actually be horrified.
The Causes of Anxiety
1. We choose what other people are choosing. Choice is a very social matter.
We often do choose the same things as others, but this doesn't mean we choose these things because others have chosen them. That's a complete non sequitur. Even when our choices are affected by the choices of others, I fail to see how this is a bad thing. I sure as hell am going to see what computer processors others have bought before choosing which one to buy. Salecl is partly right; we do indeed communicate things about ourselves through the choices we make. The possibility of doing this should be seen as a great aspect of our society, not some kind of evil.
2. We try to make an ideal choice. And yet we're always dissatisfied.
Both of these things have to be true for there to be any human action. These tautologies don't prove a god damn thing.
Every time we act we make a choice. By definition we choose the highest-ranked("ideal") option available. Without dissatisfaction, there can be no action(and thus no choosing). If there was no dissatisfaction, then why would you act? Acting and choosing means you want to change how things currently are. You wouldn't do that if you had achieved perfect satisfaction.
3. Choice always involves a loss.
Wow, Salecl has discovered opportunity cost! Another fact of life that has to be true by definition. This is supposed to prove what exactly?
Ideology of Choice
...which forces us to perceive ourself being guilty for the failures in our life, especially professional life.
This is an amazing claim. I thought it was pretty much common knowledge that people delegate guilt all the time as a psychological defence mechanism. This contradicts all my experiences and all I've heard on this; so unless someone can point to some sort psychological studies confirming Salecl's claim, I'm going to say this is BS.
We also feel ashamed for being poor...
This tendency has certainly decreased over the decades, as people have become accustomed to thinking that society owes them something(the "right" to welfare and other nonsense). But I don't exactly see what the controversy here is. You fail at being a successful member of society; why shouldn't you be ashamed of yourself(not counting the obvious exceptions)?
...even [though] decades ago, there was some kind of identification with being working class, now it's more the feeling of inadecacy, of not making it.
What a subtle way to conflate "poor" and "working class."
Capitalism is a system ... we work longer hours, we are rushing around and we are constantly consuming.
We don't work longer hours. One of the glorious consequences of capitalism has been the rise in productivity that has allowed for more and more leisure. We aren't "rushing." We simply economize time more than before. And why would we do this? Probably because wasting time has a higher opportunity cost than before. And why is the opportunity cost higher? Probably because we have so many choices in front of us(just think of everything you could do right now if you weren't reading this...). And yeah, we get to consume stuff. That's a good thing.
The subject starts believing that he is not simply a proletarian slave, but that he is a master. The belief that you are actually in charge, although you aren't; it's a very important belief.
Apparently I'm a proletarian slave, too. Maybe I should quit my job. But wait! I thought a part of being a slave was the inability to quit...
Salecl's ideas were stupid and boring, but the real culprit is RSAnimate. Without institutions like RSAnimate, bad ideas would never spread as effectively as they do.
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