Do modern people have too many choices?

[noname223]

I don't mean that suicide related.
This could become a very long thread but I am kind of exhausted. I have no energy but I will try.

I read here quite often many people don't like they live in this century. Personally I prefer this century compared to the past. I think there is more life quality due to better welfare states, better technology and more choices (?).

I want to elaborate especially about the last point.

Many decades or centuries ago most people had a clear path ahead of them in many instances. The boys often got the same job as their dads. Women were responsbile for the household and raising the kids. There were clear expectations which role you have to fulfil.

At first it seems to be a bad deal to lose choices. Many people here live in societies with an emphasis on the individual. Eveyone can find their own path and self-actualization is the highest form of happiness one can reach.

But maybe one has to look at the bad side of that. (I play kind of devil's advocate I don't really believe all that stuff but some are valid considerations.) Maybe the chase for self-actualization in its current form is just another form of slavery. We are deceived that we were free but secretly we are in chains. A big reason for that is capitalism and marketing. The system trains you to run in the hamster wheel. Often it is a chase for money in order to fulfil your wish to buy products that should help you to express your individuality. Though exactly by chasing that goal you lose your individuality. I have often explained the capitalistic and marketing tricks in a more explicit way I won't dig that deep in this thread.

The unclear future can bring along many questions. What do I want? What do other people expect from me? Am I doing the right choises? This can pressure you a lot. There are many insecurities. Globalisation and internet are other reasons for that. Everything happens so fast. Decades ago there were like 5 TV channels on TV in my country. Most people had similar sources. The newspaper and TV. One could say there is a fragmentation of our societies. It can bring along polarization and division. In a pluralized society there are so many identities. There is so much information available. Who should one trust? Maybe people give up to search for truth. They accept easy answers and black and white thinking. It is easier to be member of a team (for example in discussions). It gives a feeling of community and companionship for these particular groups. It is a mean to alleviate the pain of being a single individual in a fragmented society. But these teams are rather counterproductive if one wants to achieve a feeling of community as a whole. However I think one can argument that there were always societal trenches. Conservative vs liberal. Catholic vs protestants, State vs church, economical left vs right. Though I have the feeling the culture war seems to become worse and the hatred for each other increases.

The main advantage in my opinion of a clear role in life is the following: One does not have to worry whether one's choices are bad. It is different to the desire for self-enhancing in some sense. I think many modern people are insecure whether they are enough. Many more skills are demanded job-wise. Moreover one has to be reachable often even at home. The internet plays a role in that. For many this can be pretty exhausting. Furthermore I think dating might be more complicated nowadays. I have already got a very harsh response on that hypothesis in this forum. I try to be more nuanced now. Centuries ago one could not even choose his or her partner. The people were destined to be together often even involuntarily. It decreases the struggle to search for real love. For many it took the fear to end up lonely.

Okay so far I played a lot devil's advocate. So personally I agree to a certain degree with the capitalism critcism. The latter part though does not seem to be convincing for me. I think there are many more nuances but I have an headache and who should really listen to me as complete layman. Maybe I am the living proof that you nowadays find a lot of questionable sources online that spread a lot of half-knowldege.

I think the emphasis on the indivual has a lot of advantages. Self-actualization can be janus-faced though in my opinion the benefits are way bigger than the possible damage. One is not forced to live with a person one does not love. There was way more violence in the past also in marriages. The education was way worse. I have read a hypothesis not sure whether it is true. Due to the fact that parents use less often violent means to raise their children the suicide rate seems to decrease. Moreover many forms of identities were stigmatized and hated in the past. However this hatred against them is still part of discussions. Decades ago gay people were extremely stigmatized this seems to become a little bit less. But other groups are now the target of that hate like trans-people. Some people feel provoked when they are confronted with something new. Something they don't know much about and they cannot really integrate in their world view.

Moreover I think choosing your job has a lot of advantages. In my opinion more choices bring a lot of advantages with them. Though there is always the risk you become prisoner of your own desires. David Foster Wallace described his relation to TV in this way. He had no TV otherwise he would have been addicted to watching it. When he had one he skipped through all the different programmes. Always worrying there might be an even more exciting and interesting show he could watch.

What is the answer to all of that? I don't know. Maybe a combination of critical thinking and self-awareness. Probably also a lot of mindfulness but I completely lack that skill. What do you think?

 

[Meaninglessness]

Whelther you fit in the society or not depends a lot on what time you live in. In civilization most people have lived in poverty most of history. People with reading and writing difficulties wouldn´t have had problems 300 years ago and some people who fit in the society of today wouldn´t have survived in nature. It is the time we live in now that is wrong. Our (industrial) civilization is a complete failure. Humanity is heading for an overpopulation disaster with pandemics, nuclear war and climate change. Humanity´s biggest mistake was to leave life in nature - agriculture is the worst invention.

Internet leads to us missing out exercise and nature. We live in a world of overpopulation but still there is much loneliness. Everything costs money. Money is power. We live in the rich man´s world. We are expected to follow made up laws and rules. We also need luck to succeed in life. Life expectancy is too high in rich countries - the human body doesn´t hold as long as people are forced to live. Most people are suffering from health problems for years or decades before death. But the politicians refuse to introduce human euthanasia. The modern man has too much time before death, but 200 years ago, people had the opposite problem. Rich modern people have more choices than people in the past, but we also have different capacities which we can´t do anything about. Rich people have (always had) the best life and the best death.

 

[noname223]

Whelther you fit in the society or not depends a lot on what time you live in. In civilization most people have lived in poverty most of history. People with reading and writing difficulties wouldn´t have had problems 300 years ago and some people who fit in the society of today wouldn´t have survived in nature. It is the time we live in now that is wrong. Our (industrial) civilization is a complete failure. Humanity is heading for an overpopulation disaster with pandemics, nuclear war and climate change. Humanity´s biggest mistake was to leave life in nature - agriculture is the worst invention.

Internet leads to us missing out exercise and nature. We live in a world of overpopulation but still there is much loneliness. Everything costs money. Money is power. We live in the rich man´s world. We are expected to follow made up laws and rules. We also need luck to succeed in life. Life expectancy is too high in rich countries - the human body doesn´t hold as long as people are forced to live. Most people are suffering from health problems for years or decades before death. But the politicians refuse to introduce human euthanasia. The modern man has too much time before death, but 200 years ago, people had the opposite problem. Rich modern people have more choices than people in the past, but we also have different capacities which we can´t do anything about. Rich people have (always had) the best life and the best death.

I think it was a huge achievement to leave life in nature. There was a lot of violence, the life was brutish. We benefit from medication like painkillers for example. We can brush our teeth. We have electricity to cook our food and resources to keep our apartments warm.

There are still tribes that live in the nature and I am glad I don't have to live there. I have not much physical strength or a high pace. I am weak and useless. The people there would probably abandon me.

 

[MellowAvenue]

Personally think for humanity should have found a better balance between leaving and living in nature, but because the all mighty dollar is the strongest force in our society we went too far one way and it's likely too late to backtrack to a better, middle ground.

I honestly don't think it's too much choice but rather how we've became too globalized and let corporate greed dominate too much of the world. Back in the pre-internet days you were only competing with people from your town, maybe even your state, for most job opportunities. It was easier to just go out, find an opening, and land it if you were desperate or eager to work. Entry level positions were also actually entry level positions because employers didn't have access to tons of people with years of experience in a field and employers couldn't be nearly as picky as they can be now.

Now when you're job hunting you are usually competing with candidates nationwide bare minimum and often worldwide. You need a diploma, maybe even a fucking degree, just to go and flip burger patties because, fact is, someone who has one likely put in for that position and are therefore thought to be more qualified than someone who doesn't. It makes it harder to ever enter a field you're actually passionate about and makes people enter jobs that are near-universally thought to be miserable, like factory and warehousing work, for sometimes unsustainable wages. Admittedly, this is also considering you live somewhere where getting a good job or into a position to get a good job is even attainable, you may be forced into miserable work regardless.

The internet also doesn't help. You can now see, and maybe even be made fun over, just how inadequate you are on a global scale. You have to be mindful of the online presence some companies inexplicably EXPECT you to have because it's another way to control you and, maybe, even fire you if they find you doing something or saying something you don't like. This was always a part of society in some degree but now it's easier than ever to be caught with hand in the cookie jar so to speak and get canned for it. It's absurd, but it's what we've made for ourselves.