Transcript
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After the end of communism, people expected choices to drive social change, but today choice feels overwhelming and disconnected. Psychological research shows that too many options cause anxiety and indecision, which capitalism exploits by centering life around consumer choice.
Speaker A
At the end of communism, we had, you know, a feeling that sort of rights and choices were finally secured to us and that suddenly a possibility of social change might happen.But today there is less and less of a feeling that choice is actually related to social change.There has been a lot of current debates in the domain of psychology, behavioral economics and so on, why we feel so overwhelmed in front of choices.And every one of you probably has had the same experience of going into a supermarket and just being, you know, know, horrified by the choices.So psychologists, of course have seen that overwhelming choice creates the feeling of anxiety in regards to what do I really want?
But it also sort of in some way pacifies people.People are quite often frozen in some kind of a state of indecisiveness when there are too many choices.So what is happening on the level of society when we have an ideology which dominates the idea of choice at every level of our lives, that suddenly an idea of choice becomes in a way a domineering idea on which capitalism today is based not only in regard to consumption, but in regard to perception of life as such.
A wine-selection anecdote illustrates how choices provoke anxiety through fear of social judgment and the Lacanian 'big Other.' The talk explains that choices are never purely individual but deeply entwined with how others perceive us.
Speaker A
So I remember my law professor colleague, a very successful man once told me that he's totally anxious to choose wine in a restaurant.He said, I'm afraid that people will laugh at me if I choose too expensive one.I will appear as if I'm showing coffee.If I choose to cheap, I will look like I'm a cheapskate.So he always chooses something in the middle and insists on paying for it in order to appease the anxiety and the guilt in regard to this choice.Now when we say that we are afraid that other people will, will laugh at us in regard to our choices, we invoke the need to be somehow regarded by others and also to be sort of perceived by society as such what in Lacanian psychoanalysis is called big other in a particular way.So choices are anxiety provoking for a couple of reasons.
First, we never make simply an individual choice.It's not simply us as individuals outside of society making choices.But quite often we choose what other people are choosing or we are obsessed with how will others regard us in regards to our choice.So that's one anxiety provoking thing about choice that is a very social matter.
The pursuit of the perfect choice leads to constant dissatisfaction and loss, from switching partners to inevitable death. The speaker then discusses ideology under socialism—belief-in-belief and the unspoken social bond maintained by collective pretense.
Speaker A
Now the second anxiety provoking thing about choices today is that we try to make an ideal choice, which is why people are constantly forgiven, switching telephone providers or, you know, going from one partner to another, and always feel dissatisfied.
You know, the third most important thing about choice is that choice always involves loss.So When I choose one direction in life, I lose the possibility of another.And dealing with loss is something that is highly anxiety provoking today.And of course at the end, the loss which we all have to face where there is no choice, is death.But even with that we try to sort of mastermind it, prolong it, try ways to control death, and so on.
There is also very important another layer of anxiety which operates in the way choice is presented in society.And here I touch the issue of ideology.Now, in socialism, especially in Yugoslavia, where I was raised, no one believed in communist ideal.Even party apparatus never read Marx or Lenin.It was actually quite dangerous to read them.
So the belief in ideology of communism was something people innerly didn't internalize.But then nonetheless a certain logic of belief functioned.The idea that people quite often do not believe in something, but they pretend as if they are believing in order not to offend the idea that other people might believe in it or in socialism.Let's say no one believed in communism, but no one sort of uttered it, with the exception of some intellectual dissidents, openly because they believed in the belief of others or an idealized big other which supposedly holds society together.Now, today, this belief in belief still very much functions.
Contemporary sexuality norms create unrealistic expectations and secret shame, mirroring capitalist ideology that blames individuals for professional and economic failures. Celebrity culture fuels the idea that anyone can succeed merely by choosing themselves.
Speaker A
Let us look at today's perception of sexuality.Not long ago a British journalist wrote an essay in which he described honestly that his sex life is pretty boring.He said, when I compare my sex life with what's written in Cosmopolitan magazine or other men magazine, how it should be.What are the enjoyments out there possible.I am embarrassed to admit to anyone that I have never come close to those enjoyments depicted and which is why I keep this secret to myself.
But nonetheless, when one does not sort of utter it publicly, we sort of create a belief in the belief that sexuality can be something full of fantastic experiences.Now, similarly today we have an ideology, especially this ideology of choice, which forces us to perceive ourselves being guilty for the failures in our life, especially our professional life.Now if you lose a job, you will first blame yourself, not the corporation which fired you.We also feel ashamed for being poor.If even decades ago there was some kind of identification with being working class, now it's more the feeling of inadequacy, of not making it.
Now, ideology of capitalism from the beginning capitalized on the idea that everyone can make it.And the idea of self made man was the cornerstone of of this ideology.But today this idea of self making has been pushed to its utter limits.So the idea that everyone can become a celebrity, everyone can make it very Much dominates today's society now especially the celebrity thing is very interesting because, you know, in the past people would sort of want to be famous for something, for doing something, for having some education or some special skills that now it's to be famous for just being, you know, you don't need to be anything else but, you know, contested in Big Brother or whatever.So psychoanalysis, of course, has been observing these changes in the society and also in the individual.
Psychoanalysis reveals how capitalist-speed lifestyles produce self-critical subjects who feel both empowered and controlled. Fear of loss and ideological self-blame pacify individuals, preventing collective organization and meaningful social change.
Speaker A
And what interests me is to bring them together.Now, Freud pointed out that malaise in civilization and the malaise of individual always go together, so one influences the other.
Capitalism is actually creating some kind of a subjectivity which starts in a way ruining him or herself.Capitalism is a system which functions quicker and quicker.We work longer hours, we are rushing around and we are constantly consuming.But at some point this subject starts believing that he is not simply a proletarian slave, but that he is a master, that he's in charge of his life.And that's very important ideological turn, which sort of allows, you know, the system to go on and creates more and more, let's say, kind of submission on the side of people, the belief that you are actually in charge, although you aren't.It's a very important belief also that more and more this overworked subject starts not only consuming constantly around him, but also consuming him or herself, which is why bulimia, anorexia, workaholism, various addictions become so prevalent in today's society.
So the turn sort of to oneself, the self criticism, feeling guilty for one's failure, anxiety over choices and.And various new symptoms were guiding me in looking at why ideology of choice is actually not so optimistic ideology and why it actually prevents social change.Now the political problem, why there is such a lack of social changes happening today.Some sociologists who have looked at this matter realize that sometimes this fear is related again with loss.
Now we might have a little, you know, we might have a small job, a little pension or whatever.And you know, when you have a little, you might be so much more afraid to lose even that little which you have, which is why you do not stick your neck out and you don't sort of provoke social change or try to organize yourself in that would provoke social change.So today the problem is actually for me, that today's ideology of choice, late capitalism idea that everyone is a maker of his or her life, which goes very much against the reality of social situation, actually pacifies people and makes us constantly turning criticism to ourselves instead of organizing ourselves and making a critique of society we live in.