Thursday, November 19, 2015
Fleeing Freedom
Sartre's idea of trying to escape from (ironically enough, perhaps!) one's very freedom has given me pause to really think about what freedom means, re-examining my own concept of it. The phrase and/or phenomenon that kept coming to my mind as we were discussing this topic in class was the idea of "the paralysis of choice"; the idea that, when provided with too many options from which to choose, human beings tend to become overwhelmed, and frozen in their indecision. (Sort of like Buridan's donkey, perhaps, but on an exponentially larger scale?) It becomes a relief not to have to choose--not to have to make a decision..... But then, of course, choosing to let someone else make decisions for you is in and of itself a choice! But, why do we suffer from paralysis of choice in the first place? Is it because we fear the consequences of making the "wrong" choice, or on the other hand simply the choice that is not the "best"? Or perhaps the choices themselves are not what matter, but others' perceptions of us based upon the decisions that we make?
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I myself sometimes struggle to make choices and experience this "choice paralysis" you describe. I feel an enormous amount of pressure on myself at this point in my life and sometimes am consumed with the many different outcomes of all the choices I could make with a certain task or problem. I think this is a mixture of my fear of permanently screwing up my life somehow with a bad choice and also my adversion to the unknown. This is just something I have to battle with and overcome.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great point. I think we all had a moment in which we re-examined what freedom is to us and how often we try to avoid the responsibility of choosing. I think when we are faced with so many choices we are frightened because we do not have the ability to make the best choice. I also think it has to do with being lazy. We may just not want to do the work involved to come up with the best option. So we look to others or we simply do nothing and let life play out in whatever way it will. The main reason I give up responsibility is fear. I don't know what decision to make or I know what decision is best, but it is a frightening one. Sartre's idea of freedom and our desire to be rid of it sometimes was one of the most interesting things I've learned so far.
ReplyDeleteI found Sartre’s concept of escaping freedom to be very interesting and pretty true especially when it came to his examples of the waiter and the woman on a date. Although people may feel like they aren’t making a choice in a situation, they ultimately are. I admit that I am guilty of trying to not make decisions, but in the end, I actually did make one by choosing not to. Before reading Sartre’s material, I never really thought about those simple situations—the waiter or the woman on a date—in the way that he described them. I believe people may suffer from a paralysis of choice because they could fear making the wrong decision or may be concerned with what others think as you said. Ultimately, one cannot escape freedom and must make some type of choice even if it is the decision not to choose.
ReplyDeleteThis post goes quite nicely with the whole 'hindsight 20/20" saying. As humans it's so easy to second or third guess our actions and choices. In the end though certain choices wont't influence the rest of your life equally as others. We all make decisions and we will can either to let this paralysis to take affect, or we could chose to let go of the dear holding us back from our own opinions of ourselves..
ReplyDeleteI feel like all of us at some point in our lives experience this, 'choice paralysis'. Whether the choice be between colleges, or maybe just something as simple as where to go for lunch. I can personally speak from experience that I have passed an exit on the interstate because I couldn't choose what I wanted to eat. At times the choice paralysis can be good in giving you time to make the choice, but others, it can be harmful causing you to procrastinate too much.
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