Shouldn't we feel fortunate that we can walk into a local superstore and choose from a variety of products that can feed, clean and groom us? Imagine for a moment living in the past, before the advent of supermarkets and shopping complexes. I don't think back then there were quite as many choices of toothpaste, shampoo, cereal, or chicken nuggets, as we have them today. Ah, but does this mean that we have more freedom than our grandparents, since we have more choice of consumer products and conveniences than they did in their time?
If we quickly answer, "Yes: we are more free than our grandparents because we have more choices of food, drinks and shampoos than our forebears", then perhaps these three modern beverages (Diet Coke, Decaff coffee and non-fat milk) should make us reconsider our answer. It's not even a joke anymore - as we would be laughing at ourselves, essentially - if one were to ask: 'What's the point of drinking Coke without sugar, coffee without caffeine, or milk without taste? If we want to stay healthy, why don't we just drink plain water?'
In fact that's what other animals and plants do: consume plain water. Of course, they also require other nutrients to survive - but tasteless H20 (water) is all they need and what they drink to rehydrate themselves. Maybe some clever animals have found ways to extract fruit nectar or steal honey from hives, but most of the other living organisms depend on much simpler, plainer source of water. So why do we spend our money on these beverages that are actually no better than cheap plain water?
3. The Limits of Choice
I think we buy these drinks simply because they are available as alternatives to normal Coke, normal coffee and full-fat milk. In other words, our minds are clouded by these 'healthy' alternatives, that we tend to overlook the default option for a healthy drink, i.e plain water! So if we ask ourselves again, compared to our grandparents, do we still think that we have more freedom because we have more choices than they did in their lifetime?
In fact, our freedom are limited by having too many choices. Instead of being able to freely choose plain water as the cheapest, healthiest way to quench our thirst, we are more and more influenced to spend money to buy 'healthy alternative' beverages (e.g Diet Coke). This would not have been an issue before there was Diet Coke, as our decision would simply be to either spend on sugary Coke, or healthy plain water.
Of course, we can still opt for plain water - no one can force us to drink Diet, decaf or non-fat beverages. But doesn't it make us shudder that our decision making faculty is getting more and more clouded and compromised by these redundant choices? My point here is not to campaign against those alternative beverages - I buy and enjoy Diet Coke as well. Rather, there is a broader issue in this discussion, that is to question our apparent sense of freedom, especially with greater number of choices.
4. Freedom to Live
Freedom can be defined in many ways. Here, the freedom I'm thinking of is about being able to achieve something - e.g to get what we want, to have what we need. Our basic needs are simple: food, shelter & 'reproduction'. We may lament over hungry Somalian children who are not able to fulfil even these basic needs. But let's also lament our own predicament that by having too many choices of food, shelter and 'reproduction', we find ourselves trapped in a rat race.
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