0:00:00.916,0:00:03.170
When I was preparing for this talk,

0:00:03.170,0:00:05.146
I went to search for a couple of quotes

0:00:05.146,0:00:06.991
that I can share with you.

0:00:06.991,0:00:09.162
Good news: I found three

0:00:09.162,0:00:10.994
that I particularly liked,

0:00:10.994,0:00:14.472
the first by Samuel Johnson, who said,

0:00:14.472,0:00:16.712
"When making your choice in life,

0:00:16.712,0:00:19.468
do not forget to live,"

0:00:19.468,0:00:23.000
the second by Aeschylus, who reminded us that

0:00:23.000,0:00:27.305
"happiness is a choice that requires effort,"

0:00:27.305,0:00:30.830
and the third is one by Groucho Marx

0:00:30.830,0:00:33.920
who said, "I wouldn't want to choose to belong

0:00:33.920,0:00:39.252
to any club that would have me as a member."

0:00:39.252,0:00:41.318
Now, bad news:

0:00:41.318,0:00:43.429
I didn't know which one of these quotes

0:00:43.429,0:00:46.178
to choose and share with you.

0:00:46.178,0:00:49.403
The sweet anxiety of choice.

0:00:49.403,0:00:53.446
In today's times of post-industrial capitalism,

0:00:53.446,0:00:57.109
choice, together with individual freedom

0:00:57.109,0:00:59.970
and the idea of self-making,

0:00:59.970,0:01:03.500
has been elevated to an ideal.

0:01:03.500,0:01:07.387
Now, together with this, we also have a belief

0:01:07.387,0:01:10.155
in endless progress.

0:01:10.155,0:01:12.911
But the underside of this ideology

0:01:12.911,0:01:16.443
has been an increase of anxiety,

0:01:16.443,0:01:18.513
feelings of guilt,

0:01:18.513,0:01:22.217
feelings of being inadequate,

0:01:22.217,0:01:26.954
feeling that we are failing in our choices.

0:01:26.954,0:01:30.950
Sadly, this ideology of individual choice

0:01:30.950,0:01:36.400
has prevented us from thinking about social changes.

0:01:36.400,0:01:39.319
It appears that this ideology was actually

0:01:39.319,0:01:42.001
very efficient in pacifying us

0:01:42.001,0:01:44.797
as political and social thinkers.

0:01:44.797,0:01:47.113
Instead of making social critiques,

0:01:47.113,0:01:50.869
we are more and more engaging in self-critique,

0:01:50.869,0:01:55.122
sometimes to the point of self-destruction.

0:01:55.122,0:01:57.867
Now, how come that ideology of choice

0:01:57.867,0:01:59.450
is still so powerful,

0:01:59.450,0:02:02.546
even among people who have

0:02:02.546,0:02:04.655
not many things to choose among?

0:02:04.655,0:02:08.229
How come that even people who are poor

0:02:08.229,0:02:12.620
very much still identify with the idea of choice,

0:02:12.620,0:02:14.689
the kind of rational idea of choice

0:02:14.689,0:02:17.322
which we embrace?

0:02:17.322,0:02:21.340
Now, the ideology of choice is very successful

0:02:21.340,0:02:25.320
in opening for us a space to think

0:02:25.320,0:02:28.987
about some imagined future.

0:02:28.987,0:02:31.000
Let me give you an example.

0:02:31.000,0:02:32.913
My friend Manya,

0:02:32.913,0:02:35.962
when she was a student at university in California,

0:02:35.962,0:02:37.660
was earning money

0:02:37.660,0:02:40.720
by working for a car dealer.

0:02:40.720,0:02:42.531
Now, Manya, when she encountered

0:02:42.531,0:02:45.389
the typical customer, would debate with him

0:02:45.389,0:02:47.233
about his lifestyle,

0:02:47.233,0:02:49.956
how much he wants to spend,

0:02:49.956,0:02:51.700
how many children he has,

0:02:51.700,0:02:53.973
what does he need the car for?

0:02:53.973,0:02:56.660
They would usually come to a good conclusion

0:02:56.660,0:02:59.214
what would be a perfect car.

0:02:59.214,0:03:02.702
Now, before Manya's customer would go home

0:03:02.702,0:03:05.140
and think things through,

0:03:05.140,0:03:06.960
she would say to him,

0:03:06.960,0:03:10.745
"The car that you are buying now is perfect,

0:03:10.745,0:03:12.770
but in a few year's time,

0:03:12.770,0:03:15.403
when your kids will be already out of the house,

0:03:15.403,0:03:18.370
when you will have a little bit more money,

0:03:18.370,0:03:21.399
that other car will be ideal.

0:03:21.399,0:03:24.936
But what you are buying now is great."

0:03:24.936,0:03:27.293
Now, the majority of Manya's customers

0:03:27.293,0:03:28.913
who came back the next day

0:03:28.913,0:03:31.738
bought that other car,

0:03:31.738,0:03:33.795
the car they did not need,

0:03:33.795,0:03:36.833
the car that cost far too much money.

0:03:36.833,0:03:39.769
Now, Manya became so successful in selling cars

0:03:39.769,0:03:42.671
that soon she moved on to selling airplanes.

0:03:42.671,0:03:47.265
(Laughter)

0:03:47.265,0:03:51.350
And knowing so much about[br]the psychology of people

0:03:51.350,0:03:52.924
prepared her well for her current job,

0:03:52.924,0:03:56.755
which is that of a psychoanalyst.

0:03:56.755,0:04:01.278
Now, why were Manya's customers so irrational?

0:04:01.278,0:04:03.775
Manya's success was that she was able

0:04:03.775,0:04:06.700
to open in their heads an image

0:04:06.700,0:04:10.280
of an idealized future,

0:04:10.280,0:04:12.190
an image of themselves

0:04:12.190,0:04:16.420
when they are already more successful, freer,

0:04:16.420,0:04:18.669
and for them, choosing that other car

0:04:18.669,0:04:21.729
was as if they are coming closer to this ideal

0:04:21.729,0:04:26.578
in which it was as if Manya already saw them.

0:04:26.578,0:04:30.981
Now, we rarely make really totally rational choices.

0:04:30.981,0:04:34.559
Choices are influenced by our unconscious,

0:04:34.559,0:04:36.398
by our community.

0:04:36.398,0:04:38.328
We're often choosing

0:04:38.328,0:04:40.482
by guessing, what would other people

0:04:40.482,0:04:43.466
think about our choice?

0:04:43.466,0:04:44.671
Also we are choosing

0:04:44.671,0:04:47.040
by looking at what others are choosing.

0:04:47.040,0:04:51.845
We're also guessing what is[br]socially acceptable choice.

0:04:51.845,0:04:54.916
Now, because of this, we actually

0:04:54.916,0:04:56.805
even after we have already chosen,

0:04:56.805,0:04:58.560
like bought a car,

0:04:58.560,0:05:01.710
endlessly read reviews about cars,

0:05:01.710,0:05:04.070
as if we still want to convince ourselves

0:05:04.070,0:05:06.671
that we made the right choice.

0:05:06.671,0:05:09.870
Now, choices are anxiety-provoking.

0:05:09.870,0:05:12.951
They are linked to risks, losses.

0:05:12.951,0:05:15.306
They are highly unpredictable.

0:05:15.306,0:05:17.415
Now, because of this,

0:05:17.415,0:05:19.918
people have now more and more problems

0:05:19.918,0:05:23.376
that they are not choosing anything.

0:05:23.376,0:05:27.207
Not long ago, I was at a wedding reception,

0:05:27.207,0:05:29.511
and I met a young, beautiful woman

0:05:29.511,0:05:34.137
who immediately started telling[br]me about her anxiety over choice.

0:05:34.137,0:05:36.108
She said to me, "I needed one month

0:05:36.108,0:05:39.154
to decide which dress to wear."

0:05:39.154,0:05:41.675
Then she said, "For weeks I was researching

0:05:41.675,0:05:44.936
which hotel to stay for this one night.

0:05:44.936,0:05:49.434
And now, I need to choose a sperm donor."

0:05:49.434,0:05:52.201
(Laughter)

0:05:52.201,0:05:55.700
I looked at this woman in shock.

0:05:55.700,0:05:58.737
"Sperm donor? What's the rush?"

0:05:58.737,0:06:02.911
She said, "I'm turning 40 at the end of this year,

0:06:02.911,0:06:07.736
and I've been so bad in choosing men in my life."

0:06:07.736,0:06:12.142
Now choice, because it's linked to risk,

0:06:12.142,0:06:14.419
is anxiety-provoking,

0:06:14.419,0:06:17.276
and it was already the famous

0:06:17.276,0:06:19.869
Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard

0:06:19.869,0:06:22.583
who pointed out that anxiety

0:06:22.583,0:06:25.848
is linked to the possibility of possibility.

0:06:25.848,0:06:30.281
Now, we think today that we can prevent these risks.

0:06:30.281,0:06:33.362
We have endless market analysis,

0:06:33.362,0:06:35.871
projections of the future earnings.

0:06:35.871,0:06:38.571
Even with market, which is about chance,

0:06:38.571,0:06:42.711
randomness, we think we can predict rationally

0:06:42.711,0:06:44.434
where it's going.

0:06:44.434,0:06:49.281
Now, chance is actually becoming very traumatic.

0:06:49.281,0:06:52.171
Last year, my friend Bernard Harcourt

0:06:52.171,0:06:56.446
at the University of Chicago organized an event,

0:06:56.446,0:06:59.843
a conference on the idea of chance.

0:06:59.843,0:07:01.929
He and I were together on the panel,

0:07:01.929,0:07:04.446
and just before delivering our papers —

0:07:04.446,0:07:06.796
we didn't know each other's papers —

0:07:06.796,0:07:09.304
we decided to take chance seriously.

0:07:09.304,0:07:11.140
So we informed our audience

0:07:11.140,0:07:13.489
that what they will just now hear

0:07:13.489,0:07:15.502
will be a random paper,

0:07:15.502,0:07:17.674
a mixture of the two papers

0:07:17.674,0:07:21.545
which we didn't know what each was writing.

0:07:21.545,0:07:25.725
Now, we delivered the conference in such a way.

0:07:25.725,0:07:27.946
Bernard read his first paragraph,

0:07:27.946,0:07:30.070
I read my first paragraph,

0:07:30.070,0:07:32.277
Bernard read his second paragraph,

0:07:32.277,0:07:33.762
I read my second paragraph,

0:07:33.762,0:07:37.384
in this way towards the end of our papers.

0:07:37.384,0:07:39.263
Now, you will be surprised

0:07:39.263,0:07:41.445
that a majority of our audience

0:07:41.445,0:07:44.188
did not think that what they'd just listened to

0:07:44.188,0:07:47.473
was a completely random paper.

0:07:47.473,0:07:49.419
They couldn't believe that

0:07:49.419,0:07:51.939
speaking from the position of authority

0:07:51.939,0:07:53.817
like two professors we were,

0:07:53.817,0:07:56.888
we would take chance seriously.

0:07:56.888,0:07:59.475
They thought we prepared the papers together

0:07:59.475,0:08:02.953
and were just joking that it's random.

0:08:02.953,0:08:07.120
Now, we live in times with a lot of information,

0:08:07.120,0:08:08.711
big data,

0:08:08.711,0:08:11.715
a lot of knowledge about the insides of our bodies.

0:08:11.715,0:08:13.458
We decoded our genome.

0:08:13.458,0:08:16.569
We know about our brains more than before.

0:08:16.569,0:08:19.205
But surprisingly, people are more and more

0:08:19.205,0:08:23.640
turning a blind eye in front of this knowledge.

0:08:23.640,0:08:28.633
Ignorance and denial are on the rise.

0:08:28.633,0:08:31.851
Now, in regard to the current economic crisis,

0:08:31.851,0:08:34.505
we think that we will just wake up again

0:08:34.505,0:08:36.721
and everything will be the same as before,

0:08:36.721,0:08:39.984
and no political or social changes are needed.

0:08:39.984,0:08:42.234
In regard to ecological crisis,

0:08:42.234,0:08:45.350
we think nothing needs to be done just now,

0:08:45.350,0:08:48.252
or others need to act before us.

0:08:48.252,0:08:51.548
Or even when ecological crisis already happens,

0:08:51.548,0:08:53.877
like a catastrophe in Fukushima,

0:08:53.877,0:08:56.701
often we have people living in the same environment

0:08:56.701,0:08:58.523
with the same amount of information,

0:08:58.523,0:09:02.210
and half of them will be anxious about radiation

0:09:02.210,0:09:05.531
and half of them will ignore it.

0:09:05.531,0:09:08.343
Now, psychoanalysts know very well

0:09:08.343,0:09:10.818
that people surprisingly don't have

0:09:10.818,0:09:12.607
passion for knowledge

0:09:12.607,0:09:15.689
but passion for ignorance.

0:09:15.689,0:09:17.174
Now, what does that mean?

0:09:17.174,0:09:18.990
Let's say when we are facing

0:09:18.990,0:09:21.783
a life-threatening illness,

0:09:21.783,0:09:24.989
a lot of people don't want to know that.

0:09:24.989,0:09:28.387
They'd rather prefer denying the illness,

0:09:28.387,0:09:31.661
which is why it's not so wise to inform them

0:09:31.661,0:09:33.370
if they don't ask.

0:09:33.370,0:09:35.800
Surprisingly, research shows that sometimes

0:09:35.800,0:09:37.644
people who deny their illness

0:09:37.644,0:09:41.560
live longer than those who are rationally choosing

0:09:41.560,0:09:43.999
the best treatment.

0:09:43.999,0:09:46.120
Now, this ignorance, however,

0:09:46.120,0:09:50.849
is not very helpful on the level of the social.

0:09:50.849,0:09:54.179
When we are ignorant about where we are heading,

0:09:54.179,0:09:58.364
a lot of social damage can be caused.

0:09:58.364,0:10:00.445
Now, on top of facing ignorance,

0:10:00.445,0:10:02.683
we are also facing today

0:10:02.683,0:10:05.844
some kind of an obviousness.

0:10:05.844,0:10:07.971
Now, it was French philosopher

0:10:07.971,0:10:10.080
Louis Althusser who pointed out

0:10:10.080,0:10:12.643
that ideology functions in such a way

0:10:12.643,0:10:16.509
that it creates a veil of obviousness.

0:10:16.509,0:10:20.244
Before we do any social critique,

0:10:20.244,0:10:24.631
it is necessary really to lift that veil of obviousness

0:10:24.631,0:10:27.960
and to think through a little bit differently.

0:10:27.960,0:10:29.997
If we go back to this ideology

0:10:29.997,0:10:32.528
of individual, rational choice

0:10:32.528,0:10:34.856
we often embrace,

0:10:34.856,0:10:36.836
it's necessary precisely here

0:10:36.836,0:10:39.165
to lift this obviousness

0:10:39.165,0:10:42.296
and to think a little bit differently.

0:10:42.296,0:10:45.260
Now for me, a question often is

0:10:45.260,0:10:49.863
why we still embrace this idea of a self-made man

0:10:49.863,0:10:53.395
on which capitalism relied from its beginning?

0:10:53.395,0:10:55.880
Why do we think that we are really such masters

0:10:55.880,0:10:58.705
of our lives that we can rationally

0:10:58.705,0:11:01.157
make the best ideal choices,

0:11:01.157,0:11:04.386
that we don't accept losses and risks?

0:11:04.386,0:11:07.671
And for me, it's very shocking to[br]see sometimes very poor people,

0:11:07.671,0:11:10.015
for example, not supporting the idea

0:11:10.015,0:11:13.633
of the rich being taxed more.

0:11:13.633,0:11:15.681
Quite often here they still identify

0:11:15.681,0:11:18.279
with a certain kind of a lottery mentality.

0:11:18.279,0:11:21.562
Okay, maybe they don't think that they will make it

0:11:21.562,0:11:22.964
in the future, but maybe they think,

0:11:22.964,0:11:26.153
my son might become the next Bill Gates.

0:11:26.153,0:11:29.370
And who would want to tax one's son?

0:11:29.370,0:11:33.200
Or, a question for me is also,

0:11:33.200,0:11:35.580
why would people who have no health insurance

0:11:35.580,0:11:38.561
not embrace universal healthcare?

0:11:38.561,0:11:40.090
Sometimes they don't embrace it,

0:11:40.090,0:11:42.914
again identifying with the idea of choice,

0:11:42.914,0:11:45.472
but they have nothing to choose from.

0:11:45.472,0:11:49.922
Now, Margaret Thatcher famously said

0:11:49.922,0:11:52.554
that there is nothing like a society.

0:11:52.554,0:11:56.334
Society doesn't exist, it is only individuals

0:11:56.334,0:11:58.130
and their families.

0:11:58.130,0:12:03.263
Sadly, this ideology still functions very well,

0:12:03.263,0:12:05.547
which is why people who are poor might feel

0:12:05.547,0:12:07.470
ashamed for their poverty.

0:12:07.470,0:12:09.732
We might endlessly feel guilty that we are

0:12:09.732,0:12:11.846
not making the right choices,

0:12:11.846,0:12:14.142
and that's why we didn't succeed.

0:12:14.142,0:12:17.674
We are anxious that we are not good enough.

0:12:17.674,0:12:19.597
That's why we work very hard,

0:12:19.597,0:12:21.138
long hours at the workplace

0:12:21.138,0:12:25.576
and equally long hours on remaking ourselves.

0:12:25.576,0:12:27.989
Now, when we are anxious over choices,

0:12:27.989,0:12:32.421
sometimes we easily give our power of choice away.

0:12:32.421,0:12:34.217
We identify with the guru

0:12:34.217,0:12:35.496
who tells us what to do,

0:12:35.496,0:12:38.140
self-help therapist,

0:12:38.140,0:12:40.919
or we embrace a totalitarian leader

0:12:40.919,0:12:43.706
who appears to have no doubts about choices,

0:12:43.706,0:12:45.790
who sort of knows.

0:12:45.790,0:12:48.566
Now, often people ask me,

0:12:48.566,0:12:50.940
"What did you learn by studying choice?"

0:12:50.940,0:12:54.111
And there is an important message that I did learn.

0:12:54.111,0:12:56.598
When thinking about choices,

0:12:56.598,0:13:01.558
I stopped taking choices too seriously, personally.

0:13:01.558,0:13:04.180
First, I realized a lot of choice I make

0:13:04.180,0:13:05.639
is not rational.

0:13:05.639,0:13:07.543
It's linked to my unconscious,

0:13:07.543,0:13:09.737
my guesses of what others are choosing,

0:13:09.737,0:13:13.393
or what is a socially embraced choice.

0:13:13.393,0:13:15.690
I also embrace the idea

0:13:15.690,0:13:17.330
that we should go beyond

0:13:17.330,0:13:19.254
thinking about individual choices,

0:13:19.254,0:13:22.910
that it's very important to rethink social choices,

0:13:22.910,0:13:26.611
since this ideology of individual[br]choice has pacified us.

0:13:26.611,0:13:29.749
It really prevented us to think about social change.

0:13:29.749,0:13:33.480
We spend so much time[br]choosing things for ourselves

0:13:33.480,0:13:35.250
and barely reflect on

0:13:35.250,0:13:37.476
communal choices we can make.

0:13:37.476,0:13:39.176
Now, we should not forget that choice

0:13:39.176,0:13:41.860
is always linked to change.

0:13:41.860,0:13:43.676
We can make individual changes,

0:13:43.676,0:13:45.861
but we can make social changes.

0:13:45.861,0:13:49.627
We can choose to have more wolves.

0:13:49.627,0:13:52.394
We can choose to change our environment

0:13:52.394,0:13:54.824
to have more bees.

0:13:54.824,0:13:59.110
We can choose to have different rating agencies.

0:13:59.110,0:14:01.573
We can choose to control corporations

0:14:01.573,0:14:05.437
instead of allowing corporations to control us.

0:14:05.437,0:14:08.852
We have a possibility to make changes.

0:14:08.852,0:14:12.130
Now, I started with a quote from Samuel Johnson,

0:14:12.130,0:14:14.859
who said that when we make choice in life,

0:14:14.859,0:14:17.446
we shouldn't forget to live.

0:14:17.446,0:14:19.673
Finally, you can see

0:14:19.673,0:14:21.180
I did have a choice

0:14:21.180,0:14:22.467
to choose one of the three quotes

0:14:22.467,0:14:26.491
with which I wanted to start my lecture.

0:14:26.491,0:14:28.390
I did have a choice,

0:14:28.390,0:14:30.698
such as nations, as people,

0:14:30.698,0:14:32.970
we have choices too to rethink

0:14:32.970,0:14:36.282
in what kind of society we want to live in the future.

0:14:36.282,0:14:38.333
Thank you.

0:14:38.333,0:14:42.563
(Applause)