Dejà Vu

What is the most important prerequisite for making any choice at all?

Options!

Without options there can be no choices. Of course we can opt out of options by choice as it is the case whenever a totalitarian regime is on the rise.

You might ask: “So why do people eventually vote the autocrats in and let the democratic structures and institutions fall? Why do people do that!” Well, the answer is simple.

Decision fatigue!

Living in free society requires making choices but when the number of options to choose from becomes overwhelming due to the rise of the free market economy and the vagueness of the democratic discourse, the burden of choice becomes exhausting. People get tired of all that responsibility and eventually choose to limit their options by voting in a Hitler because they want to be told what to do, they want order, they want peace and quiet! Little they know, this is the last free choice they will ever make…

I let my engine run a bit longer to finish listening. I didn't catch the name of the speaker but the words made a lot of sense to me. I do remember having limited options in the People’s Republic of Poland, where I grew up, as quite soothing partly because nostalgia tends to distort our memories. Two TV channels, dry tea leaves in a plain tin can, one type of bread and just three types of cars in three different colors to choose from, now seems like luxury to me until I recall the food shortages as in plain vinegar being the only product on the grocery store shelves... 

Yet here, in the land of plenty, I can finally make my own choices. In fact I can’t turn a corner without having to choose from countless, mostly binary and painfully trite options. Paper or plastic? Window or isle? Red or Blue? It really is exhausting and it makes me feel... poor?

***

“Would you like something to drink?”, Plato asked.

(That’s right! My old buddy’s parents named him Plato. He never forgave them for it…)

“I wouldn’t mind some tea…”, I said.

“Hot or iced?”

“Hot, please!”

“Let’s see…”, his mouth made repetitive ray gun sounds into the drawer, “I got Green Tea, Genmaicha, Spicy Chai, Lipton, Earl Gray, Chamomile, Wild Rose, Fruit of the Forest, Rooibos…”

“Just water would be fine…”, I decided.

“Sparkling, mineral, Pellegrino, Fiji…”

“Just tap.”

“Ice?”

“Are you messing with me?”
, I burst with impatience.

“Here! I’ll make us some coffee. Just got a brand new Chemex!”, said Plato laughing.

“That’s more like it!”

***

We sat in silence for a while. Plato broke it with a bit of small talk.

“So, how was your ride over?”

“Not too bad. I listened to NPR's TED Radio Hour pretty much the whole way…”

“How exciting!”, said Plato, “What happened to the ‘I’m in a Punk Rock band’ guy I used to know!”

“All old punks listen to NPR now, didn’t you know?”, I said, “Besides, there really is nothing else to listen to except for crappy ads interrupted by a couple minutes of trashy music.”

“I hear you…”, Plato said.

“Jesus! When did we become two old farts complaining about radio programming?”

“Around the same time we graduated and our adult lives kicked in, I guess. I don’t see it as a bad thing though”, Plato reflected.

“Well, I guess it isn’t a bad thing”, I decided, “Being around long enough, our taste buds become more sensitive and we are more picky only because we don’t want to waste our precious time on mediocre shit anymore.”

Plato agreed.

“So what brings you amidst the humble walls of my dwelling?”, he asked finally.

“I quit my sales job yesterday!”, I said without pause.

“Congratulations?”

“Yeah, I would think so. I guess I was tired of living in the Matrix…”

“So you took the red pill, huh?”, Plato said.

“I always wondered about that one...”, I digressed, “What if the red pill wasn’t revealing the truth of reality either? I mean what if the vision presented to Neo as ‘THE’ reality was just another BS simulation?”

“That would have to have been quite a convincing simulation!”, Plato said.

“Well, I always thought Morpheus seemed a little condescending and manipulative. What if he was just using Neo to advance his own agenda. What if his version of reality was also bullshit?”, I wondered.

“I don’t think that was what the writers of Matrix had in mind…”, Plato said.

“Right… I forget our actual lives have no writers… Or do they?”

“Hard to say… From the looks of things, shit's too chaotic and random to suspect it’s been scripted. That’s how you know it’s actually, you know, real…”

“Unless the randomness and chaos is convincingly built in to erase suspicions?”, I suggested.

“And there is still the whole dejà vu thing…”, Plato joked.

“A glitch in the Matrix!”

We chuckled.

It felt just like the good old times of geeking out in a smoke filled dorm room.

“So what will you do now?”, Plato asked, “If you need a place to crash for a while...”

“I’m good, thank you for the offer”, I said.

“Do you remember ‘Plato’s Man Cave’?”, I changed the subject.

“Our segment in the college radio station? Of course I remember!”

“It had quite the following!”, I said.

“Sure, it was quite a riot. So what about it?”

“What if we revive it on YouTube?”

“You want us to be YouTubers?”, Plato asked laughing.

“I can’t see why not! I got the brains, you got the looks… You can be the 'cute one'!”

“Ha, ha! Very funny!”, he said, “But the thing is, I don’t think I can quit my job right now… Not yet anyway...”

“You wouldn’t have to! Just let me do all the content preparation, filming and editing. All I need is your charisma and sense of humor once a week for an hour.”

“So what would it be about?”, Plato asked.

“I don’t know... geeking out, jokes, life advice, how to’s, just like we did in college. Once we become successful YouTube content creators, we can make our entire channel about ‘how to become a successful YouTube content creator’!”

“A snake swallowing its own tail?”

“This is how the cool kids do it nowadays and it sells well because deep down people will always want to be told how to live their lives. They are just tired and scared of making their own choices…”

“We do seem to be moving towards the YouTube content creator economy...”, Plato reflected.

“Beats living in a totalitarian regime!”

“OK. I’m in! Seems like there is no other choice at this point, is there?”

“The options are pretty limited…”, I said.

“Coffee is ready!”

“Finally! Chemex takes forever! This is why I'm using French press, the ceramic kind...”

“To each their own, little buddy, to each their own...”

Plato put down a tray filled with twelve different kinds of sweeteners and creamers.