The Illusionary Choice

  I had an assigned reading in one of my business classes' years ago.  It was The Illusion of Choice by Andrew B. Schmookler.  It was a case of examining how the Market Economy shaped our destiny (that’s even on the cover of his book no less).  He wrote the book back in 1993, and this posting isn’t dedicated to him per se as it is to something he addressed in the context of the choices we think we have when deciding on commodities.  He uses a great example of restaurant menus and how over time they are narrowed down to beef, chicken, and a few items of fish and salad. But that overall, we don’t have much of a choice; and that turns out to be pretty much true; try getting calamari and you’ll see what I mean.  For my wife and me it’s glaringly so, we’re vegetarians and even the ‘items’ they claim are animal product fee, they still use butter to cook it. For anyone whose doctor just commanded they reduce sugar and salt in their diets they’ll get a rude awakening at just how much of those two ingredients are present in everything; the same is true with lactate but that’s a topic for another day.

  The sad truth of all of this is the reoccurring theme of you and I are in a situation not of our choosing.  And there are a lot of contributing reasons for that; most of them appeal to reason; which side of the road we drive on; which side do zippers work; and a continued puzzle that never has been addressed, why do they put phone hookups in the kitchen…still?

  But all of that is based on paying attention to what customers prefer and then adapting the marketing efforts to anticipate those needs; but doing that create a standard and unbeknownst to the buying public that is what is offered, and often, the only thing offered. We become trapped in a few choices by the nature of providers narrowing products they must have on hand to satisfy the purchasing public.

  This seemingly mindless process contributed to an event I had this weekend that pulled all of those apparent unconnected threads together.  I had to purchase a malware protection/cleaning software package; obviously because my family computer was being redirected without our consent. Whenever one of us wanted to research a topic, say, Andrew B Schmookler, the window for car rentals would pop up; you get the picture.  Well after trying the one or two computer cleaning tricks I learned over the years, and to no avail, I resorted to buying malware software.  While I chatted with friendly Frank as he installed the program remotely, he said something that resonated. 

   “You know these devious little programs get planted in your computer whenever you go to one of those free websites.  As you may know, nothing is free; they plant a program that collects information for marketing or worse.”

  Now never mind all the creative torture I was conjecturing in my mind for those dirty rascals who wrote such programs; those who diverted me from the bliss of drifting along in my make-believe world; I had to thank Frank, in my rebellion, for that peal of wisdom which had been hiding in the rubble of my dilemma.  He was ab-so-lute-ly correct; nothing is free.

  How did I forget such a basic lesson?  Well, I was seduced to forget it.  I finished that phone conversation with a refreshed point of view.  One phase was that I was shocked…then pissed…then distraught…many of the grieving stages I’ve learned about in my pursuits of psychological mastery.  And what died? What was the source of my grieving? Why, disillusionment is the culprit.  I had been lulled into a false sense of security.  Yes, even knowing what I do, I fell prey to the subtle manipulation of trusting without reason; sucked into the illusion of safe.

Zap.

  Expectations are by definition, unexamined and/or unspoken desires.  We’re encouraged to possess as many of those as possible.  Why? Well because we are being massaged to follow other people’s direction; like with the restaurant, the colorful menus depicting the choices they offer, presented as if the few choices offered appear abundant and meeting our desires. 

  A long, long time ago when I was interested in mastering an understanding of business, and assigned to read such books as the Illusion of choice,  I remember learning the premise for marketing was to ‘create a demand by cultivating a need; oh, along with educate the buying public on the product.’ That was back in the 80’s; now it’s just create a need.   And that need is gift wrapped with suggestions of service and performances that will rarely be tested.  When they are, believe me, there is a script of excuses on why those promises are not delivered.  Oh, and those reasons will be subtly suggesting something like in John Landis’ movie, Animal House, when Kent Dorfman, (flounder) is aghast learning how his cousin’s car was trashed on the Frat road trip.  John Belushi, (as Blutarsky) responded with, “ Hey you f*cked up, you trusted us.”