Unlimited choice
And if there was a surfeit of choice? Instant stress, with a low rate of satisfaction… Therein lies the danger of our society. Or an introductory subscription to Netflix.
Don’t get me wrong. In the chill of winter, going out to the video club to get a movie is a Canadian hardship. Right up there with frostbite (a related result) or a collapsed roof from accumulated snow (which you failed to clear because the TV chair was too comfortable. Satellite reception can be blocked by that same accumulation, and the movie channel never seems to have anything worth watching.
The kids have signed up, and the parents are innocent bystanders (sitters). If the TV is offering entertaining material, why not forget the myriad labours of keeping up a house? But, this evening, when the parents were left with “all the choice you could want”, we ended up watching a movie with Neil Diamond in a starring role. I’m sorry, but is that all there is?
What about the Oscar winners? What about the best of foreign cinema? Is a movie starring Jack Black and Amanda Peet the best we can do?
As beginners, maybe we didn’t read enough movie descriptions before pressing PLAY. Could be that the list will change, evolve, produce a miracle in content, the next time we look. Unlimited movies, like unlimited coffee, might be where mankind is headed, but I’m not sure that it will be for the betterment of the species.
But, I’m not going out to the video club for the rest of the evening.
