The Illusion of Choice and the Responsibility to Walk Away
A recent exchange online captured a recurring tension in the debate raging around entertainment and consumer culture.One side argues that people don't actually want good products—they want easy products. Ease of access governs most consumer decisions, which is why streaming services, retail giants, and movie franchises dominate the market.
The counter point is elite theory: The public gets what their betters decide to offer. And they maintain the illusion of choice only to keep people within systems of control. After all, whether you subscribe to Disney+, Netflix, or Amazon Prime, the same permanent class of managers own it all.
This debate reflects a common conundrum: Are we choosing our cultural decline, or is it being chosen for us?In truth, both arguments contain merit—and both let individuals off the hook if they aren't careful.Related: Mark Kern – Calling All GamersIt’s undeniable that powerful institutions hold a near-monopoly over entertainment and other goods. Elites do control the major platforms, studios, and distribution networks.Yet no one is forcing you to give them your money. That part is up to you. So the illusion of choice becomes real the moment you decide to opt out.It's not about ease of access vs elite theory. It's about sloth vs integrity.Think back to the latest spate of boycotts. Conservatives and other disaffected customers have increasingly turned their frustrations on the corporate wing of the regime. They’ve realized that megacorporations not only push values antithetical to theirs but do so while demanding their continued financial support.And yet, many remain locked into the cycle. They are disappointed when their beloved franchises degrade but continue subscribing and purchasing, as if they have no alternative.These boycotts may not make financial dents in global conglomerates—just as voting seems to have little effect on the output of government—but they matter for a different reason.When you stop giving money to people who hate you, you refuse to participate in your own spiritual and cultural defilement. You opt out of cooperating with those advancing grave intrinsic evils.This act, however small it may feel, carries moral weight. It’s not about imagining you can bankrupt a megacorporation with your canceled subscription or choosing an obscure indie fantasy series over the latest rehash of Big Fantasy Brand X. It’s about recognizing that, while elites dominate pop culture, they still rely on our cooperation to claim a consensus.The illusion only works ff you play along.In reality, people do bear some responsibility for the entertainment and products they consume. The public could seek out better alternatives. Good books, games, and movies do exist; they're just harder to find than corporate slop. But most people won’t bother looking because easy options are, well, easy.This is where Isaac's point rings true: The average person gravitates toward whatever the algorithm puts in front of him.And that’s what makes the cycle so vicious. People seek shun friction, and corporations deliver ease at the cost of quality. Customers then lament the decline of franchises they once loved, all the while paying tribute to the cultural vandals.So while elites do provide the illusion of choice, in most cases they don’t need to enforce compliance. They rely on sloth and inertia.Related: It's Not the EconomyAll of that is to explain why morally, opting out matters. It breaks the inertia. It pierces the illusion. And it forces you to look elsewhere: beyond what’s easy, past what’s fed to you. Not paying people who hate you is a small, necessary step toward resisting cultural decline.Because you only become free by becoming holy.In the end, refusing to cooperate with corrupt systems, even at the level of entertainment, transcends cultural reform. Instead, it's first and foremost concerned with personal transformation.If we want liberation from systems that despise us, we must first stop participating in our own spiritual decay. And that dissent begins with small, practical acts of resistance.Choosing integrity over convenience is not a grand political act, nor does it need to be. It’s an act of virtue, and practicing virtue is always the first step toward true liberation.
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