Kent Greenfied : the myth of choice - personal responsibility in a world of limits

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How free are we to choose? What influences the choices we make? How much personal responsibility should anyone bear for the consequences of their choices?

Kent Greenfield ends his book saying
"I do believe that most of us, most of the time, would do well to recognise how often real choice is a mirage and how frequently the rhetoric of choice is misleading. But it need not be so. "

Greenfield is  a Professor of Law but writes in a very light, 'accessible' style with many interesting examples to support his arguments that well.. free choice is probably not so free(dom) after all .

The first part of the book "Centrality of Choice" looks at issues such as consent vs coercion and how the law operates regarding different kinds of consent and choice. The second part of the book questions more how choices are made - looking at the brain being wired, the role of power  (with disturbing research as to how people are wired to obey orders), culture and how the free market restricts choices.

The third part of the book looks at "What to do". He argues that the rhetoric of "personal responsibility" eliminates caring for fellow citizens and a sense of shared responsibility. The Chapter - Umpires, Judges and Bad Choices is interesting as it shows how mistakes are made. The US Supreme Court had upheld slavery in Dred Scot vs Sandford.  The final chapter proposes that people build capacity to detach themselves every now and then so they learn why they make the choices they do. He deals briefly with some public policy considerations such as encouraging diversity and dissent, enabling public commitments to change bad habits and acknowledge how economic need is a source of coercion.



The book is worth reading.