A friend of mine recently sent me an e-mail which espoused his thoughts on a subject I have heard a fair bit about over the last year or so. The subject is 'choices', or more particularly, the theory that everything we do in life is as a consequence of choices we make. Life is all about choices . . . apparently. Well, notwithstanding your thoughts on this subject (we are all entitled to our own views), here are my thoughts on this subject, for what they are worth.

- Albert Einstein

I have to say, I'm not entirely sold on the concept of life being about choices.

I keep asking myself questions about choice and they don't seem to indicate that I have many choices. "Did I choose to break up my family?" No I didn't. "Did I have a choice in my former wife divorcing me?" No. "Did I choose to cease communication with my children?" Nope. So, I don't know about the validity of this one. I 'never say never', but life doesn't appear to be about choice to me. In fact did you know, the latest way of doing business is aimed at reducing (scaling up to entirely eliminating) a consumers' choice? It's true.

I had two such examples recently - let me share them with you. I bank with Westpac and I use online banking quite a bit - there is no Westpac in the Philippines, and I guess I'm just the sort of person who prefers to bank online anyway. This is how Westpac introduces increases in their fees. They release a 'pop-up' message when you login to their online banking site. It says something like "We're going to double the fee for using an ATM on Monday" (of course, you have read the fine print to come up with such a succinct explanation like this). It then says "Do you Agree? Yes or No?" If you select NO, the next pop-up says "Thank you for using Westpac Banking Online" and you are taken back to the Login Screen. Basically it loops you and prevents you from logging into and accessing your accounts until you agree with the fee increase. Doesn't sound like a lot of choice in that one.

Here's another - just as good. I received a letter in the mail from my Life Insurer last month. I have insurance with BT - they just take out a monthly premium from my super fund and give me a statement of what they have done every year. With accrued bonuses, I have $126,000 death cover and they deduct $23 a month for that cover. The letter I received reads, inter alia .. Most people find that they are under-insured so we have worked out what you need considering your age and we will be changing your cover with effect from 1 May 2008. In my case, they decided that I really wanted $200,000 cover and for that, my premium would be $63 (the premium is nearly three times what I was paying for less than twice the cover). Regardless, I have no requirement for $200,000 cover - what the hell would Rhea do with 200K in the Philippines - buy a city? The letter was not asking me, it was telling me. It was telling me, that from 1 May, this is what they did ('did' - as in past tense!!). So where was my choice? Obviously, it's just a way of increasing their income without increasing their customer base - blind Freddy can work that one out. So when I complete their form to exercise my 'choice' and reduce my cover back to its original $126,000, I'm sure I won't be paying what I did before..... What do you think - $40.00 now for the same cover? We'll see.

Sorry, I can't resist - here is another example - this one is a government one. Remember the changes made to Medicare in Australia about 10 years ago regarding Private Health Insurance? The changes that said something like, if you are XX age and you don't have Private Health cover, we will penalise you XX% per annum for not 'choosing' to pay for private health insurance. What a classic that one was. Yeah - choice, but its conditional - you get penalised for making a choice that doesn't agree with theirs .... Oh ok, just one more - you will like this one.. Superannuation. I have a bit of a problem with the way Super is administered and regulated in Australia - I always have. I absolutely positively agree with the concept, but I don't like the lack of choice, and I don't like the way the industry (a la your funds) is regulated. When I co-owned my computing business, Data.Exe, we were a company and were therefore required to pay ourselves (my former partner and I) wages, and as a consequence, we were required by the government to pay super as well. I think it was in the year 2001 just prior to closing up the company, I lost $33,000 in mis-managed superannuation. I started the year with a fund worth about $50K, involuntarily contributed $15K and ended up with a fund worth $32K. This was fairly typical for super funds at this time - mine performed about average (admittedly they performed better in later years), but if I had my choice I would not have contributed a single cent to them - I never believed in their ability to do a better job than I could and I resented the fact that the government told me what to do (ie, they took away my choice). I personally feel mandatory contributions paid to a select few companies under strict government regulation, is jam money for the government. And you know what? Once the government has your money, they can then change the goal posts as they see fit - further reducing your choice, making it harder for you to get through your life successfully.

I'm sorry, but I really don't think us mere mortals have much choice these days. Choice really doesn't have anything to do with life anymore. In fact, I think a person's lack of choice is going to become a major psychological problem for the general population in the future. People will begin to feel (and rightly so) "locked-in", as businesses and governments cease treating them as people and increasingly USE them as commodities. I know some people create their own problems by choices they make - over extending the mortgage, or drink driving. I recognise that you have to take responsibility for your own actions - one of my favourite lines from the 1970's film 'Flying High' - "They bought the tickets, I say let them die . . . " What a classic line. But governments and businesses have become a lot more stealth, and what was once within your own ability to choose, is no longer. 'Choice' is now just a diminishing memory of years gone by.

You may view this as just semantics - I don't think it is, but I have thought for some time now that life is all about something else. I remember when I undertook Administration and Councilling Training in the Royal Australian Navy. It was at the Supply Faculty in HMAS CERBERUS in 1986. I was introduced to a leadership style called Situational Leadership. It also applied to Management - called Situational Management. I have used this style of management for many years now, along with other styles I like. Well, I think it also relates to life. I call it Situational Life . . . . hahahaha Anyway, I think life is all about 'making decisions given a situation'. You see in the case of my former wife leaving me, I was forced into making decisions (you may say choices), but they were as a result of a situation that existed that I had no control over. If they had simply been choices, then I would not have chosen them. They were conscious decisions I made (ONLY) because of the situation at the time. In other words, my choice was reduced or eliminated. In the case of the divorce that followed about a year after separation, I actually had no choice at all - that's the way it is in Australia. So, taking account of the situation, I made a decision to find another wife. The 'deciding' and the 'situation' are not mutually exclusive. And in the case of the Westpac Bank, I decided to accept the 100% increase in fees so that I could access my accounts. Given this deplorable situation, I decided to access my accounts - I think you will agree, I really had no choice at all. But nobody will be able to convince me that I chose to be divorced, and nobody will convince me that I chose to pay $5 to use an ATM instead of $2.50. I simply made decisions to do these things GIVEN that my choice was limited (if not totally taken away from me). And to be perfectly honest, I totally object to both of these situations - they cause me sleepless nights, they make me worry about the future, and they make me realise in fact, that life really is about having very few to no choices at all.

So how does all of this actually relate to life? Well the "Life is all about Choices" theory has a nice ending. People like it because it's nice and neat - it has an ending that we like. We make choices in life and we are responsible for our choices - sounds lovely and appeals to people. If we make the right choices we are rewarded and if we make the wrong choices we are not - again sounds fair and it's easy to comprehend. Life will ultimately end up being what we choose. We should feel happy that our futures are within our choice. Hmmmmmmm, if only life were like that. Maybe it is in Pleasantville, but it's not in Australia.

The reality is more like my theory I think. Unfortunately, it doesn't have a happy ending, and governments and businesses are not going to endorse my theory because it doesn't suit them to do so - they are the very people profiting from our exploitation. But the evidence is already available - there is heaps of evidence - my divorce, banks implementing fee rises, and insurers increasing their income base. But wait, there's more ... Airlines putting up their prices well beyond what is reasonable, and blaming it on fuel increases, software developers allowing you to use their software if you agree to be SPAMMED by them and have your e-mail address sold to other companies, fuel companies 'fixing prices'. We live in a highly mobile and global world today, we do not get to choose any of these events which have almost become daily occurrences - we must fly, we must embrace new software and we must drive - to suggest otherwise is pure nonsense. These are the new staples of life replacing the more basic and commonly known ones of food and shelter (the big end of town has already got into those ones....a la Coles and Woollies duopolising prices, and housing - wow, where do I start?) The end result of my theory is actually the opposite of what the "Choices Theory" espouses. The end result is that people actually lose their choice - they have no choice - they are 'locked-in'. They live their lives according to other peoples' choices (not their own), and their lives become manipulated. And when people become locked-in or have no choice or are manipulated, they become frustrated, scared, worried, unhappy, nervous, etc. This is what we are seeing today, and there will be a lot more of it in the future. People will be fed the lie of living their lives by their own choices - this is convenient because if things don't go right - it's your bad choice right? Well, it isn't. The fact is, you have had your choice taken away from you, so it becomes increasingly difficult (many times outright impossible) for you to make the right choices - those choices are no longer available - 'that box has long been deleted!'

I observe human behaviour as an interest - I think it's important to do this. Like many people, I would like to know the answers to life too, and I think it is important to take an interest in what happens around you. I have no idea whether I'm right, or even if I'm on the right track to be honest, but I observe lots of people who are unhappy with how they are treated. I see many people who are genuinely worried and scared about their futures, and I read a lot about situations that give rise to unrest, all because people's choice is taken from them. Commonly, they feel 'helpless' and 'locked-in' - it's not a nice feeling and it's not nice to be treated this way by fellow human beings. The future is not good.

So there you have it - Ken's Theory of Life - the "Situational Life Theory" hahahaha. I don't expect everyone to agree with me - I'm not looking for followers . . . lol But it is nice to speak my piece, and it's nice to hear other peoples' opinions too. If you want to express your thoughts on my blog, please do - let me know by e-mail - and let me know if you are ok with me putting it up on this page . . .

Ken

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