Theory

Choice Awareness Theses

This chapter introduces the two theses of the Choice Awareness theory. The theory deals with how to implement radical technological changes such as renewable energy systems. The step from nuclear and fossil fuel systems to renewable energy systems involves a radical technological change. As we will see, it cannot be implemented by existing organizations within existing institutions, but it will imply organizational and institutional changes. This means that someone will win and someone will lose as a result of these changes.

With a reference to discourse and power theories, the Choice Awareness theory emphasizes that different organizations see things differently. Existing organizational interests will thus seek to keep renewable energy proposals out of the agenda at many levels. The Choice Awareness theory is based on the observation that, in many cases, these conditions lead to a situation of no choice. As a society, we are subject to a collective perception that states, for example, that “We have no choice but to build another coal-fired power station”. The Choice Awareness theory, however, maintains that this is not true: We do have a choice. The theory tells us how to be aware of this choice; thus it enables us to debate our common future and make better decisions.

The theory addresses the societal level. It concerns collective decision making in a process that involves many individuals and organizations representing different interests and discourses, as well as different levels of power to influence the decision-making process. The theory is not comprehensive, but it emphasizes the key factor that existing organizational interests will often seek to eliminate choices from the political decision-making process.

The Choice Awareness theory advocates counterstrategies involving the design of technical alternatives, feasibility studies based on institutional economic thinking, and the design of public regulation measures seen in light of conflicting interests as well as changes in the democratic decision-making infrastructure. Those strategies are examined in more detail in Chapter 3.

1 Choice and change

The word choice obviously plays an important role in the definition of Choice Awareness. In this book, a distinction is made between a true choice and a false choice. As already defined in Chapter 1, a true choice is a choice between two or more real options, while a false choice refers to a situation in which choice is some sort of illusion. One example of a false choice is the concept referred to as Hobson’s Choice, that is, a free choice in which only one option is offered. The “choice” is between deciding on the option or not. The phrase is said to originate from Thomas Hobson (1544–1630), who delivered mail between London and Cambridge by horse. When the horses were not needed for the mail delivery, they were rented out to students and academic staff at the university. Hobson soon discovered that his best (and fastest) horses were the most popular ones and thus overworked. To prevent further exhaustion of his best horses, Hobson devised a strict rotation system, only allowing customers to rent the next horse in line. His policy, “This one or none”, has come to be known as Hobson’s Choice, when an apparent choice is in fact no choice at all (Smith 1882).

Another example of a false choice is the prototypical Catch-22, as formulated by Joseph Heller in his novel of the same title (Heller 1961). It considers the case of a bombardier who wishes to be excused from combat flight duty. To do so, he must submit an official medical certificate demonstrating that he is unfit because he is insane. However, according to Army regulations, any sane person would naturally not want to fly combat missions because they are so dangerous. By requesting permission not to fly combat missions on the grounds of insanity, the bombardier demonstrates that he is in fact sane and therefore is fit to fly. Conversely, any flyer who wanted to fly combat missions implicitly demonstrated that he was insane and was unfit to fly and should therefore be excused. To be excused, however, the unwilling individual had to submit a request, and, naturally, he never did. If the reluctant flyer did submit a request to be excused, the Catch-22 would assert itself, short circuiting any such attempt to escape from combat duty.

Choice/No Choice at the Individual Level

As mentioned, the theory of Choice Awareness addresses the societal level, but the term itself is inspired by the activities that take place at the individual level. The term Choice Awareness is inspired by kinesiology, a method of treating emotional stress at the individual level. In 1984 and 1986, Stokes and Whiteside examined the emotional causes of physical problems, including dyslexia. They described a method of healing certain health problems by working with the emotional state of the individual. By using various psychological tools, Stokes and Whiteside believed that certain individual psychological problems could be cured.

An important tool is the behavioral barometer providing a systematic way of relating different feelings to one another. The idea of the barometer is that a person’s feelings relate and respond to one another at the conscious, the subconscious, and the body levels, as defined by Stokes and Whiteside. For example, if a person feels “unappreciated” at the conscious level, according to the barometer, this feeling corresponds to other, related feelings at the subconscious and body levels. By understanding these relations between different feelings at different levels of consciousness and awareness, one can work with individual problems. In combination with various other methods, the behavioral barometer is a powerful tool for helping individual problems.

In kinesiology, the word choice plays an essential role. According to Stokes and Whiteside, every human being has from birth the feeling that “we have no choice; and without choice, we have no power”.1 The feeling of no choice is an emotional condition in which individuals may find themselves. This feeling may manifest itself when a person experiences emotional problems. As expressed by Stokes and Whiteside, when “we buy in to no choice, we check out on our individuality, our self-worth, and the reality of spirit”.2

According to Stokes and Whiteside, the feeling of no choice is both essential and fatal. If a person enters into a chronic state of feeling that he or she has no choice but to do something that he or she does not want to do, this condition is fatal. The cure is to make the person realize that he or she always has a choice. Even when experiencing the desperate situation of having no real alternative to begin with, one can still choose to say “no”. The experience is that when a person accepts that he or she indeed has a choice to make—by saying no—he or she will be able to think of even better and real constructive alternatives. The point of Choice Awareness is that this feeling—or perception, as I prefer to call it—can also be observed at the collective and societal levels.

Choice/No Choice at the Societal Level

During my participation in various decision-making processes (11 of which are discussed in Chapter 8), I found that the perception of no choice appeared many times and in several forms also at the collective and societal levels. By the term collective perception, I am referring to the general perception in society. It does not include a few individuals who know better or differently. The fact that single persons get new ideas or come up with new alternatives does not change the collective perception, as long as they keep these ideas to themselves. Only if they raise awareness by convincing or informing the public in general does this knowledge become part of the collective perception. In the same manner, the collective perception may be manipulated by individuals or organizations...