Paradox of Choice

I recent comic at Calamities of Nature and a blog post by the Bored Sword got me thinking about choice.  First some context:

From  the Bored Sword which was a post talking about book bannings for kids

“You see, I’m a fairly firm believer in letting people, kids included, read what they want to read.  As far as I am concerned actually having a kid that wants to read is a positive boon and should not be terribly interfered with.  Yes, some material may not be age appropriate, but this is where parenting comes in and in my job we are supposed to be the parental substitute.  As I tell every kid with every book they check out, go ahead and read it, but, if you come upon something that is inappropriate or seems inappropriate, stop reading and come to staff with it.  That way, we can discuss it and talk about why that may, or may not, be appropriate.”

I originally had a long post talking about choice, civilization, ranting about people still trying to ban books, etc etc. It ended up being a little more philosophical and rambling than I originally intended. And it didn’t make a lot of sense, because I thought about the following paradox of choice to much.

Only when people freely choose to give up their freedom to choose to use power and take choice away from others, do we have a society where people truly have freedom to make their own choices.