Repetition, but not too much; variation, but not too much

It is remarkable that individual freedom and economic prosperity are necessary preconditions to the concept of choice. As I mentioned last time, there is no choice possible if there is only one option: when the only way for a son to earn a decent living was to take over the father's workshop, it was not much of a choice, just the acceptance of it. The same applies to "democratic" elections where there is only one party in the ballot, they are just a pantomime of an election. 

However, having options is not enough to have choices: in heavily regulated environments, like certain military units or religious communities the options are there, but it is just unthinkable that any individual will "choose" anything other than the mandated option. For instance, one could stay late in bed on a Sunday instead of going to church, but the social pressure and the fear of the repercussions can be so haunting that nobody dares to exercise their freedom and instead just follow suit. De facto there is no individual freedom.

Photo: Gloria Malone on Pixabay

Then is the question of personal taste: although many preferences are statistically very common (we could call them "inborn") many others are purely acquired, they require a certain amount of learning before they can be enjoyed. One poignant example of this training is the spicy food in Mexico: newborn babies start to cry when exposed to chili, but by the time they are five years old they have grown fully used to it and even like it. However, dogs and pigs who regularly get leftovers from the same spicy food would never pick a spicy dish before a non-spicy one. But for us humans, if we are expecting to burn in the mouth and it does not, we are disappointed.

Surprisingly, taste is a fine balance between repetition and variation: there are thing that we already love the way they are and we would like it to stay like that forever. That is the case of the franchised foods and beverages, which are aimed at being exactly the same regardless of which establishment you are visiting so that the "experience" is consistent. Little kids also love repetition, because it allows them to predict what is coming next, reduce their anxiety and boost the anticipation of exciting events. Indeed. if you change the way you tell the bedtime story, most of them will complain and demand you to tell it "as always". But admittedly, that is not limited to kids; nerds all over the world regularly revisit the movies of American director Chris Columbus every year on Columbus Day (although it is the "other" Christopher Columbus).

However, there are limits to the amount of repetition we can withstand: even if you love spaghetti bolognese, they will eventually get old if you eat it three times a day, even before you get into actual health problems as American filmmaker Morgan Spurlock demonstrated in his 2004 documentary "Supersize Me". That is where food types, and artistic genres come handy: dishes in the same type and movies, books, songs in the same genre are bound to have a lot of things in common, so the chances are that you like many of them. For instance, I know I enjoy science fiction series, so I can safely watch Star Trek, The Expanse, Star Wars or even Firefly with the expectation that I will like them. On the contrary, I do not enjoy scary movies, so I will avoid the Friday 13th, Halloween and Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchises, because they will only upset me.

But, funnily enough, even the genres we like are not constant. Not only they evolve as we get on years, but they are also subject to our changes of mood or even the time of the day. How can you figure out someone else's taste if you cannot figure your own in a consistent way?

I came to this reflection today because a few days ago I did not feel like reading the essays by Marilyn Frye at bedtime, not because I did not like therm or did not find them interesting, but I was in for something more fun and less cerebral. Instead, I picked "Three Daughters of Eve", by Turkish author Elif Shafak, which is not strictly fun, but interesting in a "passive" way, where you are just the spectator of the story instead of the intense intellectual demands of an essay.

My point is, in the end, that taste is volatile and it is OK to rotate among preferences or even completely abandon some of them and have them replaced with new ones. Life is all about changes, and taste is part of life. Draw your own conclusions.