The illusion of free choice is the free choice of illusions.

It is now an accepted, although much ignored, fact that the average citizen, in filling their car with petrol, is implicitly supporting corporate terrorism, oppression and violence, not to mention the systematic destruction of the very life support system we all reply on for our very existence. By purchasing a tee shirt from KMart of WalMart we are supporting the exploitation of labour in Asia, Africa or Central America, and the systematic destruction of our own industrial base and employment.

As the situationists declaimed in 1968, there are no more innocent people, believing so is not even a harmless affectation. Or as Prof. Singer has explained, choosing to drive your car is an ethical or moral choice, based on the belief that my own convenience is of more importance than all other considerations, more than the health of our shared environment or even of our children.

What are the conditions which create the industrialised consumer, free of conscience, ethics or politics? What form of ignorance is possible today in our over-informed societies? Is it possible to claim, 'I didn't know!", when information is so freely available, when a quick search of the internet can call up information on everything from civil rights to the exploitation of 'third world' labour?

Or do citizens choose tyranny simply because they could not be bothered doing otherwise? Or are we labouring under the tyranny of choice? Are there simply too many choices available, to the point where an informed choice is no longer possible? Is there too much information flooding our consciousness too actually discriminate between bullshit and truth?

Possibly, as our society, its TV, newspapers and airwaves, is flooded with lies, half-truths, deceptions and deliberate manipulation, it has become harder and harder to discriminate between truth and lies. Possibly we are losing our 'shit detector', something we have been able to rely on as an intrinsic part of human capability? You can't fool all the people all the time...?