Decisions

In Ariely's TED talk his main point is that we as humans don’t really make rational decision like we think we do. Humans are not rational being’s in the more complex sense. We do things on impulse. In our purest state we are not equipped to handle complex decisions, and sometimes the decisions we do make, are wrong for a different reason than previously thought. Even though Ariely’s TED talk never even mentioned the concept of tragedy I believe his point actually has a large role to play in one of the main aspects of tragedy. In Tragedy every main protagonist has a “hamartia” or “tragic flaw” which drives along the bad things about to take place. As shown in plays like Oedipus the King, the hero might not be in control of or even know about their tragic flaw, causing them to make decisions that actually cause their misfortune,without knowing they caused it. In Oedipus Rex, Oedipus is told in a prophecy that he will kill his father and mary his mother, so to avoid this he leaves his homeland because very badly does not want this prophecy to come true because that would bring misfortune in the people he loves. However in making this decision he inevitably ends up running into Laius, killing him, going to thebes, becoming king, marrying Jocasta and fulfilling the prophecy and hurting those he loves anyway, even of thought it was not the family he expected.