Love Quote by Hugh Mackay

Choice gets marketed as freedom, but Mackay is really talking about anxiety. The line needles a modern contradiction: we perform devotion to options (apps, lifestyles, identities, endless customization) while privately craving the relief of not having to decide. “Almost worships it” is the tell. He frames choice as a kind of civic religion, complete with moral pressure: to be a good, modern person is to optimize, curate, keep doors open. That worship sounds empowering until you notice what it demands psychologically - constant self-management, constant second-guessing.

The second clause pivots from ideology to instinct. “Seek refuge” treats familiarity like shelter, not laziness. Comfort isn’t merely preference; it’s a coping strategy in a culture that turns every decision into a referendum on who you are. The subtext is that choice overload doesn’t just tire us out; it pushes us toward safe repetition - the same brands, the same routines, the same narratives - because certainty becomes a scarce resource.

As a writer associated with social research and Australian cultural commentary, Mackay is also quietly critiquing consumer capitalism’s favorite trick: selling more options as progress, then blaming individuals when the abundance feels suffocating. The sentence works because it doesn’t scold either impulse. It exposes a tension that’s both personal and political: we want autonomy, but we also want a world that stops demanding we prove it every minute.