Beauty in Simplicity
Beauty in simplicity:
The fabric of society in supposedly civilized societies has become frayed – stretched, strained and subjected to innumerable pressures. Many of these frayings were imposed in the interest of adding value to life by increasing choices for people. This has actually diminished our quality of life and induced a mental paralysis, the result of having too many options, and too many decisions to make.
I believe in the innate power and virtue of simplicity. History’s most tragic errors and mankind’s most disastrous initiatives can be traced to conspicuous consumption and a desire for instant gratification. We have strayed from the notion of “if I work and save, perhaps someday I can own (insert commodity – a house, a car, a refrigerator, a business). These days the thought process is “I want everything, and I want it now”. The notion of what one wants, why one wants it, and what one may have to do to obtain it, is seldom considered.
Not surprisingly, conspicuous consumption and a disregard for the power of simplicity have increased people’s discontent. There is more dissatisfaction as people cease to value what they have, and covet more what they do not have.
Our lives are built around the notion that the person with the most “stuff” is the most successful. Ingenious manufacturers of “value-added” commodities have made it their business to cater to this notion, selling people on the idea that the health of the national economy depends on their continuing to spend, to choose from forty different types of coffee, eighty different kinds of cars, dozens of cell phone models, 32 flavors of ice cream, 500 cable television channels, and I don’t know how many types of computer hardware and software.
The concept is pervasive. Anyone trying to buy juice or cereal knows there must be a hundred different configurations and mixtures on the grocery shelves – some enriched with extra calcium, some with reduced sugar, some a mixture of cranberry and whatever fruit
The fabric of society in supposedly civilized societies has become frayed – stretched, strained and subjected to innumerable pressures. Many of these frayings were imposed in the interest of adding value to life by increasing choices for people. This has actually diminished our quality of life and induced a mental paralysis, the result of having too many options, and too many decisions to make.
I believe in the innate power and virtue of simplicity. History’s most tragic errors and mankind’s most disastrous initiatives can be traced to conspicuous consumption and a desire for instant gratification. We have strayed from the notion of “if I work and save, perhaps someday I can own (insert commodity – a house, a car, a refrigerator, a business). These days the thought process is “I want everything, and I want it now”. The notion of what one wants, why one wants it, and what one may have to do to obtain it, is seldom considered.
Not surprisingly, conspicuous consumption and a disregard for the power of simplicity have increased people’s discontent. There is more dissatisfaction as people cease to value what they have, and covet more what they do not have.
Our lives are built around the notion that the person with the most “stuff” is the most successful. Ingenious manufacturers of “value-added” commodities have made it their business to cater to this notion, selling people on the idea that the health of the national economy depends on their continuing to spend, to choose from forty different types of coffee, eighty different kinds of cars, dozens of cell phone models, 32 flavors of ice cream, 500 cable television channels, and I don’t know how many types of computer hardware and software.
The concept is pervasive. Anyone trying to buy juice or cereal knows there must be a hundred different configurations and mixtures on the grocery shelves – some enriched with extra calcium, some with reduced sugar, some a mixture of cranberry and whatever fruit