Is modern life over complicated? The answer certainly is “yes” and it’s easy to prove. Here, I’ll take you through a simple thought experiment and you’ll see what I mean. It’s quite possible that happiness and joy are being kept away from us by complication.
A very simple thought experiment
Let’s just think about drinking in general. In modern society, when we want to drink something we have plenty of choices. We can choose from tea (black, green, white, infusion, with/without milk, etc.), coffee (espresso, latte, cappuccino, decaf, mocha, americano, etc.), energy drinks, soft drinks, juices (apple, orange, pineapple, blackcurrant, vegetable, etc.), milk (from various animals and other sources), smoothies (almost infinite varieties), alcohol (beer, wine, cocktails, shots, spirits, etc.) and water (tap, mineral, distilled, still, sparkling, etc.). And I’ve certainly failed to list a vast number of other options.
Does that sound complicated? To me it does, and it’s just drinking! Have you ever been to a bar or restaurant and asked somebody what they’d like to drink, and then noticed how much time and concentration it takes them to decide? It’s so complicated, and there’s pressure to choose a socially acceptable drink to have in front of everyone else.
Our lives are too complicated!
Now for the thought experiment. What if, this instant, every single person in the world suddenly decided to drink only simple water. Just take some time to think about that. What would happen?
I believe some of the outcomes would be;
- People would be healthier overall
- On average, the population would become less obese
- The health care budgets of most countries would decrease significantly
- Some large companies would go bust
- The world economies would have to go through some adjustment periods
- People would spend a lot less money
- Maybe this excess money could be channeled into positive things for society
- Nothing bad would really happen
Wow. All that just because people decide to drink only water!
There’s no need for us to drink anything else but water, so how did we get into this situation?
Modern life is over complicated
Have we just complicated things, thinking we need other things to drink (when water is all we actually need), making a whole industry, a whole “economy”, when really we didn’t need it? Sure we have. The desire to make profits has played a large part in this – trying to make new drinks to tempt people – even using addictive substances – using heavy advertising to get people to feel they really want them and hence buy them – all in the name of the highly revered profit.
There’s no doubt modern life is over complicated.
I wonder how much of our lives are over complicated like this and we just don’t know it… That’s worth considering, because happiness and joy might be right in front of us (almost certainly) and we can’t see it because we’re distracted by all the apparent complication. Let’s choose real happiness and joy rather than a life over complicated.
Related Links – Is modern life over complicated?
- Here’s an interesting post with some thoughts on keeping things simple – http://stephane-castellani.com/keep-it-simple/
- Anti-Consumerism – is it time for a new direction?
- Healthy Eating – another perspective
- A world where having less is cool
- Dont Rush !!
Leave a Reply