Moment of clarity / Mid-life crisis here we come

[azekeil]

So I was sitting at my desk doing the rather scary thing of writing a new strategy for our infrastructure, which will go against the accumulated wisdom of the company. I sort of took a 'back to basics' approach to this strategy rewrite, which got me thinking.

What do humans need to survive? Air, food, water, shelter (and the ability to sleep). Those are the immediate concerns. Then the ability to propagate the species, evolution, etc. But I digress.

So why in all the hells are our lives today so damned complicated? I'm sitting here at the desk of a company that was formed purely to deal with a problem caused by abuse of a communications system that has been stretched way beyond its original purpose, which is only in use today because it is ubiquitous.

Look around you! Everything you touch has had man-years of effort gone into designing, producing, marketing, selling and distributing. These things add 'convenience' and 'quality of life' to our existence.. but at what price? We now have a million and one things to worry about - jobs, mortgages, pensions, phone contracts, internets, computers, email, cars. What do they all achieve? Why are they there? What do we actually need?

Sometimes I think that progress has happened because we evolved to become more intelligent, and we needed stuff to do to stop us from being bored. That's the only rational explanation I can find for all of this.. fluff. Entire global industries spring into life to solve problems that have never existed until now. It's just mind boggling.

No wonder people find modern life stressful. I'm sure it has to do with all these things designed to 'improve' our lives - and most of them are only necessary because everyone else uses them. If I had my way I'd be out in a log cabin somewhere, growing and hunting my own food, with a community of people to share the experience with.

Comments

[azekeil.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Yes. I wonder if we can get enough of them together to form our own society somewhere?

[winkle.livejournal.com]

Have you seen The Village (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0368447/)?

[azekeil.livejournal.com]

No - although it's a horror type thing and makes me think of Blair Witch because it came out at roughly the same time..? Perhaps I should look past that stigma and watch it.

[winkle.livejournal.com]

Its advertised as a 'horror film' but really its about how a group of people figure out a way to stay away from ever-degrading society. They isolate the village from the rest of the world and in order to preserve their secret, they make up scary creatures to induce fear among the villagers and keep them away from the outside world ;o)

[azekeil.livejournal.com]

Oh god - using fear and supersition as a tool to oppress people under the guise of religion. Ugh.