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

[ev1ldonut.livejournal.com]

*laughs*

The older you get, the closer you get to the way I've been thinking since I was a kid. ;)

I've always viewed most of the worlds activities as pointless ventures, and it's why I make every effort possible to get away from it and run around through the trees ignoring it all whenever I can, as that's where I'm happiest. Because I see it all for what it is (we need this because they have this, but they only have this because *we* have this, argh! *splodey head*), I don't get worried about it, and therefore do not have a problem with stress.

[gerald_duck]

Bluff.

If you really wanted a subsistence-farming lifestyle in a log cabin you'd have sold up and moved to the Idaho panhandle by now.

In reality, your instinct is to post to Livejournal about the idea, rather than to do it. :-p

[ev1ldonut.livejournal.com]

No, he would, if he could have the community of people he wanted to go with him to do it. But I suspect they wouldn't be so keen on the idea as him. ;)

[bex-sgs.livejournal.com]

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.

I'm sure many people share these feelings.

[azekeil.livejournal.com]

Well.. yes. I've realised this, but sometimes people can seem so wrapped up in it that you begin to believe their vision that this is all the way it should be. In all honesty, if you believe we've all got it so terribly wrong it doesn't do wonders for your stress levels anyway. Of course, then there's the whole politics business; that's completely whacked and getting more and more insane with every passing month, from what I can fathom.

Perspective is a blessing and a curse. It's great because you can always see that what you're worrying about is unimportant, but it's a curse because you can always see that your happiness is only transitory as you have more worries back in 'the real world' - whatever that is.

[serena-lesley.livejournal.com]

Gosh yes. I'd definitely live in a log cabin. As long as it had some form of internet, it was less than 30 minutes drive to the nearest supermarket, and all the people that I cared about were close by, that is. I can't see the kids going for it, though...

[azekeil.livejournal.com]

America? With their foreign policy? And their whacked out fundamentalist values?

Perhaps one of the good things to come out of modern culture is greater tolerance. It's all around you so you're going to have to cope with it sometime...

I have to say I do feel forced down the path I've taken merely because that's what the world I was born into was like. I don't feel it's what I *should* be doing at all. I have every intention of making my life how I feel it *should* be when I don't have to worry about air, food, water, shelter (and the ability to sleep). Which at the moment involves bashing hot bits of metal with other bits of metal, in a very theraputic way.

[azekeil.livejournal.com]

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

[ev1ldonut.livejournal.com]

I just know, on a subconscious level, that stress solves nothing, and so don't do it. I know that I don't need drive and ambition to be happy, I *am* happy.

Be careful though, what you've described above as the basic needs (food water shelter), they are the basics you need to survive. Surviving is not living, people need to remember to live as well as just exist. This applies as much to modern life as it does to the simple life you say you crave.

People spend so much time worrying about how to better themselves, or get further in their chosen direction, that they forget to enjoy where they are. If they took the time to stop a while and metaphorically 'smell the flowers' as it were, they might find they actually like it where they are. That's me you see. I like my life as it is. There are a few small details that can be tweaked a bit, but generally, my life is just how I want it... *smile*

[azekeil.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, sorry, in my head of course I was thinking about community, socialising, friendship etc - none of which are things that people had to invent and charge money for.

Unfortunately I'm one of those people who forever is looking at the light at the end of the tunnel. I like things that make me enjoy the here and the now, as those are the things that stop me from having 'perspective'..

Soon, though, I'll get to a stage where things are ticking over and I don't have to stress about them too much any more. That'll be nice :) Although to be fair, I'm mostly there already..

[serena-lesley.livejournal.com]

I may be repeating what I said on the subject at lunch today, but I'm firmly of the opinion that complication is only stressful if you allow it to be. Opt into the things that improve your life, and don't worry about the things that you have no use for. The fact that you have options, even if you choose not to use them, isn't a bad thing.

It's like owning a mobile phone that allows you to make telephone calls, browse the internet, listen to music, send texts, take (and send) photos and use it as an alarm clock / calculator / games machine. You can either decide that you don't want to use all those things, and go out of your way to find the simplest phone that you can that doesn't have those functions, or you can use simply decide to use only the features that you find useful, and ignore all of the others. The fact that they're there isn't causing you any extra stress or expense, and neither is knowledge that they're available if you ever do decide to use them.

Use the available recourses that are of use to you, ignore the ones that aren't, and don't stress about it. A philosophy that carries through to many areas of life, I think. :)

[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.

[azekeil.livejournal.com]

Hm. I guess the trouble with opting in to things like that is it takes me further away from my long-term goal of reducing my ongoing expenditure. How am I going to be self-sufficient if I need to pay so many monthly outgoings?!

I think what I have a problem with is continuously paying for features and things I don't use.

[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)

[diffrentcolours]

Yep. As soon as you learn to filter things out as "doesn't apply to me, don't need to care about it", life gets much simpler. Like chart music, fashion, gadgets etc.

As for the communal living thing, I think we've discussed this before on your LJ and I'm all for the idea. I'd also like to grow / raise more of my own food at some point.

[diffrentcolours]

Oops, that made no sense, by "your" LJ I meant azekeil :)

[azekeil.livejournal.com]

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

[serena-lesley.livejournal.com]

In my example (let's say it's a handset that you own that has a pay as you go SIM card in it) the features cost you nothing unless you use them. :)

[azekeil.livejournal.com]

I've had IMs on the subject in response to this post too.

I think the next step in this flight of fancy is to go on a week-long Iron Age holiday to get a real taste of it.

I do ignore the vast tranche of throwaway modern culture as it stands, I think.

[azekeil.livejournal.com]

Yeah, so I wouldn't stress about that anyway, I just wouldn't be tempted to succumb to the consumerist tendency to spend money on the service when I didn't actually *need* it.

[serena-lesley.livejournal.com]

You see, most people like to have the freedom to choose. For instance, I bought mine rather than a different model because as well as being easy to use, it was capable of sending / receiving photos. I wanted to have the option. I rarely (maybe once or twice a month) use this function, but it's there if I want it. It's the same with many other things. It's nice to have the option, even if most of the time you choose not to use it.

[azekeil.livejournal.com]

I don't disagree with you, but then you've had to put considerable thought into which phone you chose and why. I've just plumped for whatever model phone I can get for free that will do voice calls. Occasionally I text as well, if I have to. So often I hear of people having trouble with their phone (It doesn't do x, y or z in the way I want it to), but I avoid all that.

[omylouse.livejournal.com]

Wow, that holiday sounds amazing!

Ditto with the wishing to get away from it all... Maybe when I've stopped playing with being a student I'll learn some essential skills then run away... That's the main thing stopping me at the mo, not being sure if I *could* do all I'd need to do & not wanting to cut myself off completely from friends & family.. that & they money issue. I expect it's almost impossible to create a life where you need no money at all (unfortunately).

[azekeil.livejournal.com]

Yes.. actually I have another post brewing on the back of this one on how modern life has so completely (and in sinister ways) broken the age-old circle of life that we are being forced to adapt at an increased (and clearly more painful) rate.

I suspect it would be difficult, but not impossible, to survive on no money at all. I suspect any money needed would have to be raised by selling excess produce or crafts made on site.

Some advances of modern life are too useful to ignore, like the NHS. Any money needed to buy modern medicines and treatments would be necessary, for example.

[sepheri.livejournal.com]

Well I'm not going thats for sure!
Anything less than 4 star is camping *shudder*

[azekeil.livejournal.com]

Damn. If we built you a 4* accommodation, would you come and be our slave girl during the day? :)

[sepheri.livejournal.com]

So long as there is hot running water

[azekeil.livejournal.com]

Deal! :)

[sarah-mum.livejournal.com]

Firstly - HIPPY!
secondly, I really don't see Iron Age re-enactment for a week as being a taste of anything near what you seem to be craving.
Poly-Amish-re: Alex's community of simple living without the religious constrictions?

[uvfairy.livejournal.com]

Some people that still live fairly primative lives are the happiest people in the world (its a statistic but I forget the country in questions name!) They are happy because they dont have the complications that we have in our world to worry about like mortgages etc. Even though they have little money and not much food, they are the most generous people and they are happy.

Sometimes I do wish to go back to basics but we have been brought up in this way and have the temptation there. It would be hard to go backwards as we now know how comfortable life can be with central heating, comfy beds, convenience foods etc. People have become greedy and complacent. Always searching for easier ways to do things, to become more technologically advanced. I do ask myself, where will it end? How long can we continue to develop at this rate before things all end up going wrong?

[samoth.livejournal.com]

Two things :

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.

If you haven't already run across it, you might find the discussion of the theory of 'memes' interesting. While I'd take it with something of a pinch of salt, it does offer some interesting ideas as to why human cultures tend to get hooked on some of these rather odd things.

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.

While sharing a taste for this kind of living myself, I'm always somewhat wary of the goal of living like that. It's terribly attractive when you can go and do it as a bit of fun, for a while. When it's *not* a choice, when finding enough to eat from day to day takes up almost all the hours of your life, which is nasty, brutish and short, when minor injuries cause you to die, when significant proportions of your children die, when you have no sanitation system, etc etc, modern life becomes a great deal more attractive, even with all its problems.

You may not mean anything quite so extreme - in which case there are quite a few more 'primitive' communities living lives rather closer to the kind you mean - but you may not find that they're the community you want. I suspect that's the really hard bit, having the community you like, and having a life that's not such a struggle for existence that you actually have time to do the community things.

I guess in my opinion, primitive life is a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't like to live there :)

[dr-atheist.livejournal.com]

At the end of the day it's all a trade off. I could go and live on a farm, eat what I grow/kill myself and be self sufficient, but that means long hours toiling in fields in all weather.
Here I earn a little by making lots for people who don't need it, by looking after the imaginary money they created out of nothing and trade against nothing, but sell for lots, (stock market, one day everyone's going to collectively realise that what they have is backed by nothing and in reality is worthless and teh whole thing will collapse entirely around themselves.), but it allows me to buy a flat for my family, luxary items and motorbikes (which are an essential of course).

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.
Maslow theorised that we have a heirachy of needs, and that once one level is met, the next level is needed. There is an inbuilt compulsion to meet the next level striving towards self-actualisation. For very basic survival technically we only need to satisfy the first two (physiological and safety needs) but once those needs are sorted we need to move on.

[azekeil.livejournal.com]

In what way do you think the Iron Age idea is not what I want?

I may have to come up with a name for my cult community, yes.

[azekeil.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think this is the general idea. I do feel a lot of the things and stuff we have in modern life has clouded the basic joys of life. I would love to try and work out a way of taking those things that are good (modern medicine for example) and cut out the rest of the crap, leaving a community of people who work and play together.

[azekeil.livejournal.com]

Maslow's theory does very much ring bells with me. I think one of the things I dislike about modern life is that it is so ephemerial that it is very hard to see the benefits of what you do, as you point out. I feel that honest hard work will have greater rewards in seeing the crops come to life to bread on the table, or the building take shape, etc. It's much more real, IYSWIM.

The next level, in my utopia, would always be something you could actually achieve and feel pride for.

[azekeil.livejournal.com]

I know what you're saying. I guess I'm suggesting trying to find a blend of the really good stuff that modern life provides (eg. modern medicine, tools etc) while cutting out the rest of the crap.

I'll have to look into the theory of memes then.

[azekeil.livejournal.com]

Actually I regard the internet as one of the massive failures of social interaction. People use it in the wrong way - it becomes a social network in it's own right, instead of being a social networking tool, as it should be.

This leads to people actually seeing less of each other as a result, loss of the sense of community, etc. Yes, some of this is not the fault of the internet, but in it's current form, I don't believe the internet solves these problems - in fact I believe it exacerbates them.

[azekeil.livejournal.com]

Yeah you did: "Also I'm totally with you on the log cabin thing so long as you can get broadband there.. tee hee"

My reply was just an example of how 'stuff' is not always necessarily good.

[sarah-mum.livejournal.com]

Why the Iron Age holiday is not going to satisfy your need for simplicity -
Mainly because it's no more 'back to basics' than any other role-playing event. It's far too short term, and it's far too resestricted in the activities you partake in.

If you really do want to live a simpler life (or maybe The Good Life?) then start small and start at home. You have a garden, where's your vegetable patch or chicken hut? Have you started building solar panels or a windmill to power your house?


There are a lot of things you could do to simplify the life you already have, but there are choices that we make every day which vere away from that. I have to agree that I slightly agree with Mr Duck on this one. However, this is much more of a *pint* conversation I feel.

[azekeil.livejournal.com]

Hm. I think my main problem is all the burdens of owning a modern home, doing a job that is too ephemerial, that sort of thing. I just feel I'd get a much greater sense of satisfaction from building my own house, growing/hunting my own food, etc. It's much more tangible, and more clear-cut.

Perhaps I'm just shying away from (non-tangible) decision making.