Dec 19 2008
Simple and Oh, So Sweet
Much of life is complicated. Industrialized society is nailed full of rules. It all holds the infrastructure together. It isn’t perfect, but it’s supposedly the only way, so we live and work amongst total strangers and stress ourselves out over made up concepts like money and consumerism and notions of family. Though the latter may be a much more pleasant, universally human trait, there’s no denying that we make trouble for ourselves, but what’s the alternative.
If we don’t live in our big houses and take our pills and buy our packaged food and filter our water, will we really be worse off. Several egalitarian cultures, like the Inuit and the Ju Wasi, live without technology, law or military force. None of the so called pillars of civilized society hold their cultures together and they’re actually happier for it. They don’t make war, they rarely have murder and they work very little everyday. Maybe two hours of the day is spent hunting and gathering food in the Ju Wasi culture. Those extra ten hours of the day can be spent doing whatever. Their health is even better than that of most people in civilized society. Especially, better than that of most of America. They don’t even need health insurance.
It’s ridiculously simple to live a happy life. It’s too bad we have to make it so complicated.
