Less is more – then there is enough for everyone

Less is more – then there is enough for everyone

And while many dream of the progressive life, for us it is quite ordinary. We live, think, learn, work, consume, eat, get sick and die the way we learned to live, think, learn, work, consume, eat, get sick and die, and in the course of time we get used to the strangest things.

But if I erase everything I have learned and look at the present as a stranger from the outside, I no longer understand the world:

Surreal reality is normality
We hang people on tubes, insert artificial joints and make their hearts beat artificially. We keep bodily functions alive while the soul may be on a completely different path.

We screen our bodies, but not the meaning of life.

We are not allowed to let people die, but we are allowed to keep them alive – are we not then allowed to judge their death by judging their life?

We don't have time, although everything goes faster.

We look at displays all day, but less at faces.

We have the best conversation, but have conversations less often.

We speed up, but go backwards.

We have it easier, but are getting heavier.

We are overfed, but underfed.

We are more comfortable, but get sick.

We have prosperity, but suffer from prosperity diseases.

We have become the tools of our own inventiveness – the world is becoming more and more complex, although life is supposed to become simpler.

Prisoners of freedom
Because we want cheap meat, we produce animals like matter and grow fodder crops, although people are starving. We are closest to ourselves and yet often miles away. We can be in any place at any time, but are rarely in the present. The world is getting smaller – we can even bring it home. Everything is possible – WE ARE FREE! But freedom makes us its prisoners. When everything is possible, we have a thousand possibilities and always too little time. We are the slaves of our time: separated from our families and married to work because modern life demands flexible people.

The dependence of freedom
We dissect the world under the microscope, but forget to marvel.

We feel omnipotent – yet we lose control.

We want to possess, but become obsessed with everything.

We root ourselves in the earth, but destroy it.

We are outnumbered, but consume the most resources.

We always want more, but overlook what we have.

We look for happiness around us and don't feel that we have it inside us.

We no longer have to be cold – we have even turned on the heating in the world.

We have the most modern machines, but we forget our own hands.

We consume products from other continents but cannot order our own garden – not even online.

We are free, but more dependent than ever before.

And although we are allowed to choose, we lament not having a choice.

Responsibility in globalisation
We – is the western lifestyle.

We – is the high standard of living.

We – is the model for many people around the world who have been at home in their unique cultures. Gradually they are disappearing into a shallow monotony.

Are these lamentations on a high level
or justified doubts about our form of society?

It is far from all bad, but much could be better if we were less complex and more simple again. In the constant striving for faster, further, higher, I long for a reversal: back to the roots and touching the earth with your hands again!

 

Bruce Jacobs