The Fallacy of a Simpler Time

photo credit Unsplash

Change is inevitable. You can either embrace it and adapt. Make it work for you. Or you can fight it, maybe even delay it for a while, but eventually you will lose because in the end the only thing that is certain is that change is inevitable.

There are people who would be happy to go back in time, to live at some point in history that they deem better. But was it? What about that time period appeals to them? And if it isn’t racism or any other kind of discrimination or hatred for other people with different lifestyles, that appeals to them, then what is it? 

Looking around us at the modern world we live in, we can see very clearly that we have the most amazing technology and knowledge ever present on this Earth. Unprecedented technology and knowledge. We have the ability to do things that our ancestors could never have even dreamed possible. And yet, does the average person really feel that great about the world today or their place in it? Why? Maybe you’ve asked yourself that, I know that is a question that I have asked myself. 

So how can we have so much and yet feel so stifled? Why do we live with this constant allure of a more simpler time? And that allure does not necessarily have to do with racism or discrimination or hatred. I think those are just masks. Illusions for the real problems that we have. It’s easier to deflect our societal failures if we can just blame somebody else for them, instead of realising that we are, ourselves at fault.

What am I talking about? Well, let’s examine our lives. Do you feel stressed? Why? We are living in a world full of modern conveniences. Conveniences that in reality aren’t even that old. Indoor plumbing, washing machines, refrigerators, electricity… cars, planes, phones, computers, the internet… think about all of this luxury that we take for granted. Again things that our ancestors could never even imagine! But yet we still long for that simpler time. Or do we? Hands up if you want to go back to outhouses? Or laundry that takes days to accomplish? Or living by candlelight? Or travelling for weeks to months at a time? Does that really appeal to any of you? Of course not! We have such amazing things, right here, right now, so why long to go back?

Because we feel like we are drowning. All of our modern conveniences have done nothing to alleviate our stress. We have so much going for us, making our lives easier, and yet emotionally we are flailing, barely able to hold on. Why? Because we haven’t realised the cause. Instead we listen to con artists, frauds, selling us on the next fix or diverting our attention to manufactured outrages. We are taught to compare ourselves to everyone around us, to envy the lives of those with more, to pity the lives of those with less, to belittle those who are offbeat, to attack those that don’t fit in, to care only about ourselves. And so easily we fall into these echo chambers of distraction that it’s simpler to just blame our problems on everybody else. And why not? We all know that we are doing the best we, ourselves, possibly can. We’re so unlike those others.

But we aren’t. We are all flailing because none of us can see the root cause of our problem. We keep allowing others to dictate the parameters of our life, of our happiness. The stresses of today are ones that we have unnecessarily put in place ourselves and will not be fixed by the illusion of a simpler time. We worry about bills, about healthcare, about childcare, about taxes, about our jobs. Are we doing enough? Should we be doing more? Are we lazy because we want to have free time? Do we need to fill our schedules so completely that we have no time to think, to dream, to live? Should we judge someone that wants to enjoy life and not just constantly work until they die? Why is that wrong? Why are we not insisting on a society that wants to boost our happiness? We have such great advances, technology, and knowledge, that it seems very feasible to develop ways that would benefit all members of society to live a life free from the incessant daily struggles that cause us nothing but unmitigated stress. So why aren’t we?

Think about your life again. Think about the stresses you face. Financial security is probably the biggest stress of all. Now think about it… the simpler time you long for is not one where people were discriminated against, it is the one where regular workers fought and won labour rights. It is the one where you didn’t have to work 3 jobs to barely make ends meet. It is the one where one adult in the house could work an 8 hour day, five days a week and easily provide for the entire family. It is the one where you could work your way up in a company. It is the one that provided an affordable education. It is the one that didn’t expect people to be constantly busy, working, doing things. And now it is within our modern capacity to make things even better. Why not have 3 day weekends? Why not have job security, food security, reasonable child care, reasonable healthcare? Why is there a need to exponentially expand the profit of the few at top at the expense of everyone else? All because society is currently set up with this structure doesn’t mean it has to stay this way. We can do better. We have the knowledge to do better. We have the ability to do better, all we have to do is stop listening to those that want us to remain complacent with our disintegrating quality of life. We must stop comparing ourselves, hurting ourselves, deriding ourselves. Instead we must think for ourselves. Really think. We can have a simpler, happier life without the pain, discrimination, and ignorance of the past. It is possible, but only if we all can see past our differences and work together. We must focus on what is actually causing our stress, our failure to feel content. And it is not each other. It is the structure that we have established ourselves. The system that only places value on constant work and continually being busy. This system doesn’t have to stay the same, it can change. People can change it. Change is inevitable. And we, the people, really do have that power, if we want it.