Voluntary Simplicity is a lifestyle choice for those disgruntled by modern life, who want to quit the rat race, get off the treadmill, drop out or walk away. The idea is that by simplifying one's life, by working less and consuming less, one can enjoy life more.
Sometimes I find the complexity of modern life aggravating. For example, I have a digital camera with features I've never used, and a 200-page manual I've never read.
On the other hand, I like to do Sudoku. A Sudoku, with the squares and the numbers and the zillions of possibilities, is a rush of pure complexity. Maybe you have your own favorite obsession, like crosswords or chess or bridge.
If I simplify my life so I can spend more time doing Sudoku, am I practicing Voluntary Simplicity or Voluntary Complexity?
The Voluntary Simpletons see a spectrum from complexity to simplicity and conclude: complexity bad, simplicity good. I think they're looking at the wrong spectrum. The right spectrum is the one from aggravation to satisfaction, from disgruntlement to regruntlement, and the goal is to find a more satisfying mix of simplicity and complexity.
3 comments:
There is a group called Freegans who are mostly vegans and who don't buy food, they rummage in the garbage for it. It takes a lot more energy to get a group together and sift through garbage to find the remnants that won't sicken you than to grow your own, and have so much extra that the not perfect stuff can be fed to the chickens and rabbits. So which is more complex, and which is more simple. And what do we do now that most people don't live on enough land to feed themselves? And how can anyone kill and eat a rabbit. Or even a chicken...now eggs are another thing altogether.
CET
Voluntary Simplexity is exactly what I do with all those 2 inch thick manuals that came with everything I own. I find how to work the part I want, usually a simple paragraph or pictures to identify icons, and file the book in a drawer. It used to be a file folder, but now as the things get smaller, the manuals get bigger. Soon we will have wrist computers with a set of encyclopedias. Actually, the iPhone would have come with that encyclopedia, but they figured it would save money and a forest or two if they socialized a gaggle of geeks to serve as an interface with the post-gruntled consumer.
CET
I never thought of Sudoku as being complex. I like it because it is simple: just arrange the numbers in the proper order and everything is nice and neat. It is such a nice contrast to the tons of information I am buried under. I recently transitioned from trying to keep up, and keep it organized, which really left me frazzled. Now I am more in a delitante mode. Who would have thought that universal literacy would be so difficult?
I am sure that having millions of people writing, and having access to the thoughts of millions of people was not the goal of teaching people to read. It is rather like when Buffy could read minds and the babbling almost drove her insane. A fine netted filter is needed.
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