Has it Been Taken Away? The Lost Desire for a Simple Life

Has it been taken away from us? The desire, the envy? I won’t say a simple life was ever regarded as prestigious, but it was something in our culture that was once strived for, and anyone attaining this admired and regarded well upon from others. The simple life seems as foreign to this culture as some barbaric tribe from South America, it just doesn’t exist in our vernacular now – we live in a society ramped up every moment with drama, and excitement – we’re like some over stimulated prince demanding constant entertainment from our servants, and always fresh and more entertaining than previous, have one of them repeat performances and you might as well tell them to be put aside. Such is our culture, yet it’s not from kings or princes, but from plebs and elite alike (however any middle income family would have the wealth of kings in other countries) – all smacking our hands together asking for another round of entertainment from the exhausted souls of the performers. After a while, the well goes dry, and nothing new and fresh can come out, and yet the stifling demand does not end. No, what else can these children that we call our populace do without more entertainment? More more more more more! Society’s addiction to excitement has many hidden consequences.

The Impact of Feminism on Traditional Roles

Feminism’s role has changed the simple life for girls, no longer are they comfortably allowed to wish for it, dream for the loving family, the protective and strong man, the doting children, and her own desire to care for all of them, no longer can she express these concerns without being overwhelmed by strong feminist rhetoric from those caught up in drama and entertainment buzz – unable to let someone be, unable to relinquish viewpoints that may or may not fit what they really want. But what do they want? Our populace is addicted to this constant drama, constant entertainment, constant provocation, that it isn’t even their fault anymore. It’s easy to get caught in the torrent of this insanity, because it’s after the big thaw, and it’s gushing madly.

The Insatiable Demand for Entertainment

People will ask you questions like, what are you doing after this? When you’re at a party, are you going to such and such? Oh we’re gonna roll here, you should take her to dinner, there’s an after party here – etc. It always seemed a bit odd to me – I’ve always been spontaneous, if something seems like it interests me in the moment, I’ll go, if it doesn’t I won’t, and if I’m not having a good time somewhere I leave. I never quite understood the need to know that you’re going to be doing something an hour or so later. I get cutting out the people you don’t want to come along, but really it’s not something to be planned like storming the beaches of Normandy. And this is all because people absolutely need to know they’re doing something fun, cool, don’t let the party stop, I’m a rock star, mentality; they need to know they are accepted or more importantly, this is the only thing that makes them feel like they are living an important life. The demand for constant excitement shapes much of our culture.

The Lost Sense of Importance and Community

And that’s where you get to the meat of the problem. Sense of importance. Our culture seems to place it on being famous, rich, or other crazy things that have you acknowledged as worth something by the majority. Why do we care? Our communities have disappeared, our families broken, small, and often dysfunctional – it was once enough to have your community’s respect, your neighbors or family, a connected network where everyone saw the benefits of what you did, who you were, what your life was about, and they respected it. Now we have none of that; if you do something that isn’t exciting, you’re a loser. No sense of accomplishment in a job well done, because most of those jobs have left. There isn’t anything left that makes people feel secure and build a life around. We’re all free agents in a service world where the overlords might just close shop and re-open elsewhere. For guidance on rebuilding meaningful connections, see healthy relationship guidance.

So was the simple life taken from us? Or did we throw it away for being too boring? I think both might be correct. As for me, no amount of wild partying and escapades can replace sharing a few beers with friends on a patio in the afternoon, sitting in the sun – it cannot replace sipping a scotch from a balcony, in the calm night air – it cannot replace the tender resting beside a beautiful partner, content and close by. I always strive for the simple; you would think it would be easy, but keeping things simple seems to be the hardest thing to do these days.