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we overbuild
we start out making things to simplify life and when that's defined as making more money, they become more complex and things need to be built into or over or around the original things to make them easier to deal with, but they only add another layer of complexity. So jobs and bureaucratic processes are added which require more work for more people just to navigate the complexity we've added. At some point we cannot dismantle any of the complexity without destroying lives attached to the complexity system. we fight wars to keep this whole mess profitable to the right people (not the most people). every generation is born on top of a pile of mess upon mess which can't be dismantled or else the whole world falls apart. it's a big big mess. we can't even see the original things at the core of the rock layers of mess we've built over the generations.
I feel like there is some version of this truth outside of your very true critique of capitalism and modernity. Even in nature, evolution works toward increasing complexity, building on what came before and adapting. There was a time (a very, very long time) when the world didn't even have soil.
ReplyDeleteit's pretty cynical, I admit. I agree with you. we ourselves began with one cell division, then those divide and have their jobs to do and so on until eventually we're complaining about what a mess the world has become. :)
ReplyDeleteCynical is a good reaction to what you are seeing. I get cynical about it too. It's exactly what Thoreau was criticizing when he admonished us to "Simplify! Simplify! Simplify!"
ReplyDeletewild! i was thinking about Thoreau while filming today's piece!
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