Overcomplicating Simplicity

A frequent theme in modern/colonial life is overcomplicating simple issues related to human existence. It is no secret that human beings don’t require that many things to survive: food, water, and shelter. Yet, these issues alone are not enough to sustain the hunger of the modern/colonial economic system (capitalism) which therefore must invent issues that did not and do not need to exist so that a profit can be returned to them. In other words, the system creates problems in order to sell us the solution.

Yet, by inventing such problems (in order to sell us the solution), further issues are also created in the process. We can call these “side effects,” just as many pharmaceutical companies list out potential negative byproducts of using their products side effects in a quick list at the end of a commercial (that I’m sure the elimination of comprises their wildest dreams - since it threatens to reduce profits). Again, the profit mindset overcomplicates what should be simple. Life could be simple, but it isn’t by design.

One sphere of existence that plays well into the overcomplicating of simplicity is aesthetics. For instance, appearances can be deemed “in” or “out” of fashion and thus are in “need” of updating. With this implantation in the mind, aesthetics that are geared toward the average consumer work wonders for the dominant capitalist economic system. Styles change quickly and money moves with it. This would all be okay, in theory, if the aesthetic products weren’t, 9 times out of 10, made from unsustainable or toxic materials (plastic and its many forms), but they usually are.

Yet, consumption is a religion in modern/colonial life. It is difficult to preach divestment from the system which provides consumers with meaning in life. The notion of spirituality in the West has been drained, also being co-opted by capitalist forces who use religion to essentially (mind)control people to support their aims. This occurs through fearmongering issues that contrast with so-called religious values. This tactic is both used as a distraction and a signal to reinforce the norms of religious conservatism as dominant (to ensure that religious practitioners remain easy to control by elites who are really not all that religious, but rather understand religion as a tool of control).

While religion does provide some practitioners with meaning in life, consumption reigns supreme in the West, as the dollar is often upheld over religious values. For instance, Jesus broke bread with social outcasts and distributed food to the hungry, yet modern/colonial religious practitioners have commonly voted for stricter laws against the homeless and the outcasts of society. This is because money has true authority. Religion comes secondary in the modern/colonial world, often as a tool, a justification, a mind-calming mechanism, a way to satiate cognitive dissonance.

In such a system where the dollar reigns supreme, simplicity must be overcomplicated.

And then must the explanations… of such complications…