My Simple Life

Was debating what a simple life is with a friend.

He kept telling me life will only be simple if we go back to the past, where there is no technology and hence the eliminations of all the problems we face now. We should go back to the time when we hunt and plant for our food and when we can just pick up any stones from any corner as means of trade. He said he wants a place just like the Pandora in Avatar.

I beg to differ. I do not believe the external environment should control how we view how and what a simple life should be and is. I think it should start from within ourself, on how we think and how we feel about things.

We debated for a long time until i was totally tired from typing the same lines again and again. At the end, i told him that if we could not change our mentality and still carry the present ones with us and try to go back to the past, the same problems will arise too. There will still be stealing of food, stealing of money, geniuses coming up with brilliant ideas on how to commonize a money systems and so on. The only way to prevent these evils  is when we as human are happy and content with what we have. If we are happy to have enough food then why should we have money in the first place? Why cant we just share food?

Little did he knows that back in the year 1978, the Khmer Rouge who took over Cambodia tried to achieve this simple life by throwing the whole nation into nothing but farming only. However, the leaders of this political party brought along the mind set of 1978 when they tried to go back to ancient time. The results was a huge massacres and torturing of people and ended up 1/3 of the Cambodia populations died due to hunger, overworked and tortures beyond comprehension. There is currently a trial in Cambodia set up by the UN to trial those leaders who are responsible and this incident had been labelled a a genocide.

He said that the world has comes to a stage where simply life will never be able to attain again. With the technology and everything, there is no turning beg. And again i differ because yes there is always the latest technology available but doesnt mean you have to have it. Just like the Iphone. Mac company did not point a gun at our head and force us to buy it. We want it because we desire it when we could just simply use a very simple handphone. It is about how we balance out our needs and wants. It is about our mentality.

At the end of the day, he ended the debate by saying i think so because i am old! *faint*