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Worzels World - More than enough is too much

 

Human beings are an extremely adaptable species. We have achieved the incredible and the dreadful. But in a finite world constrained by the laws (generally very sensible ones too) of space and time, there are limits. We can cope with a lot but as any Guantanamo Bay interrogator could tell you, there is a point when it becomes just too much. It's cer-tainly become too much for me and I have divined that too much is more than enough.

In a world where too much is the new sufficient it has become a very complex task living a simple life. There is, in our over-developed, post industrial society, more stuff coming at us than our natural human limitations can reasonably be expected to cope with. Except for a few African villages, and the occasional rogue band of outback Aborigines on walkabout, everyone else is over worked, over stressed, over taxed, and generally overwrought.

There’s too much choice, too much government, way too much needless information, too much pressure, litigation, packaging, rubbish, trouble, fear, confusion – much too much too much. There is too much of practically everything. So in consequence there is not enough time for it all. It seems that each day we get closer to the end of our tether while the light at the end of the tunnel, dimming, looks further off than ever.

Struggling to keep up with an ever-accelerating rate of change, who can possibly stay informed, at any more than a superficial level, of the daily political decisions that affect us all? It demands more time and resources than are available to the common man to actually influence the direction of that change.

From the day of birth onwards the modern human is assailed by all and sundry via a pervasive corporate controlled media. During formative years children's un-developed, impressiona-ble minds are exposed to contrived content via television and internet. Is it too much?

An all-reaching and puerile mass media catering to unscrupulous advertisers does its ut-most to cajole, coerce, and convince consumers to buy any and everything from breakfast cereal to iPads. In the process we are taught to become unthinking consumers, mere receptacles of processed and packaged products from soda pop and cellphones to feature films and computer games. Is it too much?

People no longer, we are but numbers and statistics, our lives compressed into digital codes on economists’ spread sheets. A man's worth lies not in what he is but in his power to spend, to purchase, to consume. We are the product of too much. With ‘too much’ being constantly thrust upon us we have begun to lose the enjoyment of ‘enough’ and art of thinking for ourselves. There is no time for it and it is not necessary. The great machine of modern media does our thinking for us.

There is too much work, much of which is unnecessary. We still annually celebrate Labour Day. At one time in New Zealand it was actually possible for a working man to support a house-hold on 40 hours a week. But in these days of too much the shops are open on labour day and few waged families can make ends meet on a bare 40 hours.

We have embraced 'too much' complex technology believing that it will enrich our lives but finding to our dismay that it only causes great-er complication. 'Too much' robs us of precious time which is limited and which grows more precious as our stock of years dwindles.

Somehow, without stopping long enough for a cup of tea and wee think, Western civilisation has accepted as true the obvious falsehood that if a little of some-thing is good, a lot of it will be better, and then, moving forward, has logically extrapolated that too much will be 'totally awesome dude'. This is however, seldom true, but rather too much of a good thing or indeed too much of anything is always bad and can often be fatal. Of time and love there is barely enough but as for everything else there is simply too much.

Here in the corrupt, capitalist and ever over-consuming West, the questions we seldom ask and never answer are 'How much is too much?’ and 'When is too much enough?’ I have concluded that I have had more than enough of 'too much'. I have decided to down size to 'not much more than necessary'. I am also willing to pay the price required to enjoy a simple life in a much too much complex world. Provided of course, that it's not too much. „ prof_worzel@hotmail.com
 
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