The Elements of Simplicity

In my previous post, I said that I want to articulate a third way between the excess of maximalism and the austerity of minimalism. This is my attempt at that articulation.



The Defects of Maximalism

Maximalism is the philosophy that "more is better." You need to do more. You need to own more. You need a bigger house. You need a lot of stuff. Whether it is in terms of lifestyle or aesthetics or what have you, the choice is to make no choice. It is like going to a restaurant, looking at the menu, and saying, "I'll take it."

The prime defect of maximalism is a refusal to accept the limitations of life. It is a belief that the good life is measured on a quantitative as opposed to a qualitative basis. It would be like weighing a novel on a scale and declaring, "This is a great book!" We can see the absurdity in this. Yet, this is the same logic people apply to their lifestyles when they point to all the shit they own and say, "I have a great life." Nevermind the stress, worry, and extra work all that shit brings.

All of this represents gluttony. More is not better. You have gone too far the moment that the addition of something no longer adds to the quality of your life but subtracts from it.




The Defects of Minimalism

Minimalism has been a rejection of the McMansion lifestyle and mindset of the last 20 years. Minimalism is the belief that less is better. But it is now extreme. If the pendulum has swung too far to one extreme, it must now go too far in the opposite extreme. As people pare down and simplify, people now engage in what can only be considered "lifestyle anorexia." It is the maximalist mindset applied to simplicity. If simple is good, austerity must be great!

Nothing exemplifies this lifestyle anorexia more than the 100 Thing Challenge. I'm a simple lifestyle type of guy. I always have been. But I'm not going to count my things. My pen cup alone would put me over the limit. This is the mindset of Diogenes who when seeing someone using his hands to drink decided to toss his cup. This is just fucking dumb. Living without things like furniture, a television set, or what have you doesn't make your life necessarily better. It makes it worse. Sitting on the floor in an empty apartment bragging to everyone on the internet that you own just 55 things including rolls of toilet paper is dumb. It is empty. This is not a quality life.

The epitome of minimalism is the profusion of minimalist blogs that have hit the internet that sell a book and tell you to simplify. Then, they run out of material. So, they end up posting pictures of their minimalist wallpaper on their Macbook or pictures of their desk. At some point, this becomes mindnumbingly boring. The maximalist with his McMansion obsesses over adding a Grecian styled gameroom while the minimalist obsesses over whether he should own a second ballpoint pen.

With my own lifestyle, I have had people call me a "minimalist." But true minimalists would say my life is cluttered because I own a bed and a couch, and I keep a shelf of books and drive a car. These things improve the quality of my life. I like to read, wake up without a terrible back ache, or watch the news on TV. If you took these things from me, my life would be less pleasant. But if you surrounded me with a mansion, my life would not be improved at all. I don't need 100 beds when one will suffice. But take away my one bed, and you have really screwed me.

This is true simplicity. Maximalists follow the teaching of the Cyrenaics in their crass hedonism and excessive indulgence. Minimalists follow after Diogenes with his austere ways and iconoclastic style meant more to provoke the masses than to make himself happy. FWIW, Diogenes would win hands down any "thing" challenge because the guy lived in a tub. You don't get more minimalist than this.



The true model for simplicity is Epicurus. Epicurus was not like either the Cyrenaics or Diogenes. Epicurus was a simple guy, but he didn't live in a tub. His abode was a house with a garden where he lived a pleasant life with his followers. Epicurus was neither an ascetic nor a crass hedonist though he is accused of being both. Epicurus believed pleasure was the highest good and developed a strategy for that. People may debate whether pleasure is the highest good or not, but the Epicurean strategy is solid. From Epicurus, I derive the elements of simplicity:

1. We have natural and necessary desires.

We have to eat, drink, and take shelter from the elements. These will remain with us until we die. Denying these desires is stupid. So, you should eat food, drink water, and live in a house. This represents the floor of one's life. We need to fulfill these desires.

2. We have vain desires.

Vain desires are the desires for wealth, fame, power, and status. The genesis of these vain desires is a fundamental wish to be secure. If we are loved, respected, and own a lot of stuff, we are protected against future calamities. But we see from the housing bubble collapse the absurdity of this. The fact is that these things make you less secure. An expensive home is more likely to be foreclosed upon than a simple home. Fame brings stalkers. Status brings haters. Power leads to bodyguards and living in a self-made prison.

3. We have natural but non-necessary desires.

A natural but non-necessary desire is the desire for luxury goods. You have to eat, but do you have to have caviar? Epicurus says its ok to enjoy finer things if they are available but to not become dependent on them. You may need a car, but you don't need a Mercedes when a Toyota will do the same thing for you. I would advise everyone to buy quality while eschewing vanity. This would mean buying neither a Mercedes nor a Yugo.

4. Pleasure knows no increase only variety.

Pleasures are limited. Once you have eaten, you are no longer hungry. The more you eat the more the pleasure diminishes. If you eat less, you remain hungry. If you eat more, you become stuffed which leads to weight gain. You can eat something different or better, but eating more or less than what is necessary doesn't make things better. It makes it worse. You can apply this logic to just about everything. This is the Epicurean version of Aristotle's doctrine of the mean--neither deficiency nor excess. You know you've got it right when you can't add anything more to it or take anything else away.

Conclusion
I don't think you have to sign on to everything Epicurus believed to understand and appreciate his insights and strategy on living. I don't think asceticism is the answer to the consumer excesses of the last two decades but common sense. You can tell when someone is erring when they attach a number to it. Both minimalists and maximalists focus on the quantity instead of the quality. Simplicity is about having a quality life. This will look different for each person. But the urge to quantify comes from trying to find an easy answer to a hard question. Does this make my life better? There is no objective answer for this. There is no correct number for this though I can tell you that it is between zero and infinity. And most lifestyle minimalists understand this. Their misfortune is the minimalist label. I prefer "voluntary simplicity." Minimalism comes from the stupidity of converted maximalists.



UPDATE: The Buddha went through a similar change in his thinking so the story goes. Born into affluence, the Buddha rejected his rich lifestyle and went out to find enlightenment. Renouncing the flesh and worldly things, he fell in with ascetics and nearly starved himself to death from fasting and ascetic practice. This is when he found the middle way between these two extreme lifestyles. Wisdom was not found in either self indulgence or extreme self denial. Naturally, the ascetics turned on him and called him a sell out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_way

I expect a similar backlash to my small step away from minimalism. The only thing I am doing is dropping the label since my lifestyle remains the same as before. I will eschew consumerism, shop at thrift stores, drive a simple vehicle and not an SUV, live in a sensible dwelling as opposed to a McMansion, etc. But I'm not going to toss out my furniture, sleep on the floor, or cancel my cable.

Posted in: