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A review by chaitanyasethi
Timeless Simplicity: Creative Living in a Consumer Society by John Lane
4.0
4.5 stars
John Lane's 100 page book is about the benefits of living a simple and less cluttered life. It's not about destitution, nor poverty, nor a clarion call to abandon materialism. He mentions early on that if you're someone who enjoys the pursuit of wealth and is motivated by a desire to earn and spend more, then this book is not for you. It's aimed towards those who feel discontentment by participating in the consumerist and materialist race that we see around us.
Across 6 chapters, he builds on the argument from multiple angles - historical precedent, present day unhappiness, religious and spiritual examples, and a global environmentalist point of view. He's critical of industrial production because it catered more towards running machines to produce things rather than thinking whether people needed it or not. Once goods started being produced in hoards, people had to figure out how to sell it, and thus we are where we are where tons of advertisements nudge us to earn more to spend more.
I was inching towards a perfect rating because I felt as though he went into my head and worded my thoughts onto paper but there were errant points that I didn't agree with - comments like higher divorce rates in the last century indicating increased levels of unhappiness, increase in crime, violence, and addiction as response to materialistic discontent, and glorification of poverty of some communities as spiritual richness. Nonetheless, it's a book I can come back to year after year if I get caught up in the rat race, just to remind myself of what I believe in.
“The industrialist was horrified to find the fisherman lying beside his boat, smoking a pipe. - Why aren’t you fishing?, said the industrialist.
Because I have caught enough fish for the day.
Why don’t you catch some more?
What would I do with them?
Earn more money. Then you could have a motor fixed to your boat and go into deeper waters and catch more fish. That would bring you money to buy nylon nets, so more fish, more money. Soon you would have enough to buy two boats even a fleet of boats. Then you could be rich like me.
What would I do then?
Then you could sit back and enjoy life.
What do you think I’m doing now?”
John Lane's 100 page book is about the benefits of living a simple and less cluttered life. It's not about destitution, nor poverty, nor a clarion call to abandon materialism. He mentions early on that if you're someone who enjoys the pursuit of wealth and is motivated by a desire to earn and spend more, then this book is not for you. It's aimed towards those who feel discontentment by participating in the consumerist and materialist race that we see around us.
Across 6 chapters, he builds on the argument from multiple angles - historical precedent, present day unhappiness, religious and spiritual examples, and a global environmentalist point of view. He's critical of industrial production because it catered more towards running machines to produce things rather than thinking whether people needed it or not. Once goods started being produced in hoards, people had to figure out how to sell it, and thus we are where we are where tons of advertisements nudge us to earn more to spend more.
I was inching towards a perfect rating because I felt as though he went into my head and worded my thoughts onto paper but there were errant points that I didn't agree with - comments like higher divorce rates in the last century indicating increased levels of unhappiness, increase in crime, violence, and addiction as response to materialistic discontent, and glorification of poverty of some communities as spiritual richness. Nonetheless, it's a book I can come back to year after year if I get caught up in the rat race, just to remind myself of what I believe in.