What happened to simplicity?

When did all this clutter and distractions in our lives become necessary? Our way of life has become disproportionately over complicated. Simple tasks now involve elaborate processes to complete. In the short time I've become a functioning member of society, things have gotten out of hand.

Think about it. We are constantly on edge. We have cell phones we are constantly looking at, we have checking accounts we have to monitor, transactions we have to keep an eye on, fluctuating interest rates on loans and mortgages to worry about, calorie intake to monitor due to increasingly unhealthy (and unnatural) foods, credit scores to keep up (because they have basically become a lifeline for being a functional member of society), taxes, oh and the list could literally go on forever.

The point is, we are living based on these cultural guidelines brought on by mainstream society rather than actually taking a moment to breathe and think about what's actually important to ourselves. We should be spending our time and energy on our own priorities, not priorities prescribed to us by society. How many people go through the motions everyday and are considered to be doing well by society's standards, but are actually stressed, miserable, and depressed? Who's to tell us we have to get a college education to succeed? Why do we have to succumb to the slavery of corporate America just to be considering prosperous? Why do we have to take out loans for expensive cars, homes, boats, etc. just so we can be looked upon as successful?

Many people blindly carry on without even thinking about how unimportant it all really is. These kind of people probably envy the adventurous nomad traveling the world with nothing in their name but the clothes on their back. That's where simplicity shines in it's truest form, where life is stripped to the bare essentials and worrying becomes a distant afterthought. We take vacations, and even those are over complicated and it doesn't compare. We need plane tickets and passports and visas and completely ridiculous bullshit just to leave the country.

The American dream isn't a dream of you or me. It's a guideline that we are expected to strive for, a meaningless trophy. And if you don't succumb to it, you are frowned upon and are considered worthless. It's why so many of us struggle for happiness. It's why so many of us are obese. It's why nobody has any ambition to do anything out of the ordinary. It's an imprisoning theme that is hard to escape.

Because honestly, I'm stuck in it too. And even though I have these thoughts of a simpler thought without credit harassing and debt being the basis of life, I'm still stuck in this system. Pretty soon we might make things so complicated our brains actually explode.