Minimalism

I'm sure I've touched on this subject or at the least of the basic principles pertaining to 'minimalism', but I really do want to specify in detail why it's so important. Minimalism is to be stripped down to the most fundamental features. I try to embrace this idea as much as possible because one must live simply so that others may simply live. I'll paint an abstract picture for you, if you will. A blank platform floating in space, unweighted. Slowly, the platform is bombarded with rocky textures spread across, silky transparent flows boring holes in the rock, which creates an edging of green material. Suddenly varies creatures of all shapes and sizes advance upon the green, forcing them to clear paths of it for their individual settlements. This is fine, the platform is able to sustain the amount of creatures and landforms. However, the creatures of course, forsaking the abstract now, are greedy, civilized yet uncivilized at the heart of the matter fools that take for granted all that their platform is capable of possessing. The people are innovative which is appropriate to certain extents. Innovation in itself satisfies a couple different needs. It supplies the demand of the people who desire advanced products. Of course the majority of the time, the people are unaware of this desire until the innovators convince them that they would be happier if they had more and better products. The other demand that innovation satisfies is the need within oneself. The need to create and engineer in order to challenge oneself and keep the mind and hand occupied. What is life without a purpose? But surely this purpose can be used in more productive ways than updating a cellular phone with multifarious capabilities that we don't necessarily want nor require.  Technological advancement is good, all societal revolutions and advancements should be encouraged so that we progress as a species but clinging to materialism and embracing consumerism is an atrocious disease that is spread amongst our culture. When did money create taste? Why do we not question our lifestyles? What makes teenagers so susceptible to consumerism in particular? Why is the American dream to live in suburbia with a white picket fence in back and 2.5 children with a husband who works and a wife who tends to the domestic areas. Personally, I object to all of that. I completely disagree that the only way for people to change their habits is for them to be forced or to be physically shown the negative impact of their lifestyle. You can simply be open minded or hear from another person's experience or even develop your own idea from different events. For example, we're polluting the only environment we have access to by burning oil for gas in our cars. But people don't see harsh enough effects of it to make us stop. Not all people though, some understand this concept without actually running out of oil to burn or being choked to death in a black smog. I think the real issue is laziness and apathy. That is the root of our problems. Specifically the generation before my own's problem. My own generation has unknowingly accepted the lovely chore of fixing everything. Well, either fixing or further destroying. Most of the general public would be so much happier, not to mention healthier if we lived simply. Not to say we should live like the Amish, because I really don't like the Amish, but maybe a small studio apartment would become the new ideal. Perhaps growing your own garden and eating from it on a regular basis would become the norm. Imagine if we all learned to knit and weave and could fashion our own clothing, or at least took advantage of secondhand stores where the idea is to recycle so as not to create additional waste. I will probably revisit this topic at a later time, but for now I'll leave it at that.