Aristotle argued,
“Moderation in all things.” Many of the authors in the Nature section of our
humanities book agree that we don’t need an excess of things to make us happy,
rather, we need the bare minimum to get by and that will make us happier. We
started out as simple beings and were intended to stay that way until
technology gave us the opportunity to become more and more lazy with more and
more gadgets.
Henry D. Thoreau said, “The necessaries of life for man
in this climate may, accurately enough, be distributed under the several heads
of Food, Shelter, Clothing, and Fuel; for not till we have secured these are we
prepared to entertain the true problems of life with freedom and a prospect of
success.” (pg. 353) He believed most in the fact that all we need is simple
things in small quantities to get by. He showed examples of this by moving out
to Walden Pond and building his own house that was one room big. He didn’t need
three bathrooms, four bedrooms, a laundry room, an upstairs and a downstairs just
for one person. He had a bed, a fireplace, and a desk for which he could write
on and that is all he needed to get by.
Aldo Leopold said, “Gadgets fill the pockets, they dangle
from the neck and belt. The overflow fills the auto trunk, and also the trailer.
Each item of outdoor equipment grows lighter and often better, but the
aggregate poundage becomes tonnage.” (pg. 373) I think what Leopold means is
that we make more and more of gadgets that yes, get better and better, but they
take up space and they distract us from the true nature that we used to live
in. If we had less gadgets, things like campers and big trucks, we could go
back to bringing just a simple backpack full of things into the wild and living
off of it.
A nature issue that is a perfect example of living in
moderation is the issue of whaling. I learned that the Japanese kill hundreds
of whales a year, with tons of whale meat that eventually ends up going bad in
the street because they don’t eat it fast enough or there is too much meat to
eat. We could lessen this issue by hunting less whales, putting a limit on the
number killed a year, so that the Japanese only have the bare minimum amount of
whale meat to feed everyone and this way, more whales are spared to repopulate
the whale population and aid in the food chain. Hunting too many whales is just
wasteful, hence the leftover meat. We don’t use the things that we have excess
of. We don’t use the meat, we don’t use our new shiny gadgets after awhile, and
all of it makes our lives cluttered and actually a bit harder.
On the other hand, someone might say, well isn’t it
better to be prepared? Yes, it is better to be prepared, but at what price?
There is a need for leftovers in case one day you don’t have food and need
something quick but there should be a limit as to how much is considered
storage. We can have storage of things but we don’t need ten pounds more of
meat. This relates to all things as well. Like Charmin Ultra says, “Less is
more!”
In conclusion, we have proven on countless times that
moderation really is best for us. You kill too many whales, you have leftover
meat that goes bad and you decrease the whale population. You eat too much
food, and you get fat. You exercise way too much to lose the weight and end up
hurting yourself rather than helping yourself. You buy gadget upon gadget just
to ignore a week later that ends up cluttering your life. We really should use
less than we do because as said by Aristotle, “Moderation in all things,” is
better than excess of all things.
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