WINTER PARK, Fla. – What is happiness? What does simplicity have to do with it? These were questions that Dr. David Shi, author and former president of Furman University, attempted to grapple on Oct. 18 at Rollins College's Bush Science Center in Winter Park, in his speech titled The Great Recession and the Revival of Simplicity.
Shi spoke in front of an attentive audience of students and local residents, opening with the concept of happiness in America, and the complications the nation faces in trying to reach it amid a culture of frivolous spending and a wounded economy.
“Since the end of World War II, and especially during the last 20 years or so, Americans have increasingly equated the pursuit of happiness with the pursuit of more money and more consumer goods,” Shi said, later noting that simplicity remains an enticing ideal, but it has been pushed to the periphery by “America's runaway consumer culture.”
The other problem is debt. “All financial crises result from debt, in one form or another,” Shi said, explaining further how lenders had by 2007 been giving credit to unqualified people, enabling them to spend far beyond their income levels and allowing the rate of debt to outpace economic growth. “Borrowing has been the only way that many people think they can advance economically,” he said.
Shi later roused abrupt laughter from the audience with the remark: “Until the 20th century, indebtedness in the United States was widely viewed as a moral failure. Since then, it's become a patriotic virtue.”
The solution? It's not simple, but in the same breath, Shi explains, simplicity is the answer – slowing down and being satisfied with less. Shi also notes that living a simpler, cheaper lifestyle in America is a knee-jerk reaction to economic dips, and is usually temporary.
“Americans have never embraced simplicity in large numbers for long periods,” he said, further explaining that when economic prosperity rebounds, so does the urge to frivolously spend once more.
The real key, according to Shi, is to embrace simple living as a state of mind, rather than a disposable principle that will probably only be as prolonged as the recession. This involves long-term goal processing, and reconstitutes what Americans might consider happiness to be – traditional consumer materialism versus contention in what one already has, including things that transcend objects and wealth.
“I was working 15 hours a day, but it sucked,” said UCF student Steven McConnen, 23, noting how increased income doesn't always equal more happiness. “It wasn't worth the trade-off of having more money.”
Evan Schlarb, a 29-year-old Rollins student and the Production Designer for Rollins' Who's Who radio show on WPRK, said the topic of simplicity drew him to Shi's speech. “I thought he was outstanding and felt he had a very inspiring message and delivery as well,” Schlarb said, adding, “I know he said that there isn't necessarily a checklist -- it's more of a day-to-day decision making process in how you live your life -- but I would like to hear specific things I wouldn't necessarily think of, or ways I can reorganize my own personal life to simplify.”
“There's no way to develop something that's going to fit everyone's circumstance,” Shi explained about the check-list concept amid roaming guests in a reception room after the speech. “I try to shift people away from picturing something physical, and instead think about a middle process whereby every day you're thinking very intentionally about, 'Who am I? Where am I headed? Why am I doing this?' In other words, most of us just get up in the morning and we just flow. We just drift. So, it's really a life of intentional simplicity, where you're calibrating your choices, your decisions, your priorities every day, rather than just occasionally.”
