David Brooks The Evolution Of Simplicity

In his essay, “The Evolution of Simplicity,” American conservative political and cultural commentator David Brooks examines the modern obsession with the simplification of life. His essay hints at man’s tendency to overcomplicate various aspects of day-to-day activities and failure to appreciate life for its true beauty. Brooks warns that this over complication of the nation can leave us swamped with stress and spread to thin, spending too much of our energy and focus on unimportant and virtually irrelevant facets of our existence.

In the beginning, Brooks illustrates the shift in thought from the outdated ideals of the past to the modern paradigm of simplicity. The oxymoronic title, “The Evolution of Simplicity,” exemplifies the irony of a society that advances forward technologically, yet moves backwards toward simplicity. This demonstrates our “go for the gusto” mentality that causes us to forget to enjoy the little things in life. Too often, we restrict ourselves with tunnel vision, focusing only on the destination ahead and forgetting to enjoy the

journey. Brooks also utilizes multiple allusions to the past to signify the thought process of older generations. From the “simplicity and naturalness [of] Benjamin Franklin” to the “ascetic living and high thinking” of the Quakers, Puritans, and Orthodox Jews, he bespeaks the simplistic ideologies that appeared so prominent in the past and recently deemed outdated.

Brooks, bringing his argument into a modern light and relating it to today, switches from a tone redolent of the past to one embracing the present.

Establishing credibility, Brooks inserts modern examples of simplicity penetrating our daily routines. He utilizes one of “the best-selling books of 2015” to show how widespread this move toward simplicity reaches. Brooks also mentions the “thousands of members of the National Association of Professional Organizers” to almost satirize the large number of Americans that actually take part in what seems like such a silly organization. These examples reveal unintended irony within the essay, uncovering that in order to make our lives simpler, we tend to clutter it further with books, clubs, “magazines and websites.” While the intentions may appear to simplify, these techniques tend to do the opposite, jumble up life and complicated it further than

necessary.

As Brooks concludes his essay, he brings up possible counterarguments against his call for simplicity. However, he quickly squashes these ideas, removing any doubt that his audience may have had up until this point. Brooks presents a simplicity exercise that involves taking all the books off of a shelf and “throw[ing] them on the floor,” returning only the ones with true value. This represents a thought provoking metaphor that can applies to any aspect of life. From jobs to food to relationships, decluttering life can consist of simply taking all the tedious stress-causers and throwing them on the ground, reevaluating priorities and setting an agenda consisting of only the most important details.