Maybe it's just me, or maybe it's my relatives?, either way I don't fit into peoples concept of a 21st century individual. Wanting more technology to do things I normally do myself doesn't interest me - even if it makes life easier, except maybe when I'm too old to get out of bed without the aid of a hoist.

I like technology, I simply choose to incorporate a very limited amount of it in my life, like the computer, it's great as far as communicating and exchanging ideas etc., but, do I really need a refrigerator that's networked with my computer to share my internet connection should I feel the need to talk to my frig?... no. A quick scan of the frig in the morning when I reach for the half and half and I know what I have and might need.

Making what should be easy and simple into a complicated multistep process - that is my definition of technology for the consumer. When they said, "Build a better mouse trap and the world will beat a path to your doorway" they were right, but, what happens when you've built the best mousetrap? you've streamlined it and refined it to perfection, now what? you complicate it of course. You add bells and whistles then lastly, the "ultimate", you give it a brain - an onboard computer to perform the simplest of tasks, we have now reached TECHNOLOGICAL UTOPIA. The gadget people will love you.

So, when I was accused of being a "Luddite" recently, I couldn't entirely disagree with them, but, I would call it selective luddism. Growth, whether it is intellectual or technological, is necessary if a society is to remain viable, vital, intact. Every society that existed and failed did so because of natural disater, conquest or stagnation, so I'm all for progress, so long as I'm free to persue my life of, consiously sought, simplicity. Notice I said progress not development, that is a whole other story.

Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it. - George Santayana. The Philosopher had it right, truer words have never been spoken. If you forget where you've come from or the "simple" elements that have been built upon to get you where you're at, you are doomed to failure. How are you going to fix a complex piece of machinery without knowing the basics - you're not - you're going to have to reinvent the wheel.

Give me a shovel and some dirt to dig in and I'm a happy man, did I say I liked simple? that goes for simple pleasures also; usually the least complicated and simplest things are the purest and longest lasting. My case for Homesteading.