That’s how John Lane describes us in his book ‘Timeless Simplicity: Creative living in a consumer society‘. I finished it on the train today while being held outside Waterloo station on full security alert. It’s a short book, kind of an introduction to the idea of voluntary simplicity – the cutting out of unnecessary modern clutter to make way for the more meaningful things of life.
There’s not a lot of practical advice offered, so you’d want to look elsewhere for that, but there are some useful summaries of the spiritual traditions of simplicity – eastern and western, Christian and Zen. They have a lot in common at times. Simplicity and contentment seem to be very common values across the spiritual traditions. It’s nothing new either. Perhaps being ‘restless children’ is not so much a trait among modern individuals, as a characteristic of being human.
He who knows contentment is rich.
There is no crime greater than having too many desires;
There is no disaster greater than not being content;
There is no misfortune greater than being covetous.
Tao Te Ching
Again I saw something meaningless under the sun:
There was a man all alone; he had neither son nor brother.
There was no end to his toil, yet his eyes were not content with his wealth.
“For whom am I toiling,” he asked, “and why am I depriving myself of enjoyment?”
This too is meaningless – a miserable business!
Ecclesiastes 4:7-8
“The mind is a restless bird; the more it gets, the more it wants, and still remains unsatisfied.”
Gandhi
The poor have a hard life, but being content is as good as an endless feast.
Proverbs 15:15
May the grace of God be with all people and make them lovers of justice, truth, and simplicity.
Indian prayer
The Earthbound Report 
Not just the book, it is the whole new thought process that is strikingly different. Makes me feel that even those who are totally into today’s rat race do have an amount of dissatisfaction with the way things are. Whatever they do, however much of the trappings they gather; JOY seems to be eluding them. Fact is, more of these trappings they gather, the less marginal returns they seem to get in terms of JOY. This must be a frustrating feeling.
SIMPLICITY is the answer to that.
Yes, joy is a word we don’t hear very often. It’s an idea that needs to be rediscovered.
The positive side is, I have seen it in some people. Mainly children. You watch their faces when they are completely immersed in some task of their choice; and you see joy. But when they start to grow older [I deliberately choose to avoid using grow up], they loose this joy. They become one of us. Harried, Confused, and wondering where all this is leading us to.
Good to meet you, Jeremy.