Of course I wasn't suggesting that we should all give up and live in caves or something. It's not a binary choice. I refuse to believe that the way our world, society, and lives currently work is the best it could possibly be, because it seriously sucks. There's got to be a way to improve and simplify the system incrementally.

Also, I dispute the idea that simpler societies have lower absolute quality of life in every way. Having lived part of my life with an isolated tribal society, there are definitely pros and cons. (A close knit community is one huge pro that I really really miss.) Instead of a blind "our complex systems are better just because they are" I think we should step back and take actual stock of the costs and rewards and really ask ourselves, for each individual thing, whether it's worth it.