A while ago, we started looking at truisms to see if they are actually true. Truisms are things which people say for a variety of reasons- to make themselves look smart, because they believe them, because they think it is expected etc., however, as with all language, it is important to make sure you know what you are talking about. So, let us consider the truism that less is more.
As with almost everything, to understand something one must first know its context. Truisms, as with aphorisms, can be complicated as they can have meanings assigned which the writer did not intend. The German philosopher Nietzsche wrote many aphorisms as part of his attempt to say in a few lines what it takes others books to say. However, without a clear context this leads to misinterpretation. For example, one of his most famous and oft quoted aphorisms, even if many do not know that stems from him is, “what does not kill me makes me stronger”. This aphorism is often used as a sign of defiance, a sign of strength. However, if we look at it from the context of his life and the book in which he wrote it (Beyond Good and Evil) then, instead of some grand statement, a Sermon on the Mount moment, it is more bravado than anything. In the context of Nietzsche’s life, a life which was ravaged through sickness and a personality that does not easily fit, the heroic notion of which the aphorism is attributed falls rather flat.
(Note: Indeed, as with many creative people of genius, Nietzsche could be said to fit with the quotation of Hermann Hesse, a man who you may recall was exiled from Germany due to his opposition to Fascism and World War II, that ‘Whoever wants music instead of noise, joy instead of pleasure, soul instead of gold, creative work instead of business, passion instead of foolery, finds no home in this trivial world of ours’.)
With this is mind we can see that to trot out a truism without context can be dangerous, as words shape more realities that guns. So, let us consider the truism that less is more.
The truism is wholly dependant on context and personal circumstances. To avoid being smarter than I am, let’s keep this simple and consider it in relation to food.
There are three people (or bears if you’d rather) and three bowls of porridge. All three bears have the same level of hunger. The food in the bowls is different. One is 1/3rd full, the other 2/3rds full and the last bow is 3/3rds full, or in English, full.
Bear one eats the 1st bowl and is still hungry. Bear 3 eats the 3rd bowl and is too full and bear 2 eats the 2nd bowl and his appetite is sated. In this instance, because the bears were less hungry than usual, less is more. However, less (bowl 1) is still less and more (bowl 3) is still more.
If we repeat this with bears we have cruelly been starving, then bowl 3, which has more, would be optimum (assuming we haven’t starved them so much that eating makes them sick) and if they had just eaten and we cruelly force them to eat again then bowl 1, which has the least in would be the optimum amount, and the truism ‘less is more’ would be applicable.
From this we can see that it is important to understand the context of what we say when forming judgements, something which we can think about another day.
‘till next time
thegreaterfool2016 