Lying Flat shows us a different pursuit of happiness. Basically, lying-flat people take minimalistic approach to participating in the economy, enjoying life in a different way than materialistic pursuits.
Lara Mattelof’s short book is a cascade of well-connected insights of how to reorder our lives. One reason for this reordering is to reduce our environmental footprint when we walk on this planet. A second reason is that most of us will have to learn to be happy with fewer things because our economies will no longer be able to provide them for much longer. If we are to be happy people, we can no longer rely on the traditional path of college, career, marriage, house, family, etc. Many more of us are going to be poor — and there is not a damn thing we can do about it.
Lara gives us insights into these new ways. To make her points, she uses quotes from well known philosophers, not-so-well-known philosophers, and many of her own musings. My favorite is:
“. . . fantasy is a safer escape than drugs, alcohol, sex, gambling, or spending. In a broken world, with no hope for the future, it is a safe space for us to dramatically increase the enjoyment of our shitty lives. In place. At no cost.”
I know there is a certain happiness in thinking about things. I have many inventions inside of me — and I will never be able to bring most of them into the outside world. But it is fun thinking about them. We do need more constructive fantasy in our thinking.
And in my own way, I have been a lying-flat person since I finished university in 1982. You see, it did not make much sense to me to work 50 weeks a year — and get two weeks vacation. Even six weeks for the most privileged workers was too short. I tried to build a lifestyle of six to eight months of work a year. But I just could not make that lifestyle work financially, even though I had a much lower consumer expectation than many of my peers. In the end, it became less stress to accept more of a traditional workplace role than to be a more free free-lancer.
I could quibble with a few of Lara’s points. But when any big-picture reader puts her ideas together, she is wisely asking us to reconsider what is really important in our lives. Happiness can be found outside the consumerism/career treadmill. We must change our perspectives.
However, I will quibble with the last section of the book. Lara asks the lying-flat people to be on continual protest. It is these protests that keep the “sociopaths who run our government” from really wrecking our lives. Protest, protest, protest. Without this societal vigilance, THEY will truly take over. I find this conflict-inspired political technique as not ever being able to take us where we really need to go.
In my opinion, lying-flat people should have the time to the build the democracy I have outlined in my Medium writings. And these people have the right intentions because they will be more community connected. I think they should add “building this new democracy” to their list of things to improve the world. They will find a creative and introspective process where they learn new collaborative skills. When this new democracy matures, the sociopaths will be sidelined from the democratic process. Is this not a goal we all want?
Further Reading
As I was reading this book, I was recalling two of my Medium articles.
In “Manna,” Marshall Brain storytells two future societies as automation takes more work from the people. In the first society, redundant workers are warehoused where they can live with some comfort and boredom until they die; the corporations will paint themselves as being so benevolent to useless citizens.
In the second society, the profits of automation are shared by all citizens. All citizens can pursue their passions (within reason). Be a writer, musician, athlete, or researcher. Travel. Raise a big family. Build better robots. Play video games. Take part in governance. Whatever makes you happy. The robots are doing most of the real work.
If we take the protest, protest, protest approach, it is doubtful the sociopaths who run government are going to build that second society. Rather, we should expect the first society from them.
But if we build a new democracy, then that second society becomes attainable.
Here is my review of Manna.
My second recommended read is Building A Kinder Wiser Democracy. I describe how average people need only 10 hours a month to put this concept together. As I have alluded earlier, today’s lying-flat people should have the time resources to make this happen. This will be much more productive in the long term than protesting.
Conclusion
Lara puts a caveat to start her book. She has a long list of people who should not read her work. I think they should. Just to get them thinking about how to survive in the new economy that is already showing signs of erupting.
Lying Flat is a well written book with many great ideas within a 90-minute read. I highly recommend it for those in Lara’s echo chamber and for those outside. It predicts a future that is plausible. We all will need these new ideas to navigate that future.
Published on Medium 2023
