About 500 BC Confucius had life figured out, “Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.”
(That is a translation as modern historians believe he spoke Chinese).
In 1845 Henry David Thoreau moved to the shore of Walden Pond. Two years later he wrote this very clear insight into coping with a complex world,
“Our Life is Frittered Away by Detail. Simplify, Simplify, Simplify!
In 1964 Tevya the Milkman sang “If I Were a Rich Man” to adoring crowds on Broadway, explaining that when posed questions on life’s most puzzling mysteries, “It won’t make one bit of difference if I answer right or wrong. When you’re rich they think you really know!”
Then on January 20, 2016 a rich sociopath with deep ties to Russia and lacking even a shred or empathy for his people rose to power and brought the lesson full circle.
He pretended it was complicated to instill fear, misrepresented his non-existent intellect and misinterpreted the mantra in keeping with his diminished intelligence as Simply Lie, Simply Lie, Simply lie!
It is that simple.