Simple living

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Simple living (similar but not identical to voluntary simplicity or voluntary poverty) is a lifestyle individuals may pursue for a variety of motivations, such as spirituality, health, or ecology. Others may choose simple living for reasons of social justice or a rejection of consumerism. Some may emphasise an explicit rejection of "westernised values", while others choose to live more simply for reasons of personal taste, a sense of fairness or for personal economy.

Simple living as a concept is distinguished from the simple lifestyles of those living in conditions of poverty in that its proponents are consciously choosing to not focus on wealth directly tied to money or restrictive, cash-based economics. Although asceticism may resemble voluntary simplicity, proponents of simple living are not all ascetics. The term "downshifting" is often used to describe the act of moving from a lifestyle of greater consumption towards a lifestyle based on voluntary simplicity.

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[edit] History

From the 2nd millennium BC various Hindu and Buddhist groups in the Eastern world had established a voluntarily simplified spiritual lifestyle. This practice continued with various Abrahamic religious movements in the Middle East and Europe. Abraham, Moses, Gautama Buddha, John the Baptist, Jesus, and Muhammad all practised simple living, and many of their teachings recommend that their followers do likewise. Various notable individuals have claimed that spiritual inspiration led them to a simple living lifestyle, such as Francis of Assisi, Ammon Hennacy and Mahatma Gandhi.

Epicureanism, based on the teachings of the Athens-based philosopher Epicurus, flourished from about the fourth century B.C. to the third century C.E., along with other major philosophical schools such as Stoicism. Epicureanism upheld the untroubled life as the paradigm of happiness, made possible by carefully considered choices and avoidances. Specifically, Epicurus pointed out that troubles entailed by maintaining an extravagant lifestyle tend to outweigh the pleasure of partaking in it. He therefore concluded that what is necessary for happiness, bodily comfort, and life itself should be maintained at minimal cost, while all things beyond what is necessary for these should either be tempered by moderation or completed avoided.

In North America, religious groups including the Shakers, Mennonites, Amish, and some Quakers have for centuries practised lifestyles where some forms of wealth or technology are excluded for religious or philosophical reasons. For more information about Quaker simplicity see Testimony of Simplicity.

Henry David Thoreau, a naturalist, utopian and writer, is often considered to have made the classic non-sectarian statement advocating a life of simple and sustainable living in his book Walden (1854).

Of course, countless individuals and families whose names are unknown to literature and history have, by choice or from necessity, lived simple lives of direct self-responsibility.

From the 1920s to the 1960s, a number of fairly prominent modern writers (in English) articulated both the theory and practice of lifestyles of this sort, among them Gandhian Richard Gregg, economists Ralph Borsodi and Scott Nearing, anthropologist-poet Gary Snyder, and utopian fiction writer Ernest Callenbach. Richard Gregg wrote a book entitled The Value of Voluntary Simplicity (1936) and many decades later Duane Elgin wrote the highly influential book Voluntary Simplicity (1981). There are eco-anarchist groups in the United States and Canada today promoting lifestyles of simplicity. In the United Kingdom, the Movement for Compassionate Living was formed by Kathleen and Jack Jannaway in 1984, to spread the vegan message and promote simple living and self-reliance as a remedy against the exploitation of humans, animals and the Earth.

[edit] Practice

Some people who practice voluntary simplicity act consciously to reduce their need for purchased services or goods and, by extension, their need to sell their time for money. Some will spend the extra free time this generates helping their family or others in a voluntary way. During the holiday season, such people often perform alternative giving. Others may spend the extra free time to improve their own quality of life, with less regard for the well being of others.

[edit] Politics

Although some religious and political movements may encourage such practices, simple living itself is apolitical. There is no basic conflict in living simply and espousing most political theories. One could, for example, practice intense capitalism yet still live simply, because capital can be generated via investments (property, stocks and bonds, for example) that do not, in a strict sense, entail consumption. These individuals may practice capitalism and altruism, rather than consumerism. Also one could be a totalitarian monarch who espouses simple living through sumptuary laws. Although in this case it would contravene voluntary simplicity, as the lifestyle would be compulsory and achieved through enforcement of law rather than individual free will.

Many Green Parties often advocate voluntary simplicity as a consequence of their "four pillars" or the "Ten Key Values" of the United States Green party. This includes in policy terms rejection of genetic modification and nuclear power and other potentially hazardous technologies. The Greens' support for simplicity is based on the reduction in natural resource usage and environmental impact. This concept is expressed in Ernest Callenbach's "green triangle" of ecology, frugality and health.

Many with similar views avoid involvement even with green politics as compromising simplicity, however, and advocate forms of green anarchism that attempt to implement these principles at a smaller scale than through modern nations, e.g. the ecovillage. This view is often allied with a general critique of globalization as industrial capitalism, colonial imperialism, or a neoliberal "neocolonialism." Such a pairing is not universal among practitioners of simple living, however, who may denounce such obsession with worldly affairs as distasteful or unseemly.

[edit] Technology

Living simply may involve reconsidering what is "appropriate technology", as Anabaptist groups such as the Amish or Mennonites have done. People who eschew modern technology are often referred to as Luddites, after the groups of skilled English hand-loom weavers and croppers who smashed automated looms during the industrial revolution.

People who practice simple living have very different views on the role of technology. Some simple living adherents, such as Kirkpatrick Sale, are strong critics of technology, while others see the Internet as a key component of simple living in the future, including the reduction of an individual's carbon footprint through telecommuting and less reliance on paper. Voluntary simplicity may include high-tech components — indeed computers, Internet, photovoltaic arrays, wind and water turbines, and a variety of other cutting-edge technologies can be used to make a simple lifestyle within mainstream culture easier and more sustainable.

The idea of food miles, which are the number of miles a given piece of food has travelled between the farm and the table, is used by simple living advocates to argue for locally grown food, and this idea is gaining mainstream acceptance. Some argue that computers and the Internet will allow people to do things they needed a car to do before such as work or shopping while video games will make staying at home a much more attractive option.

Advertising is criticised for encouraging a consumerist mentality. Most advocates of voluntary simplicity tend to agree that cutting out, or cutting down, on television viewing is a key ingredient in simple living. Some see the Internet, podcasting, community radio or pirate radio as viable alternatives.

However, high-tech technologies of all kinds require a complex industrial base and knowledge of physics and materials science, which at the moment are a part of a military-industrial complex, and so may defeat some of the purposes of voluntary simplicity movements. On the other hand, technology can allow communications between communities and provide information on effective simple lifestyles for those who wish to change their lives, and can be run on renewable sources of energy.

[edit] Other, non-religious approaches

A reference and starting point for this approach can be found in James Robertson's New Economics and the work of thinkers and activists, who participate in his Working for a Sane Alternative network and program.

[edit] References

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Energy and Conservation   Edit
Energy conservation | Energy-efficient landscaping | Passive house | Passive solar building design | Superinsulation | Simple living | Ecological footprint | Ecovillage | Waste | Zero energy building
Sustainability and Development of Energy   Edit
Conversion | Development and Use | Sustainable Energy | Conservation | Transportation
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