Talk:Simple living

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Contents

[edit] Archive

Archive:2005 Talk

Just a little housecleaning for the new year. Please note that previous talk has been moved to 2005 Talk above. Rorybowman 05:59, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Simple Living vs. Voluntary Simplicity

The first sentence of this article says that Simple living is "similar but not identical to voluntary simplicity" but does not enumerate the differences; the rest of the article seems to use the terms interchangably and "Voluntary simplicity" redirects here. This is inconsistent.

[edit] Theodore Kaczynski

Must we cite the Unabomber as an example of someone who theorizes about simple living and technology (second para. under "Technology" section)? Isn't that carrying our alienation from the "mainstream" just a BIT too far?

I see your point but disagree, SqueakBox 22:34, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

Did Theodore Kaczynski actually practice simple living himself or was he just anti-technology? There is more to simple living than just technology. If he did not practice simple living he would be better suited on the technology article. As far as I am aware, most advocates of simple living follow a non-aggression principle. Terrorism is not synonomous with simplicity. nirvana2013 17:17, 25 March 2006 (UTC)
From the Theodore Kaczynski article: "After resigning his position at Berkeley, he held no permanent employment. He lived a simple life in a remote shack on very little money, occasionally worked odd jobs, and received some financial support from his family." I believe he should be mentioned in the article. Heritage Farmer 23:13, 8 April 2006 (UTC)
Assent.
Kaczynski has little to do with simple living IMO. Living simply is not the same as voluntary simplicity. I agree with Nirvana's comment that he did not practice simple living per se. Sunray 06:24, 21 April 2006 (UTC)
Perhaps we should start another article called Enforced simplicity and put Theodore Kaczynski on that, as he seems to have misunderstood the word "voluntary" in Voluntary simplicity. He is a "fish out of water" on this article. nirvana2013 15:33, 8 May 2006 (UTC)
Replaced Theodore Kaczynski with Kirkpatrick Sale, who is a more appropriate technology critic for the article. nirvana2013 22:20, 24 May 2006 (UTC)

... In a society with no social welfare system, this meant that they faced desperate privation — and their fears were realised when automated looms took over and skilled hand-loom weavers and their families endured awful poverty and even death by starvation, thereby justifying their crime.

I'd dispute the neutrality of this section. Whether or not the action was 'justified' is irrelevant.

--211.29.182.99 04:43, 21 April 2006 (UTC)


[edit] Military-industrial complex

This passage is questionable:

However, hi-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

Moving from cars to telecommuting, or moving from air travel to e-communication is such an incredible saving in global resources (and an increase in simplicity of living) that wondering if this helps any 'bad forces' behind new technologies is pointless. Telecommuting, Skype or e-mail are far better than air travel and jet lag. Period. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 194.24.244.5 (talk • contribs) 7 August 2006.

[edit] compact groups

Should groups like "The Compact" be included on this page? They are generating a lot of positive media attention & interest in downshifting/SL lifestyle. --69.5.137.163 19:24, 20 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Shake and bake

Shake and bake? What the hell? 71.68.17.141 15:04, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] "Does not cite any references or sources" tag

The page this page discusses is markes as "without sources", but I see a lot of sources there. Can anybody explain why the page is so marked? The tag should be removed! User:kjetil1001

I agree, it does not do Wikipedia much good for these tags to hang around indefinately. nirvana2013 09:37, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Property, stocks and bonds

I'm having some trouble coming to terms with the sentence "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 things, do, in a strict sense, entail consumption. Who would claim you can be a slum lord, raking in money from college-aged tenants while refusing to fix the plumbing and also practice simple living? Can your money come from, say, Monsanto's ability to genetically modify corn, eat Non-GMO in your private life, and still claim to be an adherent? And in any case, there is a difference between refusing to hold down a job and practicing simple living. Please weigh in if you care, or I'll go ahead and delete this sentence, since it's really just a loophole for misunderstanding and criticism. 200.207.7.241 10:32, 28 June 2007 (UTC)Envirocorrector

[edit] Intro

I just did a fairly serious re-working of the intro. I changed the first sentence into something like a definition of simple living. I also eliminated a couple things. The rejection of wester culture is gone because I see it as very similar to the rejection of consumerism, the only part of western culture most of us really want to reject (after all, this article cites a whole bunch of prominent members of western culture from Jesus to Thoreau). I also got rid of a phrase about fairness, which seems very like social justice. Anyway... just so y'all know what I was shooting for. Envirocorrector 10:47, 7 July 2007 (UTC)

Ah, much better. I was thinking about the distinction between SL and poverty. It seems to me that SL is often very similar to voluntary poverty [1] Sunray 21:56, 7 July 2007 (UTC)
Thanks! You know, this is the first time somebody said they actually liked a change I made. Envirocorrector 22:10, 7 July 2007 (UTC)
Um, well... welcome to Wikipedia! It's true that we don't recognize each other's work nearly enough. Sunray 00:07, 8 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Edited talk

I understand this may be controversial, but I just deleted a short part of this talk page in which one editor slandered a major world religion and an adherent felt compelled to defend his/her faith by calling the editor ignorant. It's deletable both because you can't be blatantly offesive on talk pages and because talk pages aren't a place for authors to express their personal views. Envirocorrector 09:40, 8 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Anti-consumerism box

A couple of months ago, someone added an "Anti-consumerism box" to the article without explanation as to why. Looking at the links it contains, many seem to be only tenuously linked to Simple living. And I can think of many things that I would consider more closely related to simple living that are not there. I'm removing the box, but am open to discussing it if someone believes that it should be there and can explain why. Sunray 19:54, 14 July 2007 (UTC)

I agree it is not needed. Anyone feel like creating a simple living box? There is certainly enough content (see Category:Simple living). nirvana2013 11:25, 16 July 2007 (UTC)
Great idea! Sunray 17:36, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Voluntary Simplicity

"Voluntary simplicity involves both inner and other conditions. It means singleness of purpose,sincerity and honesty within,as well as avoidance of exterior clutter,of many possessions irrelevant to the chief purpose of life. It means an ordering and guiding of our energy and our desires, a partial restraint in some directions in order to secure greater abundance of life in other directions. It involves a deliberate of organization of life for a purpose."- Richard B. Gregg What more need be explained ? Determine your life's purpose and take the appropriate action to achieve it. 75.164.100.176 01:18, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Needs to be more thorough

The article as it stands lacks a thorough enumeration of people's motives for choosing to live simply - some of them seemingly in opposition with those mentioned. Motives for living simply voluntarily vary with each adherent and, contrary to some opinions here, can and do include personal financial goals. To suggest that such motives are invalid and preclude their inclusion under the broad umbrella of the VS movement because they don't "fit in" with certain ideas of what the movement "should" be about is to deny the possibility that the effects of those choices are at least as beneficial to humanity or the environment as those of more "conscious" motives and choices. Simple living is as much about the personal as about the universal.24.222.119.24 (talk) 12:32, 24 January 2008 (UTC)