Everything about Voluntary Poverty totally explained
Simple living (or
voluntary simplicity) is a lifestyle individuals choose to minimize the 'more-is-better' pursuit of
wealth and
consumption. Adherents choose simple living for a variety of reasons, such as
spirituality,
health, increase in '
quality time' for
family and
friends,
stress reduction,
conservation,
social justice or
anti-consumerism. Others choose it for personal taste, personal economy or as participating in
sustainable development. According to
Duane Elgin, "we can describe voluntary simplicity as a manner of living that's outwardly more simple and inwardly more rich, a way of being in which our most authentic and alive self is brought into direct and conscious contact with living."
Simple living as a concept is distinguished from those living in forced
poverty, as it's a voluntary lifestyle choice. 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.
History
The recorded history of voluntary simplicity, often associated with
asceticism, begins with the
Shramana traditions of
Iron Age India.
Buddha and
John the Baptist were early ascetics. Various notable individuals have claimed that spiritual inspiration led them to a simple living lifestyle, such as
Francis of Assisi,
Ammon Hennacy,
Rabindranath Tagore and
Mahatma Gandhi.
Epicureanism, based on the teachings of the
Athens-based
philosopher Epicurus, flourished from about the fourth century BC to the third century AD. 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 completely avoided.
In
North America, religious groups including the
Shakers,
Mennonites,
Amish, and some
Quakers have for centuries practiced lifestyles in which 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 author, is often considered to have made the classic non-sectarian statement advocating a life of simple and
sustainable living in his book
Walden (
1854).
In Victorian Britain,
Henry Stephens Salt, an admirer of Thoreau, popularised the idea of "Simplification, the saner method of living" (quoted in Peter C. Gould, "Early Green Politics", Pg.22). Other British advocates of the simple life included
Edward Carpenter,
William Morris and the members of "
The Fellowship of the New Life" (Gould, pg.27-8).
George Lorenzo Noyes, a
naturalist,
mineralogist,
development critic, writer and artist, is known as the thoreauvian of Maine. He lived a wilderness lifestyle, advocating through his creative work a simple life of
sustainable living and his spiritual reverence for nature.
During the 1920 and 1930s the
Vanderbilt Agrarians of the
Southern United States advocated a lifestyle and culture centered upon traditional and sustainable
agrarian values as opposed to the progressive urban
industrialism which dominated the Western world at that time.
From the 1920s to the 1960s, a number of fairly prominent modern authors 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.
Practice
Some people practice voluntary simplicity to reduce need for purchased services or goods and, by extension, need to sell their time for money. Some will spend the extra free time helping family or others. During the holiday season, such people often perform
alternative giving. Others may spend the extra free time to improve their
quality of life, for example pursuing creative activities such as art and craft.
Another approach is to look very fundamentally at the whole issue of why we need to buy and consume so many resources for a good quality of life
(External Link
). Though our society often seeks to buy happiness, materialism very frequently fails to satisfy, and may even increase the level of stress in life. It has been said that "the making of money and the accumulation of things shouldn't smother the purity of the soul, the life of the mind, the cohesion of the family, or the good of the society."
The 'grassroots' awareness campaign, National Downshifting Week (UK)
(External Link) (founded 1995) encourages participants to
positively embrace living with less. Campaign creator, British writer and broadcaster on downshifting and sustainable living, Tracey Smith says, "The more money you spend, the more time you've to be out there earning it and the less time you've to spend with the ones you love". National Downshifting Week encourages participants to 'Slow Down and Green Up' and contains a list of suggestions for Individuals, Companies and Children and Schools to help them lean towards the green, develop corporate social responsibility in the workplace and create eco-protocols and policies that work alongside the national curriculum, respectively.
Another key practice is the adoption of a simplified
diet. Diets that may simplify domestic food production and consumption include
raw veganism and the
Gandhi diet.
Politics
Although some religious and political movements encourage such practices, simple living is apolitical. There is no conflict in living simply and espousing most political theories.
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, for example 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 isn't universal among practitioners of simple living, however, who may denounce such obsession with worldly affairs as distasteful or unseemly.
The relationship between
economic growth and
war, when fought for control and exploitation of natural and human resources, is considered a good reason for promoting a simple living lifestyle. Avoiding the perpetuation of the
resource curse is a similar objective of many simple living adherents. Opposition to war has led some to a form of
tax resistance in which they reduce their tax liability by taking up a simple living lifestyle.
Technology
Although simple living is often a
secular pursuit, it may still involve reconsidering personal definitions of "
appropriate technology", as
Anabaptist groups such as the
Amish or
Mennonites have done. People who eschew modern technology are often referred to as
Luddites or
Neo-Luddism adherents.
People who practice simple living have diverse 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, the number of miles a given item of food or its ingredients has travelled between the farm and the table, is used by simple living advocates to argue for locally grown food. This is now gaining mainstream acceptance.
Advertising is criticised for encouraging a consumerist mentality. Many 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.
Economics
A new economics movement has been building since the UN conference on the environment in 1972, and the publication that year of
Only One Earth, The Limits to Growth and
Blueprint For Survival, followed in 1973 by
Small Is Beautiful: Economics As If People Mattered.
A reference point for this new economics can be found in
James Robertson's A New Economics of Sustainable Development,[ and the work of thinkers and activists, who participate in his Working for a Sane Alternative network and program. According to Robertson, the shift to sustainability is likely to require a widespread shift of emphasis from raising incomes to reducing costs. ]
The principles of the new economics, as set out by Robertson, are the following: » * "systematic empowerment of people (as opposed to making and keeping them dependent), as the basis for people-centred development;
* systematic conservation of resources and environment, as the basis for environmentally sustainable development; » * evolution from a “wealth of nations” model of economic life to a one-world model, and from today's inter-national economy to an ecologically sustainable, decentralising, multi-level one-world economic system;
* restoration of political and ethical factors to a central place in economic life and thought; » * respect for qualitative values, not just quantitative values;
* respect for feminine values, not just masculine ones."[Further Information]
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