The earth is overpopulated and things will only get worse. (unless we
change our course somehow) The more people born, the more heat is
produced from all their cravings and the warmer and more polluted the
earth gets and the more energy they all use.
China and India are just starting to bloom with their demands for
fossil fuels We haven't seen anything yet with the meteoric rise of
gas and energy.
In China the per capita car ownership rate is 40 car owners per 1000
persons. In India it is much lower, running 8 cars per 1000 people. As
these two giants evolve more of their population will want cars...in
India, they are making a $2500 car as well.
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2006/05/percapita_car_o.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20394364/
But what can one say about the problem unless people just cut back
reproducing. Everyone has a desire to have some sex stimulation and
through that stimulation comes more and more people. (Although in
China they limit the children a family can have.)
And everyone has a desire to keep warm when it is cold or to keep cool
in the heat or move about the earth and wear clothes. And it is from
all those desires that global warming fueled through the expenditure
of fossil fuels takes place.
$10 a gallon gas in the future? No doubt! All we have to do is look to
history for the answer.
When I first took notice of gas prices in the early 70's gas was .22
cents a gallon.
No one would have thought that gas would take a 1360%% rise in price in
3 1/2 decades.
But in fairness to gas prices, they have not been as inflationary as
California real estate, which on average has gone up about 3000%% in
that same time.
A small, flat roofed, termite eaten 2 bedroom, 900 square foot, run
down house, with a little yard that sold for $20,000 in a dumpy area
of town, in 1968 sells for $600,000 now.
Again too many people grabbing for the same thing causes such
craziness.
Here is an old classic on the subject:
http://www.amazon.com/Extraordinary-Popular-Delusions-Madness-Crowds/dp/05178843...
If gas prices maintain this same trend it would put it at $42 a gallon
in the upcoming decades.
And what about everything that is delivered by truck, air or otherwise
pegged to gas prices?
Just in the last two years I saw prices of household staples go up 20%%
to 30%%. And if they don't raise the price, they reduce the size of the
product. (Yet the government claim inflation is next to nil...they
must use the same accountants that Enron used!)
I have no magic bullet to this problem, other than the population
needs to be reduced worldwide. Humans are just too successful at
reproducing.
I hope we come up with sustainable alternative energy source someday
for large scale and personal needs. Cause no matter how we slice it,
someday all the crude oil, coal and natural gas will be depleted on
earth.
Maybe the US will be making a tradeoff with China and India?
We all will be riding bicycles someday?
If we wish to do our own little part in helping out the earths
resources last longer, we can live a simple life and cut back on our
demands a little.
We seldom question if more of a "good thing" is desirable for our
supposed happiness in life. The question, that Voluntary Simplicity
helps answer, is the question of what IS enough so we may be happy
right now in the present. A life of Voluntary Simplicity focuses our
attention on the fact that "everything we own take a little piece ~
peace of us." And in doing so, we can let go of peace and life
destroying rituals and possessions and replace them with a contented,
satisfied and complete life in the present moment instead of a life
that revolves around the next thing to be acquired in hopes of
satisfying our insatiable appetites.
Greed is never satisfied by attainment - it is only satisfied by
contentment.
This orientation of conscious thought to simplify ones life in
whatever activity the individual is engaged in is the foundation of
success when it comes to simple living...mindfulness of our direction
in life. Voluntary Simplicity is the tool I use to counter this desire
to constantly expand my life with more complexities, stress and
problems and to live within my comfortable boundaries for a serene
life.
I started with 12 step programs in 1974 to work on various addictions.
As such, I find a less complex life very useful to my addictions
recovery work. The 12 Step programs do actually touch on the VS topic,
although it is not specifically called VS. Here are a couple of quotes
that can be taken as their efforts at applying VS to one's life.
........From page 76 of the 12 & 12 of Alcoholics Anonymous........
"The chief activator of our defects has been a self-centered fear-
primarily that we would lose something we already possessed or would
fail to get something we demanded. Living upon a basis of unsatisfied
demands, we were in a state of continual disturbance and frustrations.
Therefore, no peace was to be had unless we could find a means of
reducing these demands."
End of Quote
I cannot tell you that I have no unsatisfied demands in my life; but,
I will say that since joining the simple living movent my unsatisfied
demands can now be counted on one hand, whereas in my prior life, I
needed a notebook to record them all.
........Taken from pages 122-125 of the 12 & 12 of Alcoholics
Anonymous.......
"In later life he (the addict) finds that real happiness is not to be
found in just trying to be a number one man, or even a first-rater in
the heartbreaking struggle for money, romance, or self-importance. He
learns that he can be content as long as he plays well whatever cards
life deal him. He's still ambitious, but not absurdly so, because he
can now see and accept actual reality. He is willing to stay right
size."
End of quote.
I find VS to be a very important state of mind to be in. It shows
which direction a person is pointed in with their life. The same way
an addiction has 3 roads to go down, so it goes with VS. An addict can
be expanding their addiction, freezing their addiction or reducing
their addiction. A person suffering from an overly stressed or
complicated life can be expanding the complications, freezing the
complications or reducing the complications.
Thoreau says that we need food, shelter, fuel and clothes as
necessities. In modern times, I will add transportation to the list
depending on your local. Everything else is pretty much optional. If
we have these needs met and are not happy, then their is no end to our
supposed needs for that elusive state of happiness that we seek. We
all seem to have no shortage of supposed needs or wants as complexity
addicts. We only want to go in one direction...more.
Life does not go in one direction no matter how wealthy you are, life
is always up and down. My goal in life prior to joining the VS
movement was to get rich and buy anything I wanted to. My goal now is
to live within my means, comfortably fit within my space and
gratefully accept my current position in life. VS has contributed to
this recovery and continues to do so each day. I make it a practice to
wake up with VS, eat lunch with VS and to go to bed with VS the same
way I do with my 12 step program work and without this constant
awareness of how daily decisions affect my VS or 12 Step program, I'd
be back on the road to my prior sick life.
Do not confuse VS with the misnomer of 'Voluntary Poverty' VS is not
about living low, it is about making choices and balanced living.
You get out what you put in with VS. If you do not cut back enough on
the complexities that rob you of living life, then all you have is
your same complex life back that you started with. If you cut out too
many complexities and are unhappy or bored, don't worry, you can
always add them back. We suffer from no shortage of stress and
complexities of living, especially if you have a family. Life gives us
plenty of problems for free. You can even trade the complexities that
offer no reward other than more problems for new complexities that
offer rich rewards or good feelings.
For instance, I gave up some of my computer compulsion time and put
that time into yoga class and meditation. I started with VS in 1996
by canceling some subscriptions to 5 business newspapers and magazines
and pulled out about 50-60 rosebushes that we could not care for.
After that, I saw the beneficial results and kept at it, questioning
everything and experimenting with which complexities could be removed
and which needed to stay in order to live a balanced life.
We make what we want of VS, there are no rules other than if you do
not do enough you do not get any results. There are no VS police to
boss you around and tell you what is right or wrong. We have to decide
this for ourselves as individuals. As I have said before, the program
is the final judge of your success, not you, not me, not anyone else.
A lady wrote in asking if she could be into VS and still have a gold
chain? Yes, we can have a gold chain, we can even have 10 gold chains
if we please. Can a person have 100 gold chains and still be into VS?
No, I could not say with a straight face I was into VS and own 100
gold chains. But, the person that has scaled back from owning 1000
gold chains could definitely say they have applied VS to their
lifestyle by cutting back from 1000 to 100 gold chains.
It is all relative and all up to us and what we wish to derive from
our efforts at simplicity.
Another fellow posted how he wanted a canoe, but his wife said he
could not have one and be a VS devotee. It is not up to others to tell
us what we can have - our recovery or VS program will tell us. If the
canoe would comfortably fit within a financial budget, and a person
has the comfortable space required to store it and the object does not
cause a person any undue harm or problems such as maintenance that
they cannot upkeep, legal problems or rob them of time they cannot
afford to give, I see no problem in having it.
A person wrote me and asked, "Is writing your long 5 page post really
simple living? " My response was, "Yes, writing 5 pages or even 5000
pages is vastly superior to living the old, sick life that I used to
live." Critics are all around us and work to tear down programs
instead of building them up. Either our efforts at simplicity or
recovery will promote our peace or destroy our peace - so put peace
first. Always listen to your recovery program instead of the critics -
it has the final say.
Below are some definitions of VS from the book The Circle of
Simplicity ~ Andrews.
"For me, voluntary simplicity is living consciously, trying to
eliminate the unnecessary, the superficial clutter. It is trying to
live morally and ethically in the global economy by using less."
"I think that voluntary simplicity as living on purpose, making sure I
have the time to do the things I want to do, not wishing my time
away."
"I think voluntary simplicity is being true to yourself, true to the
environment. It's finding that place for every facet of my life and
defining how much is enough. For me it is spiritual."
"It's choosing to enhance one's life by surrounding yourself with what
really brings you fulfillment. It is defining my own standard of
success and prosperity, community and fun."
"Voluntary simplicity is balancing the realities of my life (limited
economics, time and energy) with my values and implementing them into
a lifestyle that is comfortable and rewarding. I think voluntary
simplicity is an "art of living." I believe it is an art to live, to
be true to yourself and to be open to innovation."
An in-depth discussion and clarification of the term "Voluntary
Simplicity" by Philip Slater
All personal solutions to wealth addiction involve one form or another
of what has come to be called Voluntary Simplicity. This doesn't not
necessarily mean going "back to nature" and does not mean living in
poverty and discomfort, although some people may elect forms of
simplicity that would be highly uncomfortable for the rest of us.
Above all, it does not mean forcing yourself to give up something you
really enjoy, out of some pious conviction that it's the "right thing
to do." Voluntary Simplicity merely means trying to rid one's life as
much as possible of material clutter so as to concentrate on more
important things: creativity, human survival and development,
community well-being, play.
The key word in Voluntary Simplicity is "voluntary," which means that
the giving up of the material clutter is not coerced either from the
outside or from the inside. As Andre Vanden Broeck observers, only
those who have experienced affluence are in a position to have a
"choice divorced from need." The poor aren't in a position to make
such a choice-they are stuck with a scarcity that is neither simple
nor voluntary.
Nor is Voluntary Simplicity coerced from within, for to deprive
yourself out of some ideological conviction is merely to feed the Ego
Mafia. The word "simplicity" may have overtones that arouse our
suspicions: a vaguely puritan ring, conjuring up images of drab
smocks, self-righteousness and flagellation. But if this is in the
spirit in which Voluntary Simplicity is embraced the result will most
certainly be noxious.
There is an old Zen story about two monks traveling together who
encounter a nude woman trying to cross a stream. One of them carries
her across, much to the consternation of the other. They continue in
silence for a couple of hours until the second monk can stand it no
longer. "How," he asks "could you expose yourself to such temptation?"
The first monk replies, "I put her down two hours ago. You're still
carrying her."
Addiction is internal; if you experiment sincerely with Voluntary
Simplicity and find yourself still thinking of money and possessions,
your simplicity is a fraud and you might just as well go back to
pursuing wealth until you've had your fill of it. To achieve its goal,
Voluntary simplicity must be undertaken in the spirit, not of
Puritanism or self-flagellation, but out of adventure. All adventurers
throughout history have, after all, been people who abandoned
comforts, possessions, love and security to seek new experiences in
faraway places.
Richard Gregg, who coined the term in 1936, once complained to Gandhi
that while he had no trouble giving up most things, he could not let
go of his books. Gandhi told he shouldn't try: "As long as you derive
inner help and comfort from anything, you should keep it." He pointed
out that if you give things up out of a sense of duty or self-
sacrifice they continue to preoccupy you and clutter your mind. To
talk of "denying oneself" is to use the language of despotism.
Simplicity is an affirmation, not a denial of oneself.
End of quote
It is always nice to have our own work confirmed by others that have
gone before us as well as those that follow us. Many years ago I
coined the phrase "Everything you own takes a little piece ~ peace of
you." A couple years ago I came across Richard Gregg's original work
on Voluntary Simplicity penned in 1936 and this is what he said on the
subject of peace disturbance or as he termed it "SIMPLICITY A KIND OF
PSYCHOLOGICAL HYGIENE".
Taken from the original work:
Pendle Hill Essays Number Three
THE VALUE OF VOLUNTARY SIMPLICITY
RICHARD B. GREGG
Acting Director of Pendle Hill 1935-36
Chapter X. SIMPLICITY A KIND OF PSYCHOLOGICAL HYGIENE
There is one further value to simplicity. It may be regarded as a
mode of psychological hygiene. Just as eating too much is harmful to
the body, even though the quality of all the food eaten is excellent,
so it seems that there may be a limit to the number of things or the
amount of property which a person may own and yet keep himself
psychologically healthy. The possession of many things and of great
wealth creates so many possible choices and decisions to be made every
day that it becomes a nervous strain.
Often the choices have to be narrow. The Russian physiologist, Pavlov,
while doing experiments on conditioned reflexes with dogs, presented
one dog with the necessity of making many choices involving fine
discriminations, and the dog actually had a nervous breakdown and had
to be sent away for six months' rest before he became normal again.
Subsequently, American psychologists, by similar methods, produced
neuroses in sheep by requiring many repetitions of mere inhibition and
action; and as inhibition is an element in all choices, they believe
it was that element which may have caused the neurosis in Pavlov's
dog. Of course, people are more highly organized than dogs and are
easily able to weigh more possibilities and endure more inhibitions
and make more choices and nice distinctions without strain, but
nevertheless making decisions is work and can be overdone.
I'll leave you with a snip of wisdom from Thoreau from his book
Walden.
"The twelve labors of Hercules were trifling in comparison with those
which my neighbors have undertaken; for they were only twelve, and had
an end; but I could never see that these men slew or captured any
monster or finished any labor. They had no friend Iolaus to burn with
a hot iron the root of hydra's head, but as soon as one head is
crushed, two spring up."
Also see:
http://www.simpleliving.net/forums/
Take care,
V (Male)
Agnostic Freethinker
Practical Philosopher
AA#2
