Voluntary Simplicity

Thursday, November 30, 2006

I don't know if anyone will come upon this, but in the chance that there may be a few who do, I thought I'd post a few thoughts.

By Duane Elgin, from Voluntary Simplicity and the New Global Challenge
To live more voluntarily is to live more deliberately, intentionally, and purposefully - in short, it is to live more consciously. We cannot be deliberate when we are distracted from life. We cannot be intentional when we are not being present. Therefore, to act in a voluntary manner is to be aware of ourselves as we move through life. This requires that we not only pay attention to the actions we take in the outer world, but also that we pay attention to ourselves acting - our inner world. To the extent that we do not notice both inner and outer aspects of our passage through life, then our capacity for voluntary, deliberate, and purposeful action is commensurately diminished.

To live more simply is to live more purposefully and with a minimum of needless distraction. The particular expression of simplicity is a personal manner. We each know where our lives are unnecessarily complicated. We are all painfully aware of the clutter and pretense that weigh upon us and make our passage through the world more cumbersome and awkward. To live more simply is to unburden ourselves - to live more lightly, cleanly, aerohynamically. It is to establish a more direct, unpretentious, and unencumbered relationship with all aspects of our lives: the thing that we consumer, the work that we do, our relationships with others, our connections with nature and the cosmos, and more. Simplicity of living means meeting life face-to-face. It means confronting life clearly, without unnecessary distractions. It means being direct and honest in relationships of all kinds. It means taking life as it is - straight and unadulterated.


There is a culture of consumerism that has been cultivated in our society. There is industry built around reaching citizens as consumers, perpetuating a market environment, where systems of advertising, marketing and media become hegemonic tools to socialize the buying power. We are in an age of hyper-consumerism, and our choices of consumption in our system are having severe and real ramifications on the environment, the global community, and our individual well being. It often becomes challenging to see hope for change or to see possibility of experiencing life outside of the environment of consumerism that is saturated around us. So, I thought I would post some of Elgin's thoughts, for he offers a challenge to make choices that are in opposition to our experience of consumer society, and I think there is value in mulling this stuff over. I have the whole article if anyone is interested in reading it. I thought it was pretty great, so you could email me if you are interested. (jillianwong@gmail.com)



1 Comments:

Blogger Todd Camplin said...

Isn't our world systems beautiful?

12:47 a.m.  

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