Robert Neunteufel wrote:
>
> In Europe we hear a lot about the long lasting economic boom and the
> success in job creation in the USA.
> On the other hand we hear about the success of bestsellers like Your
> Money or Your Life or the simple living movement.
>
> I'd like to ask the members of this list how they see the interrelations
> and / or contradictions between the economic boom and the simple living
> movement.
>
> With best wishes from Austria / Europe,
>
> Robert Neunteufel
Having grown up in a milieu in which I
was supposed to be "altruistic" (i.e.,
to satisfy the ambient adults' selfishness
which they called selflessness, by
doing things which they liked but
which I did not like), I am generally
as suspicious of "virtue" as I am of vice.
The self-styled "simple living"
movement is one of those things of
which I am a priori suspicious. I
certainly would not deny that there are
probably some persons who live
under that banner who are genuinely
decent (etc.). But as far as
the movement as a whole is concerned,
I would like to see how well
these simple livers would like to
live in a world in which there
was only their own kind, and no
high technology system to
covertly help them live out their ideas.
I once read that one of the
reasons that vegetarians do not suffer
from nutritional deficiencies
is because of the minute bits of
meat: dead insect parts, which
they unwittingly eat in their vegetables.
As the late architect Louis Kahn
beautifully put it: The city is
the place of availabilities. It is the
place where persons pursue interests
and refine their skills
beyond the necessities of survival. It is
the place where a young
boy, as he looks around from the work
of one master craftsman
to another, may discover something he *wants*
to do his whole life.
In the "simple life" -- the world of the
peasants who lynched Martin Guerre,
and whose besotted bodies litter
Breughel's paintings (my
prejudices are showing, n'est pas?) --
there is no "high culture",
no rigorous science (neither the
Galilean nor the Husserlean
kind)... -- and maybe that's precisely
what some of the "simple livers"
want [i.e., want to deny *me* and you
the opportunity to have].
We know that some of the simple livers
believe that of all the
species on earth, it is OK for lions to eat
gazelles, and for orcas to eat
penguins, etc. --> but it is not
OK for humans to -- exist.
Gandhi is one good exmple here: As a
lawyer, he had the freedom to live rich or
poor or whatever. He *chose* "voluntary simplicity":
and he also chose it for his family, who
*did not* like it.
Sorry, but this kind of stuff is
one of my "pet peeves".
\brad mccormick
--
Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thes 5:21)
Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED]
914.238.0788 / 27 Poillon Rd, Chappaqua, NY 10514-3403 USA
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