according to duane elgin, what obligation do we all share?

Voluntary Simplicity: "Listening to the Quiet Revolution" (Thesis Summary)

Who knows how deep I had to dig into "voluntary simplicity" search results to notice Katie Barton's 89-page college thesis in October 2016.

It was an eye-opening quantum for me personally when I read it back so. I thought it was then skillful that I read it again in full this week.

After all, who wouldn't want less: work, stress, rushing, wants/desires, consumerism/consumption, spending/debt, competition, ecological footprint…

And more: time, significant, intention, balance, happiness/satisfaction, slowness/pace, fulfilling experiences, relationships with family/friends, creativity, holistic health, spiritual growth, cooperation/connexion, conservation/lower-impact living, and quality of life.

This post highlights fundamental takeaways and direct quotes from her thesis. I've taken the freedom to add emphasis (in bold) and organize the content into various sections.

You can find her total thesis hither with the ability to download information technology as a PDF: "Listening to the Quiet Revolution: The Implications of Voluntary Simplicity for a Sustainable Social club"

I've been unable to find any follow-up content from Ms. Barton. Only, if I e'er get the chance or if she reads this, I would like to thank her for writing her thesis on voluntary simplicity!

What is voluntary simplicity?

• "(Duane) Elgin popularized the term 'voluntary simplicity,' — which pacifist Richard Gregg had coined in 1936 — as a characterization of the modernistic simplicity movement. To live voluntarily, Elgin explains, is to live conscientiously and deliberately, and to alive more than simply is to unencumber oneself in all aspects of life in gild to '(meet) life face to face.' In short, voluntary simplicity is 'outwardly more simple and inwardly more rich.'"
• "We define voluntary simplicity equally the degree to which an private consciously chooses a way of life intended to maximize the individual's control over his/her ain life… Individuals relatively high in voluntary simplicity seek to minimize their dependency on institutions they cannot control (such as authorities, oil companies, and large agribusiness food companies) and to maximize their harmony with nature." — Dorothy Leonard-Barton and Everett 1000. Rogers

If yous just read a little more, hither'due south the gist of voluntary simplicity:

• "Voluntary simplicity is not a return to a primitive manner of life, just rather growth in a dissimilar direction — ane that is personal and deeply fulfilling rather than fabric."
• "Substantially, voluntary simplicity is the ideology that 'we tin can work less, want less, and spend less, and be happier in the procedure.'"
• "Voluntary simplifiers refuse the ideal of consumerism: the notion that the acquisition of more textile appurtenances will make our lives better. Instead, they work less and focus on truly fulfilling experiences, such every bit relationships with family and friends, creating things, and the tillage of holistic health. The goal of voluntary simplicity is not self-denial or thrift — on the contrary, voluntary simplifiers believe they are genuinely happier living with less."
• "This finding is central: voluntary simplicity is not a move of altruism or self-sacrifice. Therefore, as many adherents have found, despite entailing fewer cloth possessions, voluntary simplicity can exist in other ways superior to a lifestyle of consumption. This may mean that in contrast to downshifting and other shallow forms of simplicity, voluntary simplicity offers not but a lower ecological footprint, but besides deeper satisfaction."
• "It presents a vision of a cooperative society that consumes less, is truly happier, and exists in balance with the surroundings."
• "Simplicity came into its own equally a distinct philosophy that could on its own meliorate people'south quality of life."
• "This philosophy is cardinal to the promise voluntary simplifiers hold for a time to come sustainable society. In Elgin's words, 'They are persons who stand up with a foot in two worlds — with ane foot in an unraveling industrial civilization and another foot in a newly arising postindustrial civilization. These are the 'in-betweeners' — people who are bridging two worlds and making the transition from one dominant style of living to another.'"
• "Every bit Elgin writes, 'Instead of a 'dorsum to the land' movement, it is much more authentic to describe this as a 'make the near of wherever you are' motion.' Voluntary simplifiers are undertaking lifestyle changes in all sorts of communities."
• "Voluntary simplifiers may restructure their fourth dimension so that they work less and have more than time for cultivating relationships, do-it-yourself projects, and lower-touch living."
• "The values support each other in a complete philosophy that favors slowing downwardly, which facilitates increasingly localized acquisition of goods — with the ultimate local being the domicile and the self."
• "Andrews characterizes voluntary simplifiers as those who 'slow down and enjoy life over again' past reducing their rushing, working, and spending. Near are concerned most the environment and are searching for more time and more meaning in their lives."
• "Conscious simplicity… represents a deep, graceful, and sophisticated transformation in our ways of living — the work we do, the transportation nosotros use, the homes and neighborhoods in which nosotros live, the food we consume, the clothes we wear, and much more. A sophisticated and graceful simplicity seeks to heal our relationship with the Earth, with one another, and with the sacred universe." — Duane Elgin

What is the history of voluntary simplicity?

• "The trajectory of simplicity in the United States has followed a long history, from aboriginal wisdom, to early on American thinkers, to the voluntary simplifiers who abandon the 'rat race' of work and consumption in order to pursue something meliorate."
• "The Eastern teachings of Zarathustra, Buddha, Lao-Tse, and Confucius, which emphasize material self-control, specially influenced Henry David Thoreau and the counterculture of the 1960s. Even so, co-ordinate to Shi, 'The about important historical influence on American simplicity has been the combined heritage of Greco-Roman civilization and Judeo-Christian ethics.'"
• "Moral skepticism toward captivation by material wealth can be traced back to Ancient Greek wisdom. Socrates advocated a 'golden hateful betwixt poverty and wealth' and considered virtue, not wealth, the measure of a person'due south merit."
• "The Socratic platonic of a middle road betwixt sufficiency and excess appears in Proverbs: 'Give me neither poverty nor wealth, but only enough.' Jesus was a radical in his rejection of cloth culture, pedagogy that undue esteem for material wealth opposed devotion to humankind and God."
• "In the 18th century, republican intellectuals envisioned an ideal society as primarily agrarian and grounded in the values of hard work, frugality, simplicity, enlightened thinking, and public skilful."

What'due south going on today? Over-consumption, busyness, and the ecological crisis:

• "I've also learned that this club'southward insatiable level of consumption is incompatible with a healthy planet. Every consumer good — from flowers to cell phones to houses — creates an environmental footprint at all stages from resource extraction to disposal."
• "The reality is that Americans and those who swallow at similar levels are responsible for a grossly disproportionate share of the earth's environmental woes: the wealthiest 25 percent of the world'southward population consumes about 85 pct of the planet'southward resources and produces almost 90 percent of its waste product."
• "In truth, feelings of relaxation during screen fourth dimension, followed by feelings of dissatisfaction and regret after the TV is off, are parallel in many ways to the high and low feelings addicts experience."
• "In the early 1990s, the recession produced disillusionments with the cycle of work-and-spend: many workers were laid off, and those who kept their jobs were responsible for more tasks. Then, as the economy 'kicked into high gear,' employers demanded employees spend more time at work. On top of this, every bit Maniates notes, 'the proliferation of personal computers, abode fax machines, pocket pagers, and the overall rising in 'home offices' meant that Americans were spending more time on the chore as well, fifty-fifty when they were non… in the function. The result: overwork, stress, data overload, and growing doubts most the benefits of running the 'rat race.'"
• "Increasing levels of work and consumption did not make people happier, leading many to question the consumer lifestyle."
• "The United states as a whole has surpassed the point at which increasing wealth makes united states happier."
• "The human being race is pushing the earth by its capacity to support us — and probably to back up anything resembling life as information technology has been for the past 10,000 years."
• "In a 2009 article featured in Nature, scientists conclude that we have already exceeded the boundaries of a 'safe operating space for humanity' in the realms of biodiversity loss, climate change, and alteration of the nitrogen cycle."
• "I have an extraordinary love for the earth, and I reject the Judeo-Christian tradition that it exists for the sole purpose of human exploitation. In sum, I don't remember humans are the simply species with an intrinsic right to be. It is of import to note that this belief is not anti-human — the exploitation of the world is besides the story of the exploitation of swain humans; thus, the quest for a healthy environs is also the quest for a merely man society."

All of these combine to create tension in social club:

• "I had the notion that what American culture tells us to overlook is exactly where we should be looking; that maybe the holiness of the consumer lifestyle was worth reevaluating. I decided that I would dedicate my life, in some form, to the fight against this culture of mindless consumption."
• "In order to fully realize the ecological benefits of reduced consumption, it is necessary to completely overhaul textile culture."
• "Voluntary simplicity shifts the focus of gild from one based on contest and an endless search for more, to i based on deeper fulfillment through less."
• "According to Elgin, the industrial era view focuses on money and material appurtenances as sources of happiness and identity. It favors the exploitation of nature, competition, selfishness, and personal autonomy."
• "In contrast, the 'ecological-era view' — one conjured by the harmonious and purposeful voluntary simplifiers — emphasizes conservation, frugality, creativity, residual, cooperation, fairness, responsibility, and connection of the private with the whole of the planet and humankind."
• "This is the cadre of voluntary simplicity. We are trying to discover a mode to live that helps us become fully alive. We are trying to discover and remove the things that are wearisome, that cause us to escape to drugs and to shopping and to goggle box, all the things that numb united states of america and put united states to sleep." — Cecile Andrews
• "The nigh consistently voiced reason for interest in voluntary simplicity was the felt demand to 'go my life back'… The enduring theme of the meeting was that every bit currently organized, work and shopping — product and consumption, in other words — are not organized to meet the total range of human needs." — Michael Maniates
• "Maniates argues that voluntary simplicity is a response to the stressful culture of piece of work and spend, rather than a quest for spiritual awakening or ecological harmony."
• "Zavestoski's perspective on the role of environmental values farther develops this thought: he finds that while many respondents were aware of the 'burden of their consumption habits on the environs… It was non until they experienced a crisis of existence that these individuals began to explore alternatives to consumption.'"
• "According to Zavestoski, labor and production in a backer economy fail to meet people's needs of self-creation, and they turn instead to consumption for fulfillment. However, consumption tin simply meet the needs of self-esteem (prestige through symbolic status consumption) and self-efficacy (meeting goals through consumption). Consumption is non a valid means of creating an "accurate self" — that is, being truthful to one's identity and values. Zavestoski concludes that people are drawn toward anti-consumption attitudes due to a failure to realize their authentic selves through consumption."
• "Voluntary simplifiers are disillusioned with waged piece of work and affluence. They have issue with many aspects of the prevalent culture, especially its accent on domination and competition, consumption every bit a measure of worth, traditional gender roles, and ecology destruction." — Grigsby
• "Voluntary simplicity (is) an deed of self-defense force against the listen-polluting furnishings of over-consumption. To alive in North American guild is to exist, in one fashion or some other, under attack. We are flooded every day with countless 'messages'… near of which have to do with consuming things or services. The language of our economical organisation is the language of discontent." — Burch

Moving forward — balance and de-growth:

• "One must remember that the longing for higher satisfaction is nowadays in all human beings."
• "I'k not making the naïve and deluded claim that my life would be better as a nomad of prehistory."
• "Like simplicity writer Mark Burch, I wonder 'if true wellness might lie somewhere between the rigors of a hunting and gathering lifestyle and breathing the canned air in the drinking glass-walled cells of our high-rise urban prisons.'"
• "The steady presence of the voluntary simplicity movement over the course of 40 years may be due to its successful balancing of the hierarchy of needs."
• "Oikonomia, or the art of living well, is simplified in the voluntarily simple squatter settlements: 'Time is the central oikonomic end.'"
• "I'one thousand disillusioned with the idea that reforming our growth-based organization will gain us any environmental ground."
• "The mainstream environmental motion'south focus on pocket-size consumer choices — what Voluntary Simplicity'southward Duane Elgin terms 'light-green lipstick on our unsustainable lives.'"
• "What matters is absolute free energy consumption, which will but decrease with a careful modify of mindset."
• "The growth-oriented economy and the over-consumption it facilitates are overtaxing the planet's resources without increasing the overall satisfaction of those who over-swallow."
• "Voluntary simplicity targets per-capita consumption, while de-growth focuses on the total consumption pattern of a society."
• "In the words of de-growth scholar Serge Latouche, a degrowth lodge is 'built on quality rather than on quantity, on cooperation rather than on competition (…) humanity liberated from economism for which social justice is the objective. (…) The motto of de-growth aims primarily at pointing the insane objective of growth for growth.'"
• "In a sort of positive feedback loop, voluntary simplicity and de-growth will both feed and be fed past a revolution in fourth dimension use."
• "Voluntary simplicity has the power to modify the collective imagination of lodge every bit a whole in favor of de-growth."
• "A spirit of unity in the fight for humanity'southward mutual time to come."

This was a long one! Please share your thoughts to start a constructive discussion in the comments.

Also, check out the following posts if you liked this ane:

• "So what?" The Story of the Tourist and the Fisherman
• Use Minimalism equally Momentum into Slow & Unproblematic Living
• Slow Lifestyle Design: One Pixel (Twenty-four hours) at a Fourth dimension
• Slow Hack 004: You Have a Choice
• Experiences vs Things: A Thought Experiment on Spending Money

Originally published at Sloww .

broughblithical1978.blogspot.com

Source: https://medium.com/@slowwco/voluntary-simplicity-listening-to-the-quiet-revolution-thesis-summary-e33466b6e7f7

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