PowerSwitch

Radical Simplicity and the Middle-Class – Exploring the Lifestyle Implications of a ‘Great Disruption’

How would the ordinary middle-class consumer – I should say middle-class citizen – deal with a lifestyle of radical simplicity? By radical simplicity I essentially mean a very low but biophysically sufficient material standard of living, a form of life that will be described in more detail below. In this essay I want to suggest that radical simplicity would not be as bad as it might first seem, provided we were ready for it and wisely negotiated its arrival, both as individuals and as communities. Indeed, I am tempted to suggest that radical simplicity is exactly what consumer cultures need to shake themselves awake from their comfortable slumber; that radical simplicity would be in our own, immediate, self-interests. In this essay, however, I will only defend the more modest thesis that radical simplicity simply would not be that bad. Establishing that thesis should be challenging enough.

http://permaculturenews.org/2012/09/28/ ... disruption

Many thanks for linking that: a very good read.

As long as it's a slow progression and managed properly, I realy think most people would welcome increased simplicity. 15 years ago, most people didn't have internet or mobile phones etc.

The middle classes will prolly just keep doing what they have been doing for the last 15 years, exchanging Chelsea post codes for Shire post codes, fitting wood burning/ pellet burning multi fuel cookers and fires to their idylic piles, whacking in ground source heat pumps and PV arrays, encouraging Gemima and Fillipa to start keeping rare breed pigs, mini goats, chooks and bunnies whilst Nigel starts doing his version of Hugh Fernley Wittingstall. Toodles to the BMw and Audi and welcome to the 110 and Disco.

They have the money to make the transition to the simpler more self contained lifestyle easier, and besides most of em already had a place in the country for weekends.

White flight is a growing phenomina which would be more aptly called middle class flight.

NR, rarely have I seen more chips-on-a-shoulder displayed in one post. Powerswitch is a broad church and one with a richness of opinion, but it would be richer if you'd engage with the topics rather than rehearsing your own resentments. Feedback offered constructively and hopefully, as I am sure you have a lot to contribute.

Thanks for the link, John, I shall read this evening and contribute.

featherstick wrote:NR, rarely have I seen more chips-on-a-shoulder displayed in one post. Powerswitch is a broad church and one with a richness of opinion, but it would be richer if you'd engage with the topics rather than rehearsing your own resentments. Feedback offered constructively and hopefully, as I am sure you have a lot to contribute.

Thanks for the link, John, I shall read this evening and contribute.

Apologies it was meant tongue in cheek I had no intent to offend, but its not fare from the mark opinion of what is indeed happening, the middle classes are moving out in ever increasing numbers, they are swapping suburbia for the shires and they are getting in touch with their roots. Sales of wood burning stoves and fires / boilers etc is thriving, our local company has two teams of installers working 7 days a week. Plots suitable for small holdings are being snapped up, and established small holdings getting expensive. A colleagues wife is an Estate Agent in Exeter and she reports that less middle englanders are buying weekend retreats and more are seeking to move out permenantly with many wanting or willing to work for less money than they get in London so long as they can work from home, or a regional office. Indeed my own background I suppose is lower middle class and we got the hell out of town 7 years ago for exactly the reasons cited. Again apologies for causing offence.
NR

Oof forgot to mention I recently had a good long chat with the regional manager and a store manger of a large northern kitchenware company, they mentioned sales of Dehydrators, Mason Jars, Large stainless Jam making urns etc were selling like mad and they are trying to source a decent supplier of pressure canning equipment so popular in the US, and it is to be honest they say the middle classes and rural lasses who want the kit ??

It is a mathematical fact that, in order to "downsize", one has to have something larger to downsize from. And in order to simplify, one's life has initially to be relatively complex in the first place.

I read PermacultureMag and it's great, but it does rather assume that you already have your own land (even if it's just a garden).

One topic not covered at all in all this, and the one that really defines the middle class, is education. We (I am middle class without any doubt) would in a way have to redefine ourselves, learning (and if we can, teaching) practical and cultural skills on a local basis, instead of faffing about with university and student debt.

RenewableCandy wrote:It is a mathematical fact that, in order to "downsize", one has to have something larger to downsize from. And in order to simplify, one's life has initially to be relatively complex in the first place.

I read PermacultureMag and it's great, but it does rather assume that you already have your own land (even if it's just a garden).

One topic not covered at all in all this, and the one that really defines the middle class, is education. We (I am middle class without any doubt) would in a way have to redefine ourselves, learning (and if we can, teaching) practical and cultural skills on a local basis, instead of faffing about with university and student debt.

I agree most of the wonderful people i have met in the Transition town network and local food groups, and sus community groups have in the main had a good level of education, indeed many of them appear to be durham uni alumi as well and future changers.

It's all in Lean Logic - A Dictionary for the Future and How to Survive It

How can they write such a long article about "what next" without talking about the critical role of land in this process of transformation -- and how access to land will be the critical part of who can sustain their lifestyle versus those who will enter various levels of shanty dependency around urban centres (which we see already in the developing world today) when the "great dislocation" kicks off?

I was expecting a bit more than he actually wrote, but if it it helps to move some people in the right direction, it's a start.

The author does little to disguise his longing for the 'Great Disruption'.

Does anyone know anything about Dr Samuel Alexander?

I'm afraid I didn't like the article at all. Maybe it was something about the writing style; very academic and "professorial" in my opinion. I didn't like the way the author couched the whole discussion in terms of an intellectual "thought experiment" either. These are "here and now" issues, describing the way many millions of people already live. I just thought it had a "Wouldn't it be quaint to live like the natives." air to it.

Maybe I fit into his "pessimist" category, but I think the term "Radical Simplicity" is probably a misrepresentation. Life as he describes it would be anything but simple. We occasionally take the Scouts on traditional week-long patrol camps. The format is that a patrol of around 6 scouts completely caters for themselves, sharing a tent, preparing their own food, making the tripods to cook on, lighting the fire to cook on, digging and maintaining a latrine, etc, etc. They're the easiest camps to run because, basically, their entire time is taken up just living. We never have to chase them into bed at night or quieten them down after lights-out. They're just exhausted and fall into bed. (They love it, by the way!)

I agree very strongly with his contention that the "radical simplicity" lifestyle will be an improvement overall, and certainly a necessity, but I think he is underestimating the price people will have to pay for adopting it.

But...Thanks, JohnB for posting. It was definitely an interesting read and contributes usefully to the discussion.

mobbsey wrote:How can they write such a long article about "what next" without talking about the critical role of land in this process of transformation -- and how access to land will be the critical part of who can sustain their lifestyle versus those who will enter various levels of shanty dependency around urban centres (which we see already in the developing world today) when the "great dislocation" kicks off?

Beats me. I'm not the sharpest tool in the box but this is so obvious to me that I can't imagine how it was accidentaly ovelooked.

mobbsey wrote:How can they write such a long article about "what next" without talking about the critical role of land in this process of transformation -- and how access to land will be the critical part of who can sustain their lifestyle versus those who will enter various levels of shanty dependency around urban centres (which we see already in the developing world today) when the "great dislocation" kicks off?

Yet there's a picture of a 1930s Hooverville at the top of the article.