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Guest Post: A Radically Simple Life
Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog,
Simplicity requires eliminating virtually everything we are "processed" to want and need for personhood, and accepting the intrinsic complexity of meaningful projects.
There are two basic ways to reduce the stress described in yesterday's entry, The Silent Epidemic in a Broken, Deranged System: Stress: simplify one's life and take control of one's life.
The two are not mutually exclusive, of course, but one does not necessarily lead to the other. For example, an unemployed single person who cashes a check from the government and eats fast food has a very simple life. One fellow I knew with this simple life rented a room in a rooming house and spent his time watching films and hanging out with his pals. Life couldn't get much simpler than that.
Did he control his life? Yes, but we would be hard-pressed to declare his adolescent lifestyle positive. To the degree he was dependent and aimless, it could be argued that his control was superficial, since his life was not directed toward any meaningful goals or purpose. He had the same level of control over his life as a teenager on summer break.
We lose control when we become trapped. Being heavily in debt is being trapped; being burdened by too much stuff or too many commitments is also being trapped.
Does the shopaholic debt-serf feel in control? They do when they're shopping--that's part of its appeal. It's the consequences of debt and over-spending that the shopaholic has little control over.
Studies have found that the most stressful occupations are those in which the employee has very little control over the workplace. So changing one's life to extend meaningful control over the consequences of one's choices reduces one primary source of stress.
Increasing one's range of action, i.e. stop being trapped, is one way to increase control over one's life.
A meaningful life is rarely simple. Many hold up a monastic life as simple and meaningful, but even a monastery is a complex enterprise. Someone has to manage the workflow, maintain the buildings and gardens, settle minor disputes, handle donations and so on.
Everything I espouse here is intrinsically complex. Being self-employed, preparing real food, growing your own vegetables and fruit if at all possible, building your own house--each project is time-consuming and requires experience and multiple skills.
It is far easier to drive to a fast-food outlet and get a prepared meal for a few dollars than it is to pull some beets from the ground, clean them, and prepare the leaves and the beets separately. It is much easier to buy a meal at a restaurant than it is to nurture a patch of dirt. (Gardening requires stewardship of the soil--a large topic in itself.)
It's a lot easier to buy a peach than to tend a peach tree. I just spent hours plucking off surplus fruit from our tree--a necessary pruning when hundreds of fruit threaten to overload the tree and produce an abundance of small fruit.
Being self-employed or running a small business requires wearing multiple hats at all times, and being devoted to one's clients and customers regardless of one's state of mind or energy level. To survive, self-employed/entrepreneurs must pursue continual learning. Being self-employed is an endless triage--what won't get done today?
It's quite simple to pursue a life of sloth and torpor, a path of self-destruction honeyed by the appealing aimlessness of permanent adolescence. It is difficult to keep fit, and it also requires self-knowledge, learning and experience.
A meaningful life directed at purposeful goals is inherently complicated. Everything of value takes time, focus, energy and a willingness to adapt and learn. Taking the kids out for a bike ride is a lot more complicated than turning on the TV: the bikes have to be maintained, the kids' helmets have to be securely fastened, and the adult has to be vigilant at all times, scanning for potential dangers and offering guidance without being so heavy-handed that the ride loses its fun.
Is this a simple activity? Only from the outside.
The key point here is the goals can be few and simple, even as the tasks are complicated and contingent. Though we can't simplify inherently complex projects, we can strip away self-destructive pursuits and habits, and simplify the goals we are pursuing.
Since we live in a culture dominated by marketing and double-binds, we often say we're pursuing a goal but our actions and choices run counter to our stated purpose. People claim they want to pursue self-cultivation, for example, but then they indebt themselves so heavily that they do nothing but commute and work a job they dislike: Why People Hate Their Jobs (James Altucher)(via Kenneth D.)
"Someone on quora asked me: why do people hate their jobs? I answered: Note, not everyone hates their jobs. There are some “entre-ployees” out there that love their jobs. But for the other 98% of the population..."
Here is a typical advert for packaged food, which I have adjusted with truthiness:
There are many small things we can do to simplify those mechanics of life that can be simplified: have one credit card instead of seven, for example. Cook a stew or pot of chili that will last a few days so we don't have to cook every night. Stop watching network and cable TV, with their incessant marketing of insecurity and self-destruction. Devote some time to being disconnected and allow your mind to wander, for example, taking a walk without a phone, iPod, etc. Before you start your day, ask if the day's activities serve your short list of goals and your chosen path.
Simplicity isn't necessarily simple to achieve. It requires eliminating virtually everything we are "processed" to want and need for personhood, and accepting the intrinsic complexity of meaningful projects.
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Whenever I get the urge to shop I buy silver or gold to add to my stack.
Buying gold is a double pleasure: spending and saving at he same time!
Timely article. Thanks Chuck.
I tried to shop today but got shut out on an ammo purchase... Only 7mm on the shelf...
pmags and battlemags hitting the shelves routinely now... ammo will only be a matter of time... quite a few steel cased rounds popping up... if we can get more, it should take a little pressure off the brass market. Still waiting on xm855 to get back to its pre-hysteria price level.
Man, the American sheeple don't want to hear this shit! The sheeple want most stuff, they want sexy, they want bigger, they want to be famous (if only on facebook)! The sheeple dont care about finding the simple pleasures in life, or about higher callings, they've got egos to stroke and dicks to measure, don't you know????? My god the fucking bombing sites in Boston and the plant expolsion town in Texas where fucking looted within minutes of the events taken place this week!! Looted by fucking Americans, living near the sites!
American sheeple are the biggest consumer market on the planet earth, and 90% of Americans have less then $2000 in savings, are you fucking serious, downsize and simplify??? Go to Disneyland on a Saturday in July and you tell all those fucking people to relax and take the kids to the park and play freezbe for free, and see how that shit goes over!!!
Dream On Brother, this bitch is a lost cause, dig a bunker and stock that shit with lots of food, ammo, and propane and some boards games and dominos for the kids, because this motherfucker is heading for the cliff, and no amount of logical and rational thought is going to save it now!!! The time for simplifying America was 35 years ago, theres only the "great reset" left for us now!!!
Most logical answer of the day.
Skateboards and tobacco can be good investments too. I can see a day when everyone skateboards around for transportation. It would be a badass planet.
*snaps out of daydream*
Anyone else bumping up their boating plans a few weeks?
EVERY time I buy gold I plan a boating trip.
Love it love it, the lost gold while boating schtick never and I mean never gets old.
I'm sitting in a lake watching my accident as we speak!
LOL! My thoughts exactly. I have not de-winterized the boat yet, guess I know what I am doing tomorrow. I hear the virgin islands are nice this time of year....
New analysis, time worn ideas.
Read Seneca. Not the deepest of pools, but a nice practical guide to going simple.
I think the biggest cause of stress is inflation out-pacing wages. We keep cutting, yet the cutting doesn't keep up with rising prices. It is exceedingly stressful to feel powerless against government sanctioned inflation. After 6 years of cutting, I can't find anything else to cut, except to sell the house, or buy a moped for commuting. Even with whacko terrorists blowing up my community, I fear the gov and FED even more. They are personally bankrupting the citizens of this country. Ben and company are just as evil, if not more so, than the degenerate muslim chechneyans running around Boston.
> ... degenerate muslim chechneyans running around Boston.
Yeah ... I junked ya.
For bein' a useful idiot.
Are you false flag or muslim, just wondering how you deny the news from multiple sources, including their own websites?
Turn off the T.V..........
What TV?
I think he means my neighbor's rather handsome eldest daughter.
If you want to simplify life, then monogomy should be at the top of the list...
...turn off the tv and turn on the wife.
Man.... Don't they make a pill for that?
yes, but make sure she has a mute button, too.
or get noise cancelation ear implants.
h.h. been lurking and displaying my conflicted thoughts (oh well, i can change my outlook as it all moves fwd and backward), but gotta say u and a handfull are the most grounded, down to basics and most likely minmalistic peoples posting...
working my way towards that. couple of real estate sales and one less car and i can call it a success. without the detail, i can say less is more; and more in a quality way - like hearing the natural world and enjoying how it 'really works". 40 acres and cabin could be gonner soon and then primary res. MN too fucking cold... OK, TX maybe(need to do the 3rd road, camping, walking main st. type a trip), farm with as many acres as affordable. will be new except lumber and game, but no sod busting experience. if u read this where did you end up? for me has to be somewhere in central, say s of iowa...
"Cook a stew or pot of chili that will last a few days so we don't have to cook every night."
I tried to buy a pressure cooker and got arrested. :(
It's a conspiracy by the Crockpot Lobby.
[Cue for the perfect comeback line]...
Crockpot? Crackpot? Sorry I got nothing.
Setup: "It's a Crockpot Lobby conspiracy". To get you to switch to their product.
Comeback: What a crock! ;-)
How about a "NATURALLY Simple Life"?
And screw the VoM (Velocity of Money)! Which is 1/2 of the real goal.
The American dream: Spending money you don't have to buy things you don't want to impress people you don't like.
Excessive consumption = debt = corporate and banking profits. No wonder there are so many stimulants in all media for such behaviour.
I own a small business, much harder and more precarious than it was even a couple of years go. Like many I have been paring back spending with the primary goal of becoming mortgage free as fast as possible. It is on track, but only last week I so nearly fell foul of mid life crisis and the need for self gratification / affirmation by buying a Porsche (for cash) - INSANITY.....fortunately with a bit of gentle prodding from my Mrs I realised in time how my conditioning was trying to sabotage my good sense. So the gratification will be sought through other means - another polly tunnel, a bore hole and increased means of self sufficiency. It was close though.
How about using the money you have to buy stuff you need to help people you like.
I, personally, believe that a life of sloth and torper is the highest calling a man can achieve after having the dubious joy of running my own businesses.
Doing or not doing anything you want when you want to is a damn fine way to live.
I wish I had perfected the art 40 years ago.
+ 10 on that. Gotta go now and work on my tan. Oh and I almost forgot to record the rerun of Gilligans Island today .
I'm definitely tired of riding the hamster wheel of modern life. My job use to be fascinating and purposeful. Now I've been reduced to a wage slave. Gosh, to just fling it all away and be free! Be a modern Keruoac and wander around philosophizing. Or may be Diogenes? Does anyone have a lantern and a big jar I can borrow?
Miffed;-)
Rich man, watching Diogenes prepare lentils for his supper:
If you learned to flatter the king you wouldn't have to eat such cheap food.
Diogenes:
If you learned to eat cheap food, you wouldn't have to flatter the king.
What has Diogenes to say concerning cheap whores?
If you learned to eat cheap food, you wouldn't have to flatter the king.
Just made my day. Thanks.
Probably did not give a shit about whores ,he was said to be masturbating in public ...
Every now and then I make comments about cancer research being a front for cancer research fundraising and people look at me like I am crazy. But cancer research fundraising does 2 things that have nothing to do with cancer research; it is an industry that employees a lot of people and has a lot of money and it makes the average person donating time or money "feel" like they are helping. If a cure was ever found, all of that ends, and some pharma company gets to make money from the cure. Very bad for the economy.
The head of the American Cancer Society is not a doctor, scientist or researcher. He is an ex advertising executive.
One of the few things I know empirically is that the vast majority of medical research is a racket.
Wage slave working pipettes all day. Been there, done that. People can't believe I left. But you have a PhD? I wish I was independently wealthy so I could make the jerk off motion in response.
But working pipettes all day is the jerk off motion.
"You don't need a million dollars to do nothing man, hell look at my cousin, he's broke, don't do shit"
I always enjoy the articles from Charles Hugh-Smith. I gave up TV several years ago and while, admittedly, it was hard at first; I no longer miss it and can no longer look at it if I happen to be someplace where it is on. Go without it for a while and you will realize what total garbage it is.
For those that are interested I will give one more suggestion on simplification that I have recenty made: simplify your wardrobe. I donated almost all my clothes to charity. I now have 2 pair slacks, 2 pair jeans, 4 long sleeve shirts and 5 golf style shirts (couple pair gym shorts and tee's for workout). I no longer waste time worrying/wondering what I'll wear. I am finding that the more I simplify my life the more time I have to do the things I enjoy.
Presumably you watch all the fashion shows on the internet now.
Good one! +1
"Two black shirts. One pair black pants. One pair black boots. Two pair black socks. Three hundred dollars personal burial money..."
I learned the Art of Simplification on a 2 1/2 year, 20,000 mile bicycle trip.
Certainly taught me the difference between needing something and wanting something.
Impossible. The global economy is built upon exponential credit fueled consumption. Eliminate the insurance salesmen, the curio shops, the discount stores filled to the brim with shit made in china and half the world would be unemployed. The other alternative...carrying on as usual, will meet the same fate. There is no fix. The whole fucking thing burns to the ground.
Half the world is unemployed now. The whole fucking thing is burning now.
The fog rolled in, descending down the canyon walls. The goats and sheep followed me up the slope through the tangled passage of pinon pine, scrub oak, juniper and mountain mahogany. The dogs padded along on the perimeter noses in the air. Soon the canyon walls disaapeared in the now dense cascading clouds. I wanted to find that rare glade of level ground shaded in the bower of of an ancient juniper. Was this it? I think so. A beautiful spot for an overnight camp. But now, where were the sheep, the goats? Disappeared into the enshrouding mists, I lost track of the bells. I turned round and round and caught sight of just a trace of my boy Cush absorbed in the fog. I followed him over the ridge and down the slope. But soo he too was gone. I wandered obliviously completly bereft of bearings until I saw Chaco emerging from a curtain of mist and pine. "Where are the goats, Chaco?" He crouched and whined and looked off down the slope. "Are they down there? GO to your goats!" He bounded up and loped down the slope. Soon I could discern the clanking of the bells. There was the herd, grazing placidly on the precipice of the cliff overlooking Tabbert's camp hundreds of feet below. That afternoon it began snowing and before dawn there was over a foot of new snow.
wonderful read!
thanks CHS
i myself, try to practice what you preach...
when i find myself stress'd, i literally 'shut down'-- don't laugh folks, it works!
erase the mind of all negativity as if it never existed, period!
again,
thankyou CHS :-))
My book "Debt Hope: Down and Dirty Survival Strategies" provides some simplification for people caught up in seemingly-intractible debt:
http://www.amazon.com/Debt-Hope-dirty-survival-strategies/dp/1907498524
OT- PM beatdown commencing.
When gold hits $300 I'm buying a bigger boat!
We're going to have to learn to live here and be happy with less...
Just to survive...
The faster the U.S. learns to live with less oil consumption, the better off all will be. That will happen...but probably not by choice.
We should have listened to Jimmy Carter when we had the chance.But we thought he was a dummy. It's amazing how much he has smartened up since 1980.
Divorce nagging wife: check
Sell house for a nice profit: check
Sell business: check
Get rid of unwanted crap: check
Buy land: check
Become a vegetarian: check
Turn off TV: check
Read more: check
Stack: check
Enjoy life, travel, go hiking, camping, ride motorcycle: check
Do what I want to do: check
Life is good
Sans the divorce part you just wrote my story. My wife and I bought mountain bikes and we ride everywhere. I've personally lost 35 pounds the past 8 years since going Galt...
Blood pressure, sugar, cholesterol.... I've regained my youth growing my own food and riding my bike.
They would have to pay me a whole lot of money to go back...I found happiness here.
Whatever I learn to make and sell WTSHTF, I'm gonna stamp it with the letters "Z. H.". Some people will get it.
Sounds like a plan. I am going to disconnect right n
In my 60s now, I tuned out when America elected Reagan as President. I'm conservative and in retrospect I think he was a great President but I decided when the American people elected a B movie actor as their leader, it was time to unplug. Since 1980, I've rejected popular culture and predicated my life on taking everything to its lowest common denominator. All in all, it's been a pretty satisfying life. I wish all of you a good life as well.
Nothing tastes better than a meal you prepared yourself from stuff you grew yourself. Even if it is not for the actual taste, it is for the taste of your own independence and self-sufficiency.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau argued centuries ago that life's real purpose is to be idle. Get it?
Yep he was way ahead of the curve when it comes to the ' FUCK IT ' button.
I went Galt early last year. Quit my job, paid off all debt and now I'm raising chickens and goats having the time of my life. My biggest concern now is should I play golf or go hunt some pigs.
I'm in the process of buying a food processing facility that I'll be able to run off grid. I produce my own electricity, water is abundant, the ammo/gun safe is full as is the pantry. I'm as liquid as can be. Nothing is in a brokerage account anywhere.
I'm hedging that TPTB will continue to be full of fuck. Our life is simple now. The transition to shit will be easier.
Good for you! Congrats.
Need a ranch/grower hand where you are...I'm about to get disconnected myself...I have lots of preps, guns/ammo, some silver...family of four and a good dog. I have some skills, carpentry and can use my hands, I have a good head for analysis...not that the last bit makes a jill of beans...got lots of Heirloom seeds too!
Going to Thailand to for medical reasons is a great idea. i was in Chaing Mai riding around drunk on a motor bike and got hit by a car, really fucked me up, was in the icu for a week had surgery on my leg and a head concussion , they sewed up my shoulder, cost more to fix the honda accord that hit me Around (3500) then it did to fix me up, and around 50 % of the cost where for the IV fluid. The nurses were fucking hot as well, food was terrific. They where even nice enough to throw away the bag of weed I had in my pocket and not report it to the authorities. If that would have happened to me over here in the states,, I would be beyond fucted.
I bet Thai nurses fiss you up niii.
I have been assuming the past two years that we are all fucked.
I've stacked and I have extra food. I also have a few things that can go bang bang.
Then I decided to start working less. I spend more time with the kids. And I'm playing hockey twice a week and box lacrosse once a week just like when I was a kid.
Life is short. I'm going to go out enjoying.
Cheers Gents.
Simplicity is the ultimate form of sophisticationm, said Leo.
Make sure he gets the penile implant to go with your new boobs.
There was a book written about this - Walden.
Thanks for an article about an important topic. And indeed, as the article states, living simple is not trivial, and takes a lot of thought and personal execution. However, having gone further than 99.9% in this direction, I can attest to the fact that achieving a simple life is possible and vastly more than worth it.
Here are a few simple pointers. Never buy anything that has more than 1 ingredient. I know that sounds laughable on first take, but I'm completely serious. Best of all, grow or raise your own single ingredients: veggies, fruits, nuts, chickens, etc. Then learn to combine them to create a yummy meal.
But if you don't have your own garden yet, head to a quality [natural/organic foods] grocery store, and don't buy anything that has more than one ingredient. ZH had a great article a couple weeks ago about how almost all seafood does not contain what the label says... even when the label only lists "one ingredient". So not only do you limit yourself to items that are "1 ingredient", but you also only buy items that are visually recognizable to you. Though I don't like seafood and thus don't practice this myself, I'd only buy seafood that clearly is the kind of seafood I am being sold. But extend this to all other food items too.
But food isn't everything. For me, living far away in the extreme boonies is the ultimate... and most enjoyable form of... simple life. I don't think most humans can even imagine, much less comprehend, how wonderfully peaceful is life far, far away from uncivilization. It is the most valuable commodity remaining on planet earth (yet the most common commodity in the universe at large, if only gravity wells weren't such a problem for humans).
Because "normal life" has been made so artificially and unnecessarily chaotic, most humans don't realize how simple life can be. I will be the first to admit that it took me a lot of time and effort to find and establish the simplicity I now enjoy, but once you get past planning and implementation, day to day life can be incredibly and wonderfully simple. In fact, the only part of life that isn't simple any more is reading and responding to ZH articles, which is why that practice must cease sooner rather than later (to the relief of so many folks who are terminally allergic to sanity). The other part of my life that most people probably won't consider simple is the development of advanced technologies that is now down to about half of every day for me. But this work feels simple now, given the peace, quiet and simplicity around me 24/7.
Good topic. Important topic. Get real, plus the "KISS principle".
Keep It Simple, Stupid!