L.E.S.S.

Since our pursuit for more everything has created multiple environmental crises, and hasn't made us any happier, perhaps we should try less. Less everything, more happiness?

I like what John Michael Greer, an author and blogger that writes on peak oil and the demise of industrial society, has to say about the importance of cutting back on excessive consumption.

He wraps it all up in the acronym L.E.S.S., which stands for Less Energy, Stuff and Stimulation.

"The non-negotiable foundation of any meaningful response to the crisis of our time, as I’ve pointed out more than once here, can be summed up conveniently with the acronym L.E.S.S.—that is, Less Energy, Stuff, and Stimulation. 

We are all going to have much less of these things at our disposal in the future.  Using less of them now frees up time, money, and other resources that can be used to get ready for the inevitable transformations. 

It also makes for decreased dependence on systems and resources that in many cases are already beginning to fail, and in any case will not be there indefinitely in a future of hard limits and inevitable scarcities."

Doing more with more is long gone. Doing more with less isn't looking good either. Now is the time for doing less with less. Perhaps then we can restore balance in both our environment and our lives.

Perhaps then we will rediscover true happiness.

“The less I needed, the better I felt.” Charles Bukowski