A Simpler Way: Crisis As Opportunity

I received a notice from the Simplicity Institute of the release of a documentary film by Jordan Osmond and Samuel Alexander called A Simpler Way: Crisis As Opportunity. I am sharing the information in this post so NBA readers have the opportunity to see this film in its entirety.

For free, of course.

This is what the Simplicity Institute has to say about this documentary:

"The overlapping economic, environmental, and cultural crises of our times can seem overwhelming, can seem like challenges so great and urgent that they have no solutions. But rather than sticking our heads in the sand or falling into despair, we should respond with defiant positivity and try to turn the crises we face into opportunities for civilisational renewal. 

During the year of 2015 a small community formed on an emerging ecovillage in Gippsland, Australia, and challenged themselves to explore a radically ‘simpler way’ of life based on material sufficiency, frugality, permaculture, alternative technology and local economy. 

This documentary by Jordan Osmond and Samuel Alexander tells the story of this community’s living experiment, in the hope of sparking a broader conversation about the challenges and opportunities of living in an age of limits."

In sharing this documentary they hope to "spark a broader cultural conversation about the importance of voluntary simplicity, permaculture, and economic relocalisation in an age of limits." That definitely fits within our mandate here at Not Buying Anything.

Watch "A Simpler Way" at: http://simplicityinstitute.org/film, then let us know what you think in our comment section below.


Here is what some are saying about this timely and important film:

“This is a great video, and a very nice community I wish to one day be involved  in a community like this and live the same way.” 

“Awesome. We wish we could do this here in the UK. Hopefully with good people like you guys, this mindset and these values will be abundant. It's really inspiring to see, keep up the good work. Thank you for sharing this with us.” 

"I was one of the participants in the project.  

It is very difficult, if not impossible, to extract oneself entirely from the monetary economy in industrially developed nations like Australia. There are rates, bills, taxes etc, the entire country is set up around extractive industries and opposed to the radical self sufficiency we were attempting during our year together.  

Any project trying to set up alternatives is necessarily living with one foot in the formal economy and the other in the localisation/internalisation of production that would lead towards "true sustainability" (though true sustainability would need to involve entire bioregions, multiple generations, and ultimately the entire human species moving to a radically different way of life)  making compromises along the way."
  

“Message of hope for the human race, the other living animals and plants on this tiny planet unique in the universe(as far as our knowledge goes).”

“Thank you for all the hard work that went in to this. Especially to those who went against the modern paradigm of individualism, and offered their lives (or one year of it!) to live with others, for others, in a way that is now considered abnormal. 

Humankind has to change if we are to survive what is coming, and projects like this offer not only ideas, but hope. Ted Trainer is an amazing person - my thanks also go to him for daring to write about and live consistently with his beliefs. You are all an inspiration!”