People Have The Power Challenge

No electricity? No problem for this muscle powered laundry center.

It hasn't even been 100 years since electric powered consumer goods were beginning to be common. Before electricity, homes were dominated by human-powered devices. Life was harder, slower, and often, more enjoyable. The people had the power.

Take my grandparents, for example. They lived in a era when North America saw the implementation of the power grid and the electrical devices that came with it. 

However, when my family visited them in the 1960s, their home and yard were still largely hand powered. I loved to go into their basement where grandpa had a workshop packed full with an extensive collection of hand tools. He made wood art and furniture.

When I went out into their yard, a reel mower waited for me to blow off my restless energy and cut the lawn at the same time. It was not a chore - I liked it. Trimming was done with a big set of shears that grandpa sharpened carefully himself. 

To me, a product of the age of electricity, the old tools and devices were beautiful and functional. They hold a romantic appeal, hearkening back to a time when our heroic ancestors got by with only their muscles and simple tools and devices.

In the kitchen, grandma did not have electric gadgets on the counter, even though at the time they were hooked to the grid. Her arms and hands lovingly interacted with all ingredients, and kneaded dough and chopped and made magic right on the counter top. 

What got me thinking about my grandparents human powered life was a reader comment that said, "In my home we are gradually phasing out electrical items as they break to see how little can we live with and still have a satisfying life." (Thanks Madeleine.)

I think that is a laudable goal that makes sense for our less energy intensive future, when we will have to shave kilowatt hours off our energy footprints. 

It also reminds me of James Howard Kunstler's 2008 novel "World Made By Hand". This novel explores a future post-everything USA scenario, and is set in a small rural community. There is no government, no maintenance of infrastructure, no fossil fuelled transportation, no tractors, and no electricity.

Hence, it explores a human powered future, much like the one we recently left behind us only a few generations ago. Some describe it as a dystopian novel, but it could also be seen as a utopia, depending on how attached to modern creature comforts you are. 

There are also cleaner rivers that teem with fish, a brighter night sky, stronger community bonds, fresher organically grown food, and a quiet such as few had ever heard in their previous modern lifestyles.

There are characters in the book that enjoy the post-apocalyptic hand powered world better than the one that briefly preceded it. As I read through this set of novels, I found that Kunstler was describing a world that I wouldn't mind joining.

Therefore, I propose a "People Have The Power Challenge". 

The goal? To gradually phase out as many electrical tools, gadgets and devices as possible. 

Intended results? Reduced dependence on Big Utility Corps., cutting your energy footprint, eliminating the need for new power generation (whether it is green or not), adopting more appropriate technology for a new lower energy world, and re-engaging with a slower, more connected, and enjoyable way of life.

Providing electrical power to the grid is a massive endeavour any way you look at it. Whether it is hydro, coal, gas, or nuclear, or even solar, wind or geothermal, all have their own negative impacts and unintended consequences. 

Therefore, instead of looking at increasing our electrical capacity (even if it is touted as green/sustainable), we should be reducing our reliance on that power.

Are we headed toward a resurgence of people powered lifestyles? What powered devices could you live without? 

Join us in the "People Have The Power Challenge", and see what powered tools, gadgets and devices you can do without. You will be practiced and ready for any potential future scenario, dystopian, or utopian.

I vote for a utopian future, where the people use their power to get all sorts of things done. In the home, the workshops, and on the streets.

Live Simply, Think Freely

“The American people are free to do exactly what they are told.”

- Ward Churchill

Question the media and you're a conspiracy kook. Criticize the government and you're a Russian agent. Oppose war and you hate your country. Defend Palestinians and you're an anti-Semite. Suggest cooperation and you are a dangerous socialist.

Demand a better, simpler world and you are an enemy of the state.

The biggest threat of all is thinking for one's self. Thinkers will be dealt with in the harshest of terms, to be reprogrammed into drones, serfs, peasants, consumers - to be used and abused and disposed of as the establishment sees fit.

Around the world, governments have claimed ever greater control over, and enforcement of, ever more private aspects of our lives.

Edward Bernays, pioneer in the field of public relations, in his 1928 book called Propaganda, said:

"The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. 

Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. 

We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of.

Independent thought is the only way to break free of the ruthless manipulation that turns limitless lives into a ground hog day loop of earning/borrowing/spending, and trying to keep up.

It is difficult to find the time to think in a regular 40 hour work week, which is exactly the idea behind it. They need us to occupy 100% of our time in our struggle to keep up, to survive. Most of us have little time or energy to think, let alone to push back against the mind oppressors.

Choosing to live more simply allows one to work less, leaving more time for important things like thinking. This may be the most subversive thing about simplicity (besides gardening), and the main reason it is such a threat to the powers that be.

Unplugging from the constant barrage of control and surveillance may be hard, but it is not impossible, and is certainly worth doing. Living more simply is an excellent start.

Start your simpler life today, and break free of the pushers of propaganda, and the thought police that enforce compliance with it.


Debt is freedom. Simple is complex. Too much is not enough. Depression is happiness. Endless war is perpetual peace.

“Before mass leaders seize the power to fit reality to their lies, their propaganda is marked by its extreme contempt for facts as such, for in their opinion fact depends entirely on the power of the man who can fabricate it.”  

- Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951)

Cathedrals of Consumerism Losing Their Congregations

Is this the beginning of the end of consumerism?

I never did like shopping malls much. Therefore, now that they are an endangered species, I am not mourning, despite having a twinge of nostalgia when I think about them.

"Corridor of nothing."

When I was a young dungaree-wearing hooligan, my friends and I would congregate at the new mall in my hometown for "something to do". But then, as now, I was not buying anything. It was more about the social aspect, and staying one step ahead of mall security.

 “Two million square feet of echo.”

Because malls were for shopping, not loitering. Not buying anything? Get out. What a difference a few decades make - now hardly anyone is buying anything at the mall.

Besides nostalgia, I find malls fascinating from a ghost town perspective. There is something to be learned from our futile failed experiments, including this one, that started with the first mall in the 1950s. I consider it a good thing that our cathedrals of consumerism are finally losing their congregations.

"Almost one-fifth of the nation’s enclosed malls have vacancy rates considered troubling by real estate experts — 10 percent or greater. Over 3 percent of malls are considered to be dying — with 40 percent vacancies or higher. That is up from less than 1 percent in 2006." - NYT 

I wish the demise of the mall was because we have decided that overconsumption is so, like, 80s, and we are moving on to a more ecologically aware way of living. Maybe it is. We are going through monumental changes right now when it comes to shopping and our relationship with materialism. We know that the priests of commerce lied, and that salvation can not be bought at the mall. Or anywhere else.

“There’s no customers, but they have a customer-service desk”

Are shopping malls endangered because their parents, consumerism and institutionalized greed, are themselves endangered species? Is humanity, dare I say, evolving into an eco-consciousness the likes of which we have not experienced for a very long time? Dream big, I say.

Goodbye, malls. I won't miss you, or any of that stuff that I didn't buy. Don't worry, it's not you, it's us.

A report issued by Credit Suisse in June predicted that 20 to 25 percent of the more than 1,000 existing enclosed malls in America will close in the next five years.

Simple Life, Calm Mind

My mom had a favourite saying when my 4 siblings and I were young and prone to panic at the smallest slight.

"When in trouble
when in doubt
run in circles
scream 
and 
shout."

Now I know that is what we call a sarcastic remark, but after that how could one not see the futility of doing things that don't help to solve the problem at hand? I guess it was effective.

A simple life is a calm life. A calm life is one in which one may face all challenges with equanimity and passion. Being calm has never hurt anyone. Can you be too calm?

When you make the madness of modernity move aside, it leaves only you. That can be scary at first, which is why we are so prone to being easily distracted by things. However, approaching and getting to know our source in stillness is not something that should be neglected if we are to be ready in a rapidly changing world.

Whatever the future may bring, there is no better preparation than cultivating a calm mind. From an internal stillness we can more effectively address whatever gives us that panicky feeling in the pit of our gut. Like what is happening in many guts right now.

Efforts toward stress reduction, and effective and meaningful change, do not include running in circles screaming and shouting. No anger, no threats. It is time for decisive action. A calm mind prepares us for just that.

I say, "Bring it on". I have been calmly waiting for this for a long time. I am hoping that a simple living revolution of cooperative and compassionate communities will be part of what replaces living under competitive capitalist consumer constructs.

Remember to breathe.

Frugal Heaven or Consumer Hell?

A little slice of heaven close to home.

It's official - planet Earth is done. The only heaven we have ever known has been despoiled. And its angels now have claws where we once had wings.

James Lovelock puts our biosphere's predicament very bluntly in his book The Revenge of Gaia: Why the Earth is Fighting Back – and How we Can Still Save Humanity.

“If we continue business as usual, our species may never again enjoy the lush and verdant world we had only a hundred years ago. What is most in danger is civilization; humans are tough enough for breeding pairs to survive....but if these huge changes do occur it seems likely that few of the teeming billions now alive will survive.”

How bad do things have to get before people will voluntarily adopt lifestyles that the planet can support?

Scientists are letting us know that we are currently in Earth's sixth mass extinction event. They are also telling us that we are the cause. We are wiping out our Eden.

Ultimately, our desire for more and faster everything may lead to the demise of our own species.

The good news (yes, there is still some of that) is that those scientists agree with Lovelock and think that there still might be time to save Gaia. But if there is, they say, that door is quickly closing.

I look forward to the day that we close the door on conspicuous consumption, one of the major culprits in the current extinction event. Eventually it will be as socially unacceptable as other harmful, life-threatening practices, like throwing your feces into the street.

From the sounds of things that day will be coming sooner rather than later. Then we can work together to restore Earth to the divine status that it so richly deserves.

But there must be a sense of urgency.

The choice has to be made now. Part of the solution, or part of the problem. Live simply in a frugal heaven, or consume our way to a somewhat lower, hotter location.

May Day Monday

It is known as May Day, but in 2001 Italian collectives changed it to a more appropriate 'MAYDAY', as in the international call of distress. It makes sense for it sure does feel like we are under attack from all quarters these days.

Our governments, the economy, and the environment are all slow motion emergencies, and if we don't act to staunch the blood, we deserve the consequences.

On Tuesday, May 1, 2012 we have an opportunity to join together in an action that may be the only thing that can jar our governments out of their delusional course of action. A general strike shows who really has the power.

Stop attacks on workers. Stop the deterioration of our rights and freedoms.

Stop police brutality. Stop poverty.

Money for jobs, education, and the environment... not war.

End privatization. End corporate rule.... 

RETURN POWER TO THE PEOPLE

Reducing Consumption Reduces Harm

It is a challenge to consume and not do harm.

One reason I choose to live simply is so I can reduce the amount of harm I am doing. Like no trace camping, I want to leave as little damage behind me as I hike through the wonderful park of life.

Problem is, just hiking along is going to have some effect on other people and the environment regardless of how light one's backpack is. But that fact does not diminish my desire to minimize my impact as much as I can, and jettison some of the heavy stuff.

How am I contributing toward, or supporting, harmful practices? What I have learned is that the global economic machine makes it very, very difficult to avoid becoming just another cog that cranks out misery and mayhem.

Henry David Thoreau, in On The Duty of Civil Disobedience, said "Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the machine. What I have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn."

A no-nonsense way for me to be a counter-friction to the clanking, wheezing gears and cogs of consumerism is to simply consume less.

Reducing consumption reduces harm.

The Weight Of Things

 
As people accumulate wealth they tend to acquire more and more things. We have been conditioned to believe that this unprecedented accumulation is good for us, but it does not take long before we begin to feel weighed down by our things.

It takes a lot of space to store this avalanche of heaviness that flows into our lives. The stuff doesn't just take up space in the mind, it has to be physically stored somewhere. This probably has something to do with the average house size doubling since the 1950s.

Why would we need such large homes? To hold the mountains of things, of course. And once the basement, garage, garden shed, attic, and closets are stuffed full, we increasingly rent places to put the seemingly uncontrollable overflow.

The self-storage industry - which, not surprisingly, is mostly a North American phenomenon - blights almost 2.5 billion square feet of the planet with a lot of unloved, unneeded stuff. Providing this service brings the industry $20 billion in revenue per year.

I wonder if this huge amount of money, being spent to store stuff not important enough to be kept at home, could be better spent?

The Global Fund, which provides AIDS treatment to 2.5 million poor people worldwide, calculated in 2010 that it needed about $6.6 billion dollars per year for its programs. It only received $3.6 billion/year in funding due to the global economic downturn. The difference means people will die.

But we remain blissfully unaware of the harsh realities just outside our borders as we continue to collect more and more stuff in bigger and bigger houses and storage facilities.

How we live with all our extraneous stuff, and simultaneously fail to appreciate global realities and the finite nature of our planet's energy resources and raw materials, is not even the worst part. The most insidious thing about high consumption lifestyles is how they can smother us under the weight of things.

It may appear that everything is fine, but something has gone wrong. Consumers are suffocating, and the lack of oxygen is affecting our thinking. I can feel it myself, even though over the past decade I have downsized dramatically. Despite this, I still have things I don't really need.

This year I am getting out from under the rest of my accumulation, which by now is more of a mole hill than a mountain. But still, it is time to implement some rules for the new year.

Rules for my Anti-stuff Campaign:

Rule 1: If it hasn't been used in over a year, get rid of it.
Rule 2: If it is not adding to my life, get rid of it.
Rule 3: Implement Rules 1 and 2 ruthlessly, while throwing all emotional attachments to the wind.

Here is to a lighter, unfettered 2012 where there is space to breathe, time to think, and freedom to act.

Join The Simple Living Revolution

Simple living - its time has come around, again.

Revolution is coming. The time is ripe for a peaceful overthrow of a system rife with built-in waste and corruption. Thousands of Occupy Wall Street participants are evidence of a growing dissatisfaction with corporate infiltration of our governments, and the global economic terrorism being waged for the benefit of the few.

In these times of monumental vanity and greed living with less can be seen as a revolutionary act. When we are being encouraged to want more everything, living simply is taking a stand against the status quo.

Critics may say voluntary simplicity is a throw-back in time. It is. A throw-back to a time when we were satisfied with the basics, and weren't using more than the planet could provide sustainably. This is evidence of revolving, not devolving.

Remember that revolution also means 'motion in a circular course'. Life is not linear, it is cyclical, and simple living is a way of living whose time is coming around again.

Most of the planet's inhabitants still live simply. We used to live simply (and happily), too, and we will again. Our survival depends on it.

Join the simple living revolution.

Occupy Wall Street - America's Arab Spring?

I have wondered, since the spring, how bad things would need to get before complacent North Americans left their couches and took to the streets, like those in the Middle East. Has that time come as citizens gather in the streets to establish a semi-permanent occupation of Wall Street?

The peaceful populist rage that started with the Arab Spring is spawning revolution and change, and now it is hitting where revolution needs to happen the most - the very center of our corrupt financial system.

Participants say that they are there to criticize a financial system that unfairly benefits corporations and the rich, and undermines democracy.

Conditions for the majority of North Americans have been deteriorating for a long time, with incomes stagnating since the 1980s, and then the final death knoll for the good life, the 2008 financial crisis.

2008 saw the greed and corruption reach frenzied proportions, led by Wall Street. The super-rich have been staging a revolution of their own for decades, aided and abetted by the very people that have been entrusted with guarding the public interest - our elected officials. Events post-meltdown have confirmed that our governments have been hijacked.

Those engaging in civil disobedience know they can not go to government and be heard. Disappointing, since government listening to the people and acting on their wishes is one measure of how effectively a democracy is working. The only option left is to take to the streets.

Wall Street occupiers say, "We are the 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%. We are building the world that we want to see, based on human need and sustainability, not corporate greed."

I may live 6000 kilometers away, but I am tempted to pack my tent, join the revolution, and brave the NYPD arrests.

The Power Of The People

Happy, free, victorious Egyptians feeling the power of the people

As I write this I am watching Al Jazeera and listening to the celebratory roar of the victorious crowd massed in Liberation Square in Cairo, Egypt. The power of the people, as it always eventually does, has freed the citizens. Decades of Mubarak's dictatorial rule have ended. Peaceful protest has overcome the greedy and the mean.

This gives me great hope that billions of people enduring their own hardships after centuries of predation by the greedy will also one day soon be victorious. On a planet where 80% of the resources are consumed by 20% of the population, freedom for all is difficult to attain. But, as we have seen in Tunisia and Egypt in recent days, it does not take long for the power to shift.

The people were protesting rising food prices, rampant unemployment, oppression of human rights, and corruption. Yikes, this sounds like complaints made by literally billions of people worldwide. They will be buoyed by the success in the Middle East.

The greedy and the mean all over the globe are trembling in their snake skin boots - will they be next to go? There are more of us than there are of them. We have the power.

If You Aren't Ready For Revolution, You Aren't Paying Attention

Mr. Mubarek - meet Mr. Shoe

 As I watch hundreds of thousands of Egyptians take to the streets of Cairo in celebration of their glorious revolution, I hope for a positive outcome. At the same time, I wonder when our own revolution will begin.

If you don't think we have anything to revolt against, you haven't been paying attention. Either that or you could be part of that tiny, exclusive club for which the status quo is working just fine. Maybe you are "pulling a Mubarek" and you know what the right thing to do is, but refuse to face reality and do it. It is time for the denial to end.

Hosni Mubarek, ex-dictator of Egypt, represents an abusive, exploitive, old order that flourished under the opacity and privacy of our pre-hyperconnected world. Nowadays it is much harder to hide your sins with things like cell phone cameras, the Internet, Twitter, and Julian Assange bringing bright lights to the previously dim corners of ruthless dictatorships and board rooms alike.

We are beginning to see what was previously hidden, and we are having difficulty making sense out of it due to the enormity of the problems unveiled. With this information, the Middle East, including the Egyptian people, have taken action against the abuse and neglect of repressive regimes. And, so far, they are experiencing the surge of energy one gets while being engaged in positive historical change that ushers in a better world. We can learn something from these brave and determined protesters demanding a more just society.

Citizens of consumer nations have also been arming themselves with the floodlights of knowledge, and although they are more like flashlights currently, momentum is building. It is plain who is really responsible for recent flirtations with total economic collapse and the resulting hardship. It is not the unemployed, or those on welfare, or immigrants. It is not education or health care budgets.

The people are waking up to the decades of lies and self-serving shenanigans of the corporate elites and the governments that enable them. What will we do with what we have learned?

Will we demand positive change, like the good and persistent people of the Middle East? Or are we not uncomfortable enough yet? Do we not feel exploited enough? An empty tummy can be quite the motivational factor. Or an empty bank account. Or an empty gas tank. Or empty promises.

If we were marching on the central square, what would your protest sign say?

What Aren't You Buying?

As current economic conditions continue to change our world a lot of people are getting closer to not buying anything. Who can afford it? We're not buying houses or Hummers, cottages or caviar. As catastrophic as it all seems, it is a shift in the right direction. Something is obviously not working in our current system when the few have so much, and the many so little. I am not buying that.

It is always possible to buy less. One persons extreme budget is another persons luxury living. However, if the goal is toward living with less, each small step counts. Wandering holy people get their possessions down to a piece of cloth and a bowl. It is hard to get more basic than that. They are truly not buying anything. It is something I aspire to - to live as lightly as possible, and be free of encumbrances.

Then we can follow our own unique adventure, unscripted by society or the marketplace. You can't buy a life, or be forced into one against your will - you have to make a life of your own choosing on your own. Each of us is writing our own story. For a long time my story has been about working toward not buying anything. It is going to take longer than I thought.

The following is a list of things I haven't been buying the last 5 years, or in some cases, have never spent money on. My life is better without them. When things are uncomplicated and uncluttered we can focus on what is important to us. When we live better with less, others currently scraping by can live better with more.

I'm Not Buying:

• cable TV
• individual car ownership
  
• meat... still with me?
  
• movies
• new clothes
• caffeine
  
• concert tickets
• restaurant meals
  
• credit
• inflated real estate
  
• vacations
• big bank financial advisers and the mutual funds they peddle
• the Wall Street Casino
  
• ultra soft toilet paper made from 300 year old trees
• disposable products
  
• popular culture
• mainstream media
• granite counter tops
  
• processed food
• having kids, unless you really, really, really want them
  
• working a job you don't like
• christmas presents
• endless upgrades
  
• fast food
• fashion
• planned obsolescence
• non-participatory democracy
• stainless steel
• alcohol

Congratulations if you made it to the end of that. You must be a non-conformist yourself.

So many things not to buy. It is a challenge in a materialistic world, but is also satisfying in a way that buying things never can be. It feels like self-control, restraint, and thrift. It feels right, like an instinct.
Are there things you are cutting back on? What aren't you buying?

Mischief Monday

The ad that corporate media will not run.

Voluntary Simplicity Sweeping North America

Image from: http://www.sheepless.org/projects/consume%C2%AEevolution-magazine

Voluntary simplicity though hardly popular, has never left the American consciousness, but now it is sweeping the continent as people turn their backs on consumerism in droves. The simplicity revolution has begun, and Henry David Thoreau is smiling from above.

2010 was off to a great start with the North American International Car Show that had a distinctly green theme. Trucks and SUVs were tucked into back corners, if they were shown at all. Up front were the micro-compacts, many of them electric powered.

All the major car makers agreed that the time had come for smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles, and that they were responding to consumer demand for sustainable transportation. 97% of attendees reported that their next car would be an electric powered subcompact.

In addition to smaller vehicles, recent statistics show that tiny homes are in. Executives are turning their homes into convention centers, B&Bs, and affordable apartment blocks for low income families. They are ditching mcmansions for smaller homes made of sustainable materials.

"I love my new 600 sq ft cottage", one CEO said. "I didn't know what freedom was until I went small and sustainable! Everybody wins." He proceeded to show off the solar power and hot water systems, along with green roof, grey water system, and wind generator. "The humanure processing is just back there in the corner. My garden loves the resulting nutrients that would otherwise be wasted in municipal waste water treatment plants."

At the grocery store encouraging trends are showing up as well. Shoppers hungry for real food are avoiding the middle aisles of grocery stores having wizened up to the fact that that is where the fake food is, or the most processed and least healthy (and most expensive).

Instead, savvy shoppers in increasing numbers are choosing fresh fruits and vegetables and whole foods to put in their carts. Many are asking questions about the origins of their food, as well as their ingredients and how they are prepared. Farmers markets are reporting record crowds as people look to local growers and organic fare.

The biggest trend is in the workplace as more and more people give up the pursuit of the almighty buck as they seek out an increased quality of life. Workers in increasing numbers are choosing alternative work schedules such as job sharing and part time work. Many others are quitting the corporate world entirely and living their dreams, even if it means drastic cuts in income.

The government is supporting its citizens by increasing taxes on industry that exploits our valuable resources. In the first quarter of 2010 the government has raised so much revenue that the Green Party is considering implementing a minimum income for all citizens, freeing them to follow lifestyles that are light in material goods, and rich in experiences.

It is predicted that once freed from mental slavery, citizens will experience a great creative burst of energy. It is expected that this creative wave will enable individuals and cooperative non-profits to solve many of our most pressing issues.

The Green Party is also in consultation with various stakeholders in order to implement a zero-growth sustainable economic system. In regards to this agenda, they will soon bring a bill forward that will effectively make the entire advertising and lobbying industries illegal. It is thought that such a system will reduce, and eventually eliminate meaningless mass consumption and the resulting depletion of our air, water, and land-based resources.

A fringe benefit that is also being reported is that the gap between rich and poor that has been accelerating in recent years, is beginning to close as the poor take their rightful place in our post-industrial world. Inequality, hunger and poverty are doomed.

A new, functioning, hopeful world is beginning to emerge, and it is simple and sustainable with promise for all. Who will stand in its way?