permaculture

[Russ Grayson <pacedge@magna.com.au>]

On Friday, June 20, 2003, at 07:03  AM, Marsha Hanzi wrote:
> The late Joe Domingues of the Simple Living network argues that once we have the essentials ( including a few personal luxuries), getting more "stuff" just brings on more confusion. Stuff has to be taken care of.  So reducing on consumption actually means  getting back more free time-- an interesting tradeoff where time has become the scarecest commodity. 

This is so true Marsha. My partner, Fiona, and I have been busy enjoying the process of passing on things that we have been given/ accumulated/ left that we do not use. Other people have uses for them, so once free of us the things enjoy another life of usefullness and we enjoy less clutter in the garage. We have also pruned our book collection, retaining only those volumes useful as reference in our work teaching organic gardening and in media and overseas aid, those that we particularly like and could read again and those that are somehow inspirational. It was good to pass the less-used on to places where they may be more-used.

Some years ago, I met a man living in converted a cow bails on a property in the Hunter Valley, north of Sydney. His needs were few, so were his possessions, and he was happy. There was something satisfying about meeting this person. And my friends who lived in similar cow bails in the Tweed Valley, then in a converted industrial building - the family were happy, their possessions few and the wants modest.

What are 'essentials', of course, varies with the individual. And where the essentials constitute more than those of purer mind might regard as warranted, then there can be recrimination. Those of interested or working in Internet production would, for instance, have more electronic stuff than those free of this particular affliction. I find the minimum I need for my work in journalism is a kit of cameras, a laptop computer + software, desktop for my partner to do layout on plus the usual scanners etc, a mobile phone and landline phone/ fax. And a notebook and pen, of course. These are essentials without which I cannot work. Likewise, we need a car to visit a sick parent who lives south of Sydney and to get to meetings etc that would take half-a-day to attend by public transport.

In regard to this discussion, check out Clive Hamilton's (Australia Institute - a thinktank) new book:

"Growth Fetish" by Clive Hamiltonwww.growthfetish.com/
 This is an excellent new book and goes to the core of our fixation with consumerist materialism as the high road to happiness.  For decades our political leaders and opinion makers have told us that higher incomes are the way to a better future.  But after decades of sustained economic growth we must confront an awful fact: the people are still not happy.  This fact is the great contradiction of modern politics. Growth Fetish argues that, far from being the answer to our problems, growth fetishism lies at the heart of our social and environmental ills.  

...Russ Grayson