Jay Toups

People generally like to change, but only because they want to: lose weight, quit smoking, find or lose God,  make or save more money, get sober, or even get drunk. But sometimes people are confronted with change because they have no other choice.  Since this involuntary change taints America’s manifest destiny to do as we damn well please, it will take a while before we realize those uncontrollable changes are often the changes we need to make most.

We’ve thoroughly exhausted the cherished capitalist premise that more is better: we built bigger houses for all our stuff but they became too big to heat; we bought cars that could ferry a soccer team (or just a soccer mom) but were too big to park and too expensive to own; we thought we were embracing a simpler life by squeezing in a day in the garden between working and shopping and even an extra job to pay for it all.

No more.

I’ve done my share of propping up the American status quo. So have you. Admit it, we’re all culpable for the bubbles and the busts that have stolen the soul of our country. Not just the other guy or other party. No amount Tea Partying is going to fix the mess.

Now that America is bleeding like a stuck pig, you’re probably doing less propping up of the status quo in lockstep with everybody else because you can no longer afford to. That’s why Detroit is in the shitter. Ditto every other business you can think of. Why? Because you have to reign your purchasing in, not because you want to, most likely.

So finding yourself having to do much more with far less, what’re you going to do? Change your lifestyle and purchasing habits, only more than what you’re doing already.

I’m as guilty as the next person who lives in the industrial world when it comes to consuming stuff as my birthright. But I’m not so caught up in personal psychodrama (maintaining the status quo) that I don’t feel the need to rebel against this dangerous, bleeding beast called consumerism, wherever it rears its ugly and stubborn head. And I see it in the lives of people who call themselves environmentally aware, responsible adults. Uh huh.

You can rebel. And then you can rebel some more. But first you have to let go of some of your stuff, both mental and physical. It isn’t easy getting over yourself and your stuff. I’m slashing my consumer footprint. I seldom drive my car, which I bought new in 1989. I’ve worked from home for 11 years, eat little meat, drink water from a creek, wear extra layers instead of reaching for the thermostat, and while I’m at it, tend a compost heap and a garden (with my wife and partner Tamera) and chop wood to burn in a high-tech soapstone stove. Oh yeah, we don’t watch TV either. So pin a medal on my chest, right?

Years ago I made a decision to live more like people did 100 years ago and still do in developing countries because it’s far more sustainable and affordable. I ride a bike for recreation, or ski, hike, raft or kayak. Human-powered recreation is one way to pummel the status quo because when you do something physical it’s always in the moment. So we moved to the mountains next to a real river with fewer than 10 people per square mile. The simple life only makes sense in a simple place. If you’re in the middle of the urban milieu, good luck cutting through your own crap that keeps you there.

While we choose to live differently, some people I know and love (though not necessarily respect their rec choices) choose to race cars, motorcycles, ATVs, etc. Some have 50-inch flat panel televisions in every room and leave their computers on all the time. Or stay stuck in places that cost an arm and a leg, clinging to their personal traditions and lack of inertia to make real changes.

Seems whatever some people do personally to conserve is lost in a mad rush to entertainment by fossil-fueled lifestyles and diversions that are so deeply ingrained it is astonishing.

“It’s overconsumption, not population growth, that is the fundamental problem: By almost any measure, a small portion of the world’s people – those in the affluent, developed world – use up most of the Earth’s resources and produce most of its greenhouse gas emissions.”

Here’s an interesting article that explains why (y)our precious American-style consumerism is more dangerous than overpopulation.

Here’s another brief but interesting article about “economic survivalism.”