Over the course of recent decades, we (rich-world industrial capitalist humanity) have had repeated opportunities to shrink our staggering consumption of resources. Oil shocks; pandemics; recessions; weather disasters bringing infrastructure downages and economic hardship. All have offered an opportunity to cut back and to reap not only planetary benefits but personal benefits as well.
So now, with the endless wars way ramped-up, we have yet another incentive and opportunity. Will we take it or not?
I know a lot of you really care about the destruction we are wreaking on our planet. And yet, it can be hard to get motivated to change our own daily habits. A lot of people fall into the error of putting thrift in the same category as going on a starvation diet. That’s the wrong way to look at it. Cutting back (in whatever categories you are able, to the extent that you are able) doesn’t only take the pressure off ecosystems and reduce demand for war and genocide, and reduce the financial “fuel” for war and genocide. As if that were not enough.. But aside from all that, it offers immediate personal benefits to you as well.
Consumer spending is something like 70% of the economy. We are the backbone. We can use it for the good, or not.
The good thing is that the benefits are immediate. Back in the early 2000s, when I got started with this low-footprint-living experiment and demonstration, most people seemed to be too wealthy to care about cutting $50 or $100 from their monthly expenses, Back then, I could understand people not being very interested in conservation. It was hard (since I myself was punching every penny in the fight to continue my work), but I could understand. But now? The motives have ramped up.
And additionally, of course, the other reward besides money in your wallet is simplification. A reduction of stuff that you have to pay attention to and worry about is phenomenal for one’s peace of mind. For many of us, that even exceeds the monetary reward. Simply not having to repair all sorts of appliances and systems, for example. Simply not needing electricity very much except for a few small things. i’ve said this repeatedly in my book, on this blog, and in a bunch of my talks that are probably still out there in the ether. So I’m not going to belabor the point more here. Except to remind you that fabulous prize is await you to the extent that you choose to reduce and simplify.
If you would like moral support, my top recommendation is a Facebook group called THE NON-CONSUMER ADVOCATE. You can also, of course, check out the Riot for Austerity categories and get started with your benchmarks. They are posted right here on this blog. If you search and don’t find them, get in touch with me and I’ll help you dig up the link. (Yes, a blog that’s been going on for seven years and counting can get pretty voluminous, and search results don’t always pop up as expected.)
I’ve shared The non-consumer advocate repeatedly on this blog because it’s quite simply the best community I know. Well over 100,000 people from all over the world. Maybe it’s even close to 200,000 by now.
Even if you can’t (or don’t want to) get on Facebook, you can also start something with your circle of friends, your neighborhood watch group, your stitching circle (now there’s a hotbed of thrift tip sharing!), and so on.
And the riot for austerity benchmarks are a super useful framework. But there are other frameworks as well. Mix and match whatever works for you.
And, in closing, a fun terminology note, for those of you who may have never had the pleasure of riding on a sweet oldtimey carousel, and thus might not be familiar with the phrase “brass ring”:
“A brass ring is a small, grabbable ring that a dispenser presents to a carousel rider during the course of a ride. These dispensers are filled with a large number of iron or steel rings and a single or a few brass rings. The rings can then be tossed at a target as the carousel rotates. Typically, a brass ring can be traded for a prize, which is often a free repeat ride. Although they were standard features for carousels during their heyday in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, brass ring dispensers are now rare. The figurative phrase to grab the brass ring is derived from this device.”
(With gratitude to Wikipedia. And BTW please consider making a donation to Wikipedia especially if you have never done so. Supposedly there are only like a couple percent of us who donate ever! Even a few dollars is welcomed.)
(Also just found this marvelous, eye-opening overview of Wikipedia’s fundraising and what it goes to. Small-dollar donations are the majority, and these donations fund a staggering volume of freely available knowledge. Wikipedia is an valuable resource. Another plus I see from a footprint-minimization standpoint is that it’s in text form.)
Love you guys and thank you for the following this obscure little microblog! And deepest gratitude to my golden-hearted “Florida sister” Roseanna (SeaRo’s Designs) for prodding me to start this blog way back around 2018 or whenever it was! Much to my surprise, this labor has become one of my longterm loves!
