Simplicity Survey results

[Gardenarian]

The results of the Simplicity Institute's voluntary simplicity survey are now available, and are quite interesting. This survey was posted on this forum.
Here is a link to the PDF: http://simplicityinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/The-Voluntary-Simplicity-Movement.pdf

Enjoy!

[loosechickens]

thanks so much, Gardenarian.......I'm getting ready to dig into it as we speak......

[Stella]

I'm only partway through reading it but this quote caught my eye.


The objection that the Simplicity Movement is insufficiently radical is certainly one that the movement must address. Perhaps voluntary simplifiers ought to be downshifting further and
faster.

It strikes me as a really odd thing to say for many reasons. VS-types seem to me to tend to buck hard at suggestions that we ought to be living a particular way and are not up to par. By definition we are seeking to live intentionally in a way that fits for us, not that fits some predefined, external standard. Also, it makes us sound like a group with some kind of leadership. I tend to think of us more as The Island of Misfit Toys. :)

[JaneV2.0]

The Island of Misfit Toys is perfect!

[Mrs-M]

Also Stella, it makes us out to be "not doing enough".

[JaneV2.0]

I've waded through about half their analysis, and it confirms my suspicion that I'm not much of a simple liver. Although I naturally take a lot of steps to protect the environment and maintain a low-stress, less complicated way of life, I'm not a militant or a minimalist in their sense of the word. I guess you can effectively beat people over the head with your ideology--it seems to have worked for PETA--but that's not my style.

[ApatheticNoMore]

The objection that the Simplicity Movement is insufficiently radical is certainly one that the movement must address. Perhaps voluntary simplifiers ought to be downshifting further and
faster.

I think you are taking that quote a bit out of context. The next line is


"perhaps the structure of society makes more radical steps extremely challenging, meaning that governments need to play a role in facilitating simpler lifestyles".

(in my view government can be the solution here but it can also be the problem). But I get where they are going, they mean people might want to downshift more but they stay at the high paid high stress job (maybe even with a long commute and thus high waste of fossil fuel) for the healthcare or for other similar reasons that are part of how one's society is structured. It's a valid point.