Voluntary Simplicity

Voluntary simplicity can be used interchangeably with the term simple living. Voluntary simplicity could more adeptly be named mindful or intentional living. It is considered a lifelong process in which one lives a life free of wealth, status, and power. It also means one can possess an authentic life of inner peace and fulfillment. Taoists, Buddhists, Plato, Aristotle, and Gandhi all discussed attaining peace through a simple [Page 1442]existence. In North America, religious groups such as the Shakers, Mennonites, Amish, and some Quakers practice voluntary simplicity, which bans some technologies and mass consumerism.

From the 1920s to 1960s, many writers (Richard Gregg and Ernest Callenbach), anthropologists (Gary Snyder), and economists (Robert Borsodi and Scott Nearing) also supported voluntary simplicity through their work. Henry David Thoreau was an advocate of voluntary simplicity in his 1854 book Walden. As a term, voluntary simplicity became more popular in 1981 with Duane Elgin's book Voluntary Simplicity: Toward a Way of Life That Is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich and with Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin's Your Money or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence (1992). Other publications soon followed, such as the Simple Living Newsletter, which is now available in printed and online editions. The Public Broadcasting Station (PBS) also released the 1997 series on television titled Affluenza, which advocated a simple, more humane life than mass consumerism. These sources all advocate environmental responsibility, responsible consumerism, and a reinvented relationship with time.

Time is another component of voluntary simplicity. Voluntary simplicity proposes a reinvention of humans' relationship with time by examining the discrepancy between the current corporate nanosecond, or techno-time, and natural human time. The nanosecond has humans operating at an increasingly inhuman speed. Natural or human-centered time allows humans to operate at a natural speed as in the days before the Industrial Revolution. Economist Jeremy Rifkin, in his 1989 book Time Wars: The Primary Conflict in Human History, describes this human time dilemma. He describes spiraling consumerism and a declining spiritual life as the cause of the nanosecond culture pervasive in society today. Voluntary simplicity supports the natural human time concept that time and one's life should not be not treated as commodities to be measured in nanoseconds.

Voluntary simplicity stems from the notion that changes in modern life have exacerbated the call for more balanced lifestyles. Global climate change, the depletion of key natural resources such as water and oil, the growing population, and the gap between the rich and poor have fueled the campaign for a simpler and more balanced way of life. Most of the voluntary simplicity advocates are active in healthy living, frugality, and environmental concerns. Advocates have stated that to maintain a simple life, one must seek what stirs one as a human being and what makes one happy and fulfilled. Second, one must find out what one wants as a human being and fulfill that goal in a simple manner.

Some proponents of voluntary simplicity seek inner spirituality and freedom from modern distractions such as money and the quest for more material goods. Others see it as connecting to all other life on the planet and to preserve the earth's resources by sharing it globally. They also seek to build strong local communities by promoting interdependence on local resources. Voluntary simplicity does not advocate avoiding work; rather, work can be a purposeful activity that uses one's skills and abilities, contributes to the person's welfare among others, and is in balance with one's values and other aspects of one's life.

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