if you had to start a commune and change from a normal lifestyle in a consommation society to a lifestyle more in contact with nature in the countryside hippystyle, what are the things you could give up and the things you could not give up? i can live without a fridge cause i am a vegan but i cannot live without internet and my computer, i can also live without an expensive cellular phone,and i do not need all kinds of elaborations people have in their kitchen as all sorts of appliances..i can live without all the cleaning products in the supermarket and use bleach and vinegar as products..i have been looking for many ways to simplify my life and use only the necessary things for me.. the pick up we have my husband and me is more than 15 years old and i do not need a fancy car neither..i have been trying to find the right dose of things i get from the consommation society and i stopped using also a lot of beauty products..but a lot of tools are necessary when you lead this kind of life cause you must do a lot of things yourself..how to live in a commune in the countryside can change our relationship with things?
I think that all I would want is the Interweb - It has Music, Communication access and WORD to do my writing on. Anything elase I seem to get along with when I'm a camping out in natures beauty -although my clockwork radio isn't that powerful, at least I have music to that I can "Whistle down the Wind" along to
Well, because we can no longer afford them or can't afford to have them repaired, my husband and I have found lots of ways to trim back. We share a prepaid phone, we only have one car, no dishwasher, we don't watch television, we use a toaster oven instead of the big oven, we have no air conditioning, we only use kerosene heat, we don't pay for trash service because the small amount we don't recycle we put into our son's trash, we prepare all of our food at home, etc. etc. etc.
I think I could go without any electronics maybe just some lights? as long as I had lots and lots of books, and a few instruments! i think nature would keep me pretty occupied too!
it would be very nice if the world wasn't so driven by profits, by now we might all have free internet,like japan or iceland if the net was free I could easily live on the street! ha! a long as I had my computer!
What could I live without? Probably a lot. For me, personally, I know I need air, water, food, some sort of shelter, and probably someone to talk to. I know if it came down to it, that's what I could do. If I had someone (or a few) to talk to, I probably wouldn't need the internet. I suppose I think about what I say I need (want) and then see what I have to do to keep those needs. Most of the time, I need a lot more things just to have that one "want". but hmm.. if I had some books, candles, articles of clothes, a few tools, things like that to keep be occupied until I got used to the change, I believe I would be okay.
beautiful answers!sometimes i look at certain people kitchens and it seems i am in a laboratory or a spaceship.. last time i entered a shop in london airport and i did not know almost of the things that were inside..electronics..and if the solution were one day that all things are produced without harming the planet ? do we need so much sphistication? internet for me is more than a company, it is also a big source of education just here all the time to satisfy my curiosity, it is really a great thing..really in some countries internet is free ? makihiko, maybe you need a confortable bed to sleep within the computer, i think this is really necessary ,to sleep well, this is not a luxury..aerianne, homemade food is the best for your health and you do not have to pay to be poisoned by processed food if you cook at home!myself i buy only basic ingredients as close as the naturel state as possible!sometimes when there is a light cut , i just feel sorry for myself to be used so much to all these things that seem so normal like having electricity.. imagine how people used to live before!but progress is not necessarily wrong, maybe excess is wrong..
definitely, it is too stupid to go back to the cave!but it is harder and harder cause every little choice has a meaning, even the one to buy a drink in a plastic bottle!well you know the bottle needs to be recycled..personaly i am thinking a lot about the earth..but also i am asking myself where is the real happiness, and i know it is not really in the things but in our capacity to enjoy them,however i recognize i enjoy more to see a movie on a big screen tv than on a little old time tv..this is true our satisfaction is there inside ourselves but we are also material beings sensitive to comfort and practical material things..unless we have reached a high spiritual level and we live like monks..
