"Not Buying Anything" is a site I visit often, and the result is always the same, I come away feeling I have learnt a little bit more of what the world could be if we all open our eyes, but I also leave feeling more eager to pick up the cudgel and do what I can to help destroy this paralysing, corrupt, unjust exploitative economic system that is responsible for so much destruction, death and misery, that will, if not brought down, eventually lead to the demise of humanity by the destruction of the Earth's fragile ecosystem.
Like Jean Weir, "I think I experienced society like an iron vice from the day I was born." That is the main reason I find living simply so attractive - it loosens the grip of that iron vice.
Since I was young I felt the control and exploitation that I was swimming in constantly. I thought it might drown me.
Because I was born a sensitive, I keenly felt the stings of an obviously unjust and hypocritical system. It was everywhere - in the "father knows best" family structure, at school, the mall, in the playground and on the streets.
I wondered, and still do, why so few could see it. Can fish perceive the water they swim in? Maybe that is the problem.
My desire has always been to be beyond sneaky methods of control used by parents, teachers, bosses, priests and society. That is why I developed a powerful connection to nature and wild places, and honoured my desire to be far, far away from the centres of civilizational control as often as I could.
I wanted to be away from the set of laws that seek to control everyone except the rich and powerful, who are free to do as they please.
I wanted to leave consumerism, its garish billboards and screaming advertisements, in the dust behind me. These are the rankest forms of control of all, being subtle and based on the best neuropsychology money can buy (over 1 trillion dollars a year now).
A saner world would see them for the mind control that they are, and resist them at every turn.
The consumer lifestyle lulls us into creating our own gilded cages, then willingly walking into them. The authorities don't even have to monitor us after our initial training, because when we leave our cells to work for our keepers, we go right back to them at night.
The average person prefers the cage to the perceive dangers and discomforts of more natural surroundings. Things, they say, are not convenient in nature. Therefore, it is bad, and must be controlled, destroyed and plundered.
This shows the level of control has been complete and total. When you can successfully tear people from the land you create displaced zombies, ripe for exploitation and prone to suggestion.
So, at an early age I decided I would not work for this sick system if that was ever possible. I had no wish to aid them in their exploitations and predations. I would rather be poor and free than complicit.
I would go on to disassociate myself from the consumer lifestyle as much, and as soon, as I could. A life of buying less would allow me to work less. Working less would allow me to live more freely.
Time, I thought, is the most valuable resource, and I didn't want to spend all mine working for the man. Or woman.
Living simply is not so much about saving the world for me, although that would be a nice fringe benefit. It is about getting out of that iron vice of society.
It is about building a real and lasting freedom for myself, and for everyone else.
