It has come to my attention via a nasty piece of email that there are people who consider using the internet, and moreover publishing content on it, to be antithetical to “simple living” and “frugal”. I will assume that the person who wrote this email does not consider themselves to be living simply or frugal in any way, since that would make them a hypocrite by their own logic.
However, the illiterate screed (aren’t they all) got me thinking about the fact that “simplicity”, “frugal”, “downshifting” and all the rest of the labels we come up with to hang on our varying levels of anti-consumerism have very fuzzy edges, and sometimes fuzzy centers as well. Not many of us can define what those terms mean to us personally, much less what they are supposed to mean.
So, for me personally, does this website, and the tools I use to maintain it constitute an intellectual inconsistency? How can I go on and on about simplifying my life when my internet connection bill is larger than my water bill (I have a cable modem with 1.5meg up and down). Can I honestly, and with authority, write about the simple pleasures in life on a $1500 tablet laptop? How exactly does a wireless mesh network achieve inner harmony and peace?
Well, for me, “simply living”, which is what I like to call what I am doing, is not about monastic vows of poverty, though you shouldn’t think that I haven’t been tempted by that lifestyle. Simply Living is about knowing what your priorities are, and being man (or woman) enough to go through with it, to stop on the side of the racetrack, get out of the SUV, pull out your machete, and hack your own path through the brush to wherever you end up, instead of following soneone else’s idea of what you should do.
By that very definition, it is impossible for my computer or internet connection or websites to be hypocritical unless I have specifically stated that I am opposed to such. I have never done this, though I have said on occassion that I think that the world wide web is the worst thing that has ever happened to the world. Of course, I also think it is the best thing that has ever happened too, so don’t get me wrong.
I suppose that if someone published a website that advocated in strong terms doing away with all unnecessary expenses in your life in order to achieve some goal, financial or otherwise, and didn’t consider an internet connection to be unnecessary to most people, that would be hypocritical. If they charged money for a get out of debt plan that advocated exactly that, and all but required you to have a high-speed internet connection to do so, they would be not only a hypocrite, but an enormous asshole, too. (that ought to be good for some more hate mail from the true believers)
So, no, it isn’t necessarily hypocritical to publish a website about simple living, but it is all too human to lash out at anyone who doesn’t validate our chosen lifestyle.
Tags: voluntary peasantry
These are the ramblings of 
I think this is a very interesting point of discussion. The person who wrote you that email clearly wants to impose his or her idea of simplicity on EVERYONE. They misunderstand that what constitutes “simple living” is unique for every person who chooses to explore its possibilities.
That’s a really good point. Of course, there are always people who think that there way is the “right” way. The problem is that they are right, it is the right way. For them.
I have learned over the last year or so what an enormous amount of humility it takes to say that what works for me won’t necessarily work for anyone else…