Comments on: Involuntary Simplicity http://boyinthebands.com/archives/involuntary-simplicity/ Scott Wells on the practice of Christian faith Mon, 13 Oct 2008 10:50:41 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5 By: Mary Pringle http://boyinthebands.com/archives/involuntary-simplicity/#comment-1452 Mary Pringle Sat, 27 Nov 2004 10:31:52 +0000 http://www.universalistchurch.net/boyinthebands/archives/involuntary-simplicity/#comment-1452 It's the fatal contradiction at the heart of our economy--we are killing ourselves with pollution and garbage in order to maintain a ridiculously extravagant standard of living. I like <a href="http://www.mcdonough.com">William McDonough's</a> notion of an abundance that resolves into two waste streams only--that which decomposes without harm and that which must be returned to the technical cycle because although necessary, it will cause environmental damage. He has many other good ideas, as laid out in the October 1998 issue of <i>The Atlantic Monthly</i> in an article titled "The Next Industrial Revolution." I'm not exactly a cultural materialist, but I find it hard not to see the wars in the Middle East and the staunch US support of Israel as fundamentally about oil. I'm not looking forward to the wars about water that will be next, and I feel ashamed of the way Americans waste it. On what will we build prosperity if we stop wasting and consuming? The failed countercultures of the late 1960s have had a positive but miniscule effect. It looks like things have to get to the point of crisis before change can occur on a wide scale. Simplicity will be involuntary. Thanks for your suggestions. It’s the fatal contradiction at the heart of our economy–we are killing ourselves with pollution and garbage in order to maintain a ridiculously extravagant standard of living. I like William McDonough’s notion of an abundance that resolves into two waste streams only–that which decomposes without harm and that which must be returned to the technical cycle because although necessary, it will cause environmental damage. He has many other good ideas, as laid out in the October 1998 issue of The Atlantic Monthly in an article titled “The Next Industrial Revolution.”

I’m not exactly a cultural materialist, but I find it hard not to see the wars in the Middle East and the staunch US support of Israel as fundamentally about oil. I’m not looking forward to the wars about water that will be next, and I feel ashamed of the way Americans waste it. On what will we build prosperity if we stop wasting and consuming? The failed countercultures of the late 1960s have had a positive but miniscule effect. It looks like things have to get to the point of crisis before change can occur on a wide scale. Simplicity will be involuntary. Thanks for your suggestions.

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