Comments on: The Utopian Impact of Desiring Less http://www.becomingminimalist.com/2010/03/22/the-utopian-impact-of-desiring-less/ Own less. Live more. Finding minimalism in a world of consumerism. Sat, 11 Feb 2012 13:04:59 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: tower http://www.becomingminimalist.com/2010/03/22/the-utopian-impact-of-desiring-less/comment-page-1/#comment-33294 tower Sun, 20 Mar 2011 07:01:15 +0000 http://www.becomingminimalist.com/?p=2412#comment-33294 So less is more? I like it. Too bad we're human. So less is more? I like it. Too bad we’re human.

]]> By: Joshua Becker on Controversial Values, Minimalism with Children, and Inside-Out Simplicity | Far Beyond The Stars: The Archives http://www.becomingminimalist.com/2010/03/22/the-utopian-impact-of-desiring-less/comment-page-1/#comment-31103 Joshua Becker on Controversial Values, Minimalism with Children, and Inside-Out Simplicity | Far Beyond The Stars: The Archives Tue, 15 Feb 2011 03:41:54 +0000 http://www.becomingminimalist.com/?p=2412#comment-31103 [...] I once wrote a post on The Utopian Impact of Desiring Less. As I was writing the post, I came to the conclusion that a world where people desired less rather [...] [...] I once wrote a post on The Utopian Impact of Desiring Less. As I was writing the post, I came to the conclusion that a world where people desired less rather [...]

]]> By: Joshua Becker on controversial values, minimalism with children, and inside-out simplicity « Far Beyond The Stars http://www.becomingminimalist.com/2010/03/22/the-utopian-impact-of-desiring-less/comment-page-1/#comment-30986 Joshua Becker on controversial values, minimalism with children, and inside-out simplicity « Far Beyond The Stars Sat, 12 Feb 2011 02:25:01 +0000 http://www.becomingminimalist.com/?p=2412#comment-30986 [...] I once wrote a post on The Utopian Impact of Desiring Less. As I was writing the post, I came to the conclusion that a world where people desired less rather [...] [...] I once wrote a post on The Utopian Impact of Desiring Less. As I was writing the post, I came to the conclusion that a world where people desired less rather [...]

]]> By: the utopian impact of desiring less | Live [Simply] Free http://www.becomingminimalist.com/2010/03/22/the-utopian-impact-of-desiring-less/comment-page-1/#comment-24607 the utopian impact of desiring less | Live [Simply] Free Wed, 27 Oct 2010 13:53:32 +0000 http://www.becomingminimalist.com/?p=2412#comment-24607 [...] Link: the utopian impact of desiring less [...] [...] Link: the utopian impact of desiring less [...]

]]> By: tracysimplylivinginspain http://www.becomingminimalist.com/2010/03/22/the-utopian-impact-of-desiring-less/comment-page-1/#comment-20885 tracysimplylivinginspain Thu, 29 Jul 2010 09:55:28 +0000 http://www.becomingminimalist.com/?p=2412#comment-20885 I agree that it is a basic human desire to want more, but don't you think what you desire is culturally influenced? We in the U.S. (and many first world countries) are, as you say, greatly influenced by advertising, peer pressure and even societal expectations. I remember reading a beautiful novel, La Romana by Alberto Moravia, the story of a prostitute in Rome. Her dream, which she repeated to herself often, was that her tiny, humble apartment be orderly and spotless. That was all she required to be happy, despite her rather sordid profession. When I read this, over 20 years ago, I was struck by the simplicity of her dream and how we Americans seem to be pressured to have bigger, at times unattainable dreams -- that if only we believe in ourselves and work hard we will attain them, and if we don't, we are somehow a failure, a loser. We don't all want to be millionaires, we don't all want to be famous. We should cultivate and value those small ideas of success. I think we would all be a little happier. I agree that it is a basic human desire to want more, but don’t you think what you desire is culturally influenced? We in the U.S. (and many first world countries) are, as you say, greatly influenced by advertising, peer pressure and even societal expectations. I remember reading a beautiful novel, La Romana by Alberto Moravia, the story of a prostitute in Rome. Her dream, which she repeated to herself often, was that her tiny, humble apartment be orderly and spotless. That was all she required to be happy, despite her rather sordid profession. When I read this, over 20 years ago, I was struck by the simplicity of her dream and how we Americans seem to be pressured to have bigger, at times unattainable dreams — that if only we believe in ourselves and work hard we will attain them, and if we don’t, we are somehow a failure, a loser. We don’t all want to be millionaires, we don’t all want to be famous. We should cultivate and value those small ideas of success. I think we would all be a little happier.

]]> By: Joshua Becker on Controversial Values, Minimalism with Children, and Inside-Out Simplicity « Far Beyond The Stars | Live a Minimalist Lifestyle and Work from Anywhere http://www.becomingminimalist.com/2010/03/22/the-utopian-impact-of-desiring-less/comment-page-1/#comment-20868 Joshua Becker on Controversial Values, Minimalism with Children, and Inside-Out Simplicity « Far Beyond The Stars | Live a Minimalist Lifestyle and Work from Anywhere Wed, 28 Jul 2010 14:20:20 +0000 http://www.becomingminimalist.com/?p=2412#comment-20868 [...] I once wrote a post on The Utopian Impact of Desiring Less. As I was writing the post, I came to the conclusion that a world where people desired less rather [...] [...] I once wrote a post on The Utopian Impact of Desiring Less. As I was writing the post, I came to the conclusion that a world where people desired less rather [...]

]]> By: M. Matthews http://www.becomingminimalist.com/2010/03/22/the-utopian-impact-of-desiring-less/comment-page-1/#comment-19647 M. Matthews Sat, 26 Jun 2010 15:31:00 +0000 http://www.becomingminimalist.com/?p=2412#comment-19647 Regarding Everett Bogue's post mentioned here, assuming the reference to it is accurate (I didn't read the original)...the trouble with this idea is that if everyone abandoned ownership of the "thing", lets say in this case, a car, eventually nobody that ever needs a car for some reason will have one. Then, cars will become a commodity and if you should ever require a car, it will become prohibitively expensive to access one. (because if minds don't change...and face it, not everyone is going to abandon the idea of selling us something at ridiculous profit, then somebody is going to exploit the carless community) Case in point, the rototiller. My wife and I maintain a large garden and grow lots of our own veggies. Each year we need to till the garden but we don't have a tiller. We rent one, because buying one large enough to meet our need is expensive. Lots of people have them and routinely loan them out...so renting one is cheap...but, if everybody had a garden but nobody had a tiller except that one guy with the capitalist mindset...he's gonna make a fortune. (unless everything in "the cloud" is free) We should all keep in mind that minimalism can take many forms and not everyone can be happy living in the urban cloud. Our idea of minimalism involves minimal neighbors, minimal buses, minimal light pollution, and maximum crickets. Regarding Everett Bogue’s post mentioned here, assuming the reference to it is accurate (I didn’t read the original)…the trouble with this idea is that if everyone abandoned ownership of the “thing”, lets say in this case, a car, eventually nobody that ever needs a car for some reason will have one. Then, cars will become a commodity and if you should ever require a car, it will become prohibitively expensive to access one. (because if minds don’t change…and face it, not everyone is going to abandon the idea of selling us something at ridiculous profit, then somebody is going to exploit the carless community)
Case in point, the rototiller. My wife and I maintain a large garden and grow lots of our own veggies. Each year we need to till the garden but we don’t have a tiller. We rent one, because buying one large enough to meet our need is expensive. Lots of people have them and routinely loan them out…so renting one is cheap…but, if everybody had a garden but nobody had a tiller except that one guy with the capitalist mindset…he’s gonna make a fortune. (unless everything in “the cloud” is free)
We should all keep in mind that minimalism can take many forms and not everyone can be happy living in the urban cloud. Our idea of minimalism involves minimal neighbors, minimal buses, minimal light pollution, and maximum crickets.

]]> By: Aaron http://www.becomingminimalist.com/2010/03/22/the-utopian-impact-of-desiring-less/comment-page-1/#comment-19056 Aaron Sat, 05 Jun 2010 11:23:31 +0000 http://www.becomingminimalist.com/?p=2412#comment-19056 The excess in our lives is amazing The material possessions we "need" so badly end up weighing us down because of all they require from us (money, time, care, transport, storage, etc.). I am amazed at how we, as humans, can accumulate so much in our lives over time. We work our lives to build our own prisons. The brick and mortar are the things we thought we couldn't do without. I currently work in business, and the marketer's job is to figure out how to make us, as consumers, feel incomplete without their product. And most of have bought that lie. I have been working on becoming a minimalist for about a year now, and I just now discovered this online community committed to the cause. All of you give me encouragement. We get bombarded by the advertisers trying to sell us hedonism; so being here, and talking about it helps remind me of what's important. I need good reminders. The excess in our lives is amazing The material possessions we “need” so badly end up weighing us down because of all they require from us (money, time, care, transport, storage, etc.). I am amazed at how we, as humans, can accumulate so much in our lives over time. We work our lives to build our own prisons. The brick and mortar are the things we thought we couldn’t do without.

I currently work in business, and the marketer’s job is to figure out how to make us, as consumers, feel incomplete without their product. And most of have bought that lie. I have been working on becoming a minimalist for about a year now, and I just now discovered this online community committed to the cause. All of you give me encouragement. We get bombarded by the advertisers trying to sell us hedonism; so being here, and talking about it helps remind me of what’s important. I need good reminders.

]]> By: Inspired by Minimalism: 52 Awesome Resources on Simplicity | Calm Growth http://www.becomingminimalist.com/2010/03/22/the-utopian-impact-of-desiring-less/comment-page-1/#comment-17678 Inspired by Minimalism: 52 Awesome Resources on Simplicity | Calm Growth Tue, 04 May 2010 23:30:04 +0000 http://www.becomingminimalist.com/?p=2412#comment-17678 [...] the utopian impact of desiring less (Becoming Minimalist) [...] [...] the utopian impact of desiring less (Becoming Minimalist) [...]

]]> By: Simple Living News Update http://www.becomingminimalist.com/2010/03/22/the-utopian-impact-of-desiring-less/comment-page-1/#comment-16438 Simple Living News Update Mon, 29 Mar 2010 14:02:51 +0000 http://www.becomingminimalist.com/?p=2412#comment-16438 [...] the utopian impact of desiring less [...] [...] the utopian impact of desiring less [...]

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