The simple answer is from the past, before much modern technology had been developed. It is wrong to look too fondly on things that we imagine came from some kind of ‘golden age’ because such an age never occurred. The distant past had a number of advocates of the simple life, Socrates, Jesus, Buddha, and others, but it is the not-too-distant past that this blog will draw most heavily upon. In the last fifty to one hundred years, we have seen probably the most dramatic changes to everyday life that have ever been witnessed, so we are not far removed from a way of living that seems strange to us now, but almost within our grasp. Like ‘the day before yesterday’ those times have gone, but if we work at it, we can capture the essence of them and select those things which have been lost which should have been cherished and nurtured.
We gather most of our impressions of how things were done in the past from books, films, paintings and photographs, but these can give artificially simplistic ideas about what the past was like. We may be able to see a reconstruction of an 1850s kitchen, but we can never be aware of the levels of light, the smells, the noise etc. … we are left with a fairly ‘rosy’ impression of what it would have been like. Life has always been very hard for the vast majority of people on the planet; what seems to us to be a nice or even a fashionable little pastime, like making bread or growing potatoes, was just another part of the great drudgery of living and ‘making ends meet’. We do not want to return to simple drudgery to live however; we want to live simply, but happily. We want our simplicity to be a joy, not a burden; to achieve this we need to use technology carefully. We need to look at technical advancements and, whilst never accepting them merely because they exist, we need to evaluate them carefully to see whether they can help us live the way we aim to live; that is what technology is for!
Various movements and individuals have tried to develop a simple approach to life developed from spiritual/philosophical ideals. Among them are many Buddhist groups, and those following the monastic lifestyle in the Celtic, Catholic and Orthodox Christian traditions. In more modern times various religious groups such as the Mennonites and Amish, the Quakers and the Shakers have all developed a simple approach to life from which all of us can learn. More recently still, secular ideas of minimalism have made an impact on the lives of many. Tolstoy, Thoreau, Gandhi, and others have written of simplicity and those writings have influenced countless numbers of individuals, and persuaded many to change their lives, some a little, others vastly.
‘Minimalism’ isn't the same as ‘simple living’, though some overlap of ideas is common. It may be a minimalist that sits at a table in a white room eating an apple, but it’s the simple life that gets you outside growing those apples, harvesting those apples, cooking those apples. A simple kitchen will have lots of tools for doing the job, the kind of thing that a minimalist wouldn't want. I'm not against minimalism in any way, and we could all look at minimising things in our lives, but this blog is about radical simple living, and that’s very different!
One often-overlooked source of ‘modern’ simplicity comes from Scottish philosopher Thomas Reid. Reid was a key member of the Scottish Enlightenment and a founder of the Scottish School of Common Sense, which argued that the feelings and actions of humans were governed by basic principles of common sense. This may have been a strong influence on Samuel Smiles, another Scot, who wrote several Victorian best sellers including Self Help (1859), which provided the English-speaking world with hundreds of easy-to-remember quotes on self-improvement. One can sum up Smiles’ philosophy as “keep clean, and work hard”. It is surprising how often Smiles is quoted (usually unaccredited) in self-sufficiency books and websites. Much of the ‘homespun’ advice to families up to the middle of the twentieth century comes from Smiles. I have also found Smiles quoted in a political setting where his words are used to promote that kind of ‘rugged individualism’ which usually boils down to the idea that we all need to look after ourselves and the state should not be involved. I don’t think that was what Smiles was saying at all, but feel free to disagree with me on that!
“The spirit of self-help is the root of all genuine growth in the individual.”
“A place for everything and everything in its place.”
“The experience gathered from books, though often valuable, is but the nature of learning, whereas the experience gained from actual life is of the nature of wisdom.”
-Samuel Smiles
Common sense still has to be at the heart of our simple life. We need to do things because they are the common sense way to achieve our goals. Cooking, housekeeping, growing food and bringing up children all require a ‘common sense’ approach, otherwise they are not simple at all.
‘Victorian’ homes were traditional places where people from all classes tried to display as many material possessions as possible. Wallpaper, curtains, potted plants, pianos, vases, plates, framed pictures and other artefacts filled drawing-rooms and front parlours. To our eyes these look like rooms full of clutter, a mishmash of styles and functions. William Morris (1834 –96) and others led a movement towards a more simple way of furnishing homes, using well-designed craftsman-made items. This became known as the ‘Arts and Crafts Movement’. To be honest, it still looks a bit cluttered at times to our modern eyes, but the move towards less items of better quality was an important one and one we should aim to learn from.
Morris very openly drew on medieval ideas to develop his style and that led him to the use of traditional materials and craftsmanship, sometimes producing a monastic feel to his work. He did come up with a famous maxim for all those who seek a simple, yet beautiful space to live.
also need to note that Morris was concerned for the wellbeing of the craftsmen who made the objects and materials he used, and in this we see the start of some kind of realization that the goods that we use need to be ethically sourced.
“If you want a golden rule that will fit everything, this is it: Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.” ~ William Morris
Homesteading
Homesteading is a familiar lifestyle for many in North America. Use of the term in the United States dates back to the Homestead Act (1862) and hit its heyday in the period between the end of the American Civil War and the start of the Twentieth century. Perhaps most of us get our concept of homesteading from the ‘Little House on the Prairie’ and its companion books, written by Laura Ingalls Wilder. This view of a homesteading family as seen through the eyes of Laura as a girl, has had a potent effect on many who read it as children. In my experience any conversation with a self-sufficient homesteader gets back to the influence of these books very quickly. I have heard all kinds of theories about the alleged ghost writing, or at least the heavy editing, of these books (by her daughter), but nothing distracts from their charm.
It is a little known fact that many African-American families were given plots of land to start up homesteading after the Civil War in an initiative developed by Abraham Lincoln himself. Homesteading is still an important way of life for many in America and it is interesting to note how strongly those who adopt it believe they are the inheritors of that pioneer spirit which drove their great grandparents ever farther westwards.
Homesteading has its followers among those on the liberal left who see it as an expression of political disobedience and a way of avoiding corporate interference, whilst those homesteaders on the right regard it as a stand against ‘big government’ and see it as the last refuge of individualism in modern America. Perhaps it is just that most homesteaders see it as a way of life which allows them to develop strong family and community ties and lets them become self-sufficient, free to make their own decisions.
In Western Europe the homesteading movement has never gained momentum, with most self-sufficient growers and farmers calling themselves ‘small holders’ and less likely to see their choice of occupation as being a political or philosophical statement.
Counter Culture
Hippies are not normally considered as the inspiration for a simple lifestyle, but they did have a profound effect on western society. Starting famously in 1967, “the summer of love” in San Francisco, they developed the spirit that was to lead many to live an alternative lifestyle. So many alternative lifestyles were developed, that by the 1970s, a whole range of “counter cultures” were on offer. Most significant of these to our cause were the “green movement” (not yet to become a political force) and the related movement towards self-sufficiency. This was helped by some influential books of the time; “Living the Good Life: How to Live Sanely and Simply in a Troubled World” by Helen and Scott Nearing (1970) in the US and “Farming for Self-Sufficiency - Independence on a Five Acre Farm” by John Seymour (1973) in the UK, followed by his “The Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency” (1976). A great deal of attention was also given to the publication of “Small Is Beautiful: A Study of Economics as If People Mattered” (1973) a collection of essays by British economist E. F. Schumacher. These books changed many peoples’ lives by convincing them that they do have the ability to become more self-sufficient and less dependent on modern industrial and agricultural techniques. These movements may have started without the development of the ‘Hippy Movement’, but the general sprit of the age led to new ideas about how to live taking root more quickly than might have been thought possible.
What ideas support Simple Living today ?
- Just three things are important;
- The desire to live more simply and avoid a life that is more complicated than necessary
- The need to care for and cherish the environment
- The belief that simplicity is a gateway to greater understanding of the true values of life and/or a more spiritual approach to life.
Throughout this blog I will work on the assumption that simple living, environmentally ‘green’ living and ethical living are all so connected that one cannot truly be doing one without having given some attention to the other two! To me, these ideas are encapsulated by the American Quaker John Woolman, a man who thought hard about the consequences of his everyday actions and took steps to live in a way that was compatible with his beliefs.
“The produce of the earth is a gift from our gracious creator to the inhabitants, and to impoverish the earth to support outward greatness appears to be an injury to the succeeding age.”
~ John Woolman
(C) Ray Lovegrove 2015 2022
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