"How would the ordinary middle-class consumer – I should say middle-class citizen – deal with a lifestyle of radical simplicity? By radical simplicity I essentially mean a very low but biophysically sufficient material standard of living, a form of life that will be described in more detail below. In this essay I want to suggest that radical simplicity would not be as bad as it might first seem, provided we were ready for it and wisely negotiated its arrival, both as individuals and as communities. Indeed, I am tempted to suggest that radical simplicity is exactly what consumer cultures need to shake themselves awake from their comfortable slumber; that radical simplicity would be in our own, immediate, self-interests." (Source: Permaculturenews.org)

Gloomy analysis of our consumer society after post-growth collapse. Forbidden reading for anyone who believes "our way of life is non-negotiable". Truth is, nature will not negotiate and things are likely to be a bit less "nice" than described in this article.

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