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In our part of the world we're suffocating in material affluence. In part physically, because of excessive eating and drinking, and waste and pollution problems recoil. In part socially and spiritually, since we only sense the material world, what can be measured and weighed. Though fewer and fewer people are needed to create the affluence of products, we are constantly speeding up, except those who can't or won't keep pace - the ostracised ones. Isolation and loss of meaning prevail.
From survival to living
Ecology protests against waste and pollution. Ecology, an increasingly significant economic factor, has yet to tackle rationality, the reason that only accepts whatever lends itself to measuring and weighing. How can we get to grips with the rationality that always wants to specialise, standardise, systematise, make predictable and effective, centralise and concentrate - what has been called the 'iron cage of rationalism'. The individual is losing more and more time and space. Paradoxically, this is being called development, while indeed it is a narrowing of our cages (i.e. time and latitude) that will end up substituting robots or computers for people.
People feel they are being phased-out and discarded, since often they are so specialised that they may not 'fit' in some other cage. In some cases, their plight can be remedied by courses and training - possibly a bureaucrat course to upgrade them to a superior level cage. From this level rules and decisions are communicated in a completely objective matter, with no influence or responsibility, merely subject to a rationality and economy that has not been forced upon us as of today, but has been instilled in the last 200-300 years. Of course, 'suffering' has been averted in our part of the world, unless we insist on believing that affluence is a 'must'. Actually, we do have the option of passing from 'worse' to 'better' and from surviving to living.
Lifestyle and consumer habits
This is the transition that we are experiencing right now, in a quest for the emotional common sense, wisdom and spirituality, a search for ourselves, for community, and for whatever is beyond ourselves - some 'meaning' beyond sheer necessity. But in order to get on with our search we need to break out of our cages, quit the 'rat race', escape the maelstrom of affluence and reconquer time and space.
Inevitably, once escaped from the predictability and safety of the cage, a life prisoner is bound to be vulnerable.
Only simpletons do it willingly - perhaps they just aren't any wiser. Or who knows - perhaps they miss themselves and their freedom? Simpletons need some sort of haven without debts and subsidies, rules and regulations. Some kind of experimentarium where they can conquer back their lives. More specifically, these could be debt- and subsidy-free development zones, in which land could be leased from foundations, government, county or municipality. The lease would probably amount to the cost of low-grade farmland, in Denmark some DKK 3000-4000 per hectare annually. With savings of somewhere between DKK 50,000 and 200,000 it should be possible to build oneself adequate housing, alone own or with others, at very modest fixed costs. Today it would be possible to build a good ecological dwelling, including heating, bathroom and separation/ multitoilet, at a material cost of less than DKK 1,000 per sqm. Annual spending for heating, power, water, insurance and lease can be kept at DKK 10,000 or less.
Admittedly, this would require a conversion of lifestyle and consuming habits - but isn't that what it's all about?
The KISS principle
Everything will be organised based on the KISS principle: Keep It Simple Sweetheart. Meaning that practical problems will be solved at the lowest and least sophisticated technical level. E.g. instead of a noisy, energy-consuming cooker hood, we'll just have a pipe conducted through the roof-ridge which will provide natural venting. Nothing can go to pieces, no wear, tear and repair. In the end we'll only need power for lighting (and perhaps radio, TV and computer). This leaves us with a power consumption of 10-20 percent of the present standard, and we'll be living in a quiet house, where the only noises and vibrations are made by ourselves.
The KISS principle takes us away from cooker hoods, refrigerators, dishwashers, mixers, washing machines, cars, noise, stress and rush, mortgages and interest, outside work, transportation, repairs, expenses and dependency. It takes us to simplicity and manageability. Procedures become more time-consuming, but also provide a more restful and stationary life. Costs are lower, no interest and mortgages to pay, meaning more freedom of action in time and space.
So we can provide a better basis for learning how to live. In addition, we'll be helping people in the third world to survive - partly because we choose to stop drawing on resources that we are now draining from nature and the third world, partly because we shift our vision from the delusion and misuse of materialism: oversized houses, cars and dogs. The latter point may be quite significant. So experimental free-zones could be made a package solution needed for solving local problems with the global problems in mind.
Experimental free zones
More specifically, in Denmark this would require a softening up of the geographical zoning system, enabling exemptions in both rural and urban zones, in order to create experimental free-zones.
Possibly, legislation, principles and attitudes would be closely resembling the traditional organisation of Danish allotment gardens - providing users with maximum freedom, without this giving rise to speculative investment and appreciation
Principles for experimental free-zones
- No subsidies
- No tax deductions for interest and depreciation
- Self-funding, no mortgages
- A high degree of self-sufficiency
- Low building and running costs
- Unsophisticated ecological solutions for resource use - no refuse
The experimental free-zone would be a particularly attractive option for entrepreneurs and free-lancers of the low-cost type: Culture operators, small-scale artisans, arts-and-crafts, consultancy and training operators, PR and media firms, smallholdings/market gardens, gastronomes, inventors, connoisseurs of the art of living, etc.
Presumably, those finding the experimental free-zones an attractive alternative would be people who want to quit the rat-race and are fed up with their narrow, rational iron cages, and who cannot bear the thought of waiting for retirement, before they can start living. They have life experience and are able to free the means needed for venturing into a self-reliant life in the experimental free-zones. A life that remains basically secure, also once they retire, because of low running costs.
Downshifting
In the USA, they call themselves 'downshifters', i.e. people who gear down and get off the race. In Canada, they call it 'voluntary simplicity'. Probably, such counter-movements exist everywhere in the industrialised world - conscious or subconscious breathing spaces.
Steen Møller built his own ecological house, located at Søgaard Andelsbrug, an eco-community at Sdr. Felding, Denmark. He offers guided tours and lectures on eco-construction and more.
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