Topic: When is the Revolution Coming?

What would a tipping point of simplicity look like? What kind of ecology would it take to make simplicity "cool"? Basically, the question is, under what conditions does it serve you to live more simply?

...we're driven by biology to overconsume.

So, that doesn't leave much possibility for any kind of revolution, does it?

"Evolution, not revolution."

The records seem to be fairly clear that only a handful of cultures began to overproduce. One of them just happened to overrun the planet.

Haeckel's old favorite, "Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny."

What I'm saying is that Savinar's point is completely true, but it's also bracketed within a more salient point that makes it not nearly as damning as Savinar would like it to be.

The tipping point can occur if people are doing it and other people see them doing it. People don't have to wait until the last second to make a change in their lives. We're not advocating simplicity. That's just about represing urges. We're advocating a different way of life that just happens to be less product rich.

Niggah what?

The first, prodigality: the propensity to eat right through all the food in the camp, even during objectively difficult times, "as if", Lillian said of the Montagnais, "the game they were to hunt was shut up in a stable". Basedow wrote of native Australians, their motto "might be interpreted in words to the effect that while there is plenty for today never care about tomorrow. On this account an Aboriginal inclined to make one feast of his supplies, in preference to a modest meal now and another by and by." Le Jeune even saw his Montagnais carry such extravagance to the edge of disaster.



A second and complementary inclination is merely prodigality's negative side: the failure to put by food surpluses, to develop food storage. For many hunters and gatherers, it appears, food storage cannot be proved technically impossible, nor is it certain that the people are unaware of the possibility. One must investigate instead what in the situation precludes the attempt. Gusinde asked this question, and for the Yahgan found the answer in the self same justifiable optimism. Storage would be "superfluous", "because through the entire year and with almost limitless generosity the she puts all kinds of animals at the disposal of the man who hunts and the woman who gathers. Storm or accident will deprive a family of these things for no more than a few days. Generally no one need reckon with the danger of hunger, and everyone almost any where finds an abundance of what he needs. Why then should anyone worry about food for the future... Basically our Fuegians know that they need not fear for the future, hence they do not pile up supplies. Year in and year out they can look forward to the next day, free of care...."

Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

No revolution. Sure. No change possible. Nigga please.

when we talk about one culture, are we talking Quinn-ish and saying that all civilizations are the same? or are we talking about the mess-o-potamia one? because, obviously there was more than one civilization. does anyone know anything about the eastern civilizations? cuz, shit, i dont.