Social Networks Bring More Simplicity

A new book Connected: The Surprising Poer of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives (2009, Little, Brown, and Co) has some important ideas for social change organizations. Create networks! If you really want to bring about change, don't just send out information in the form of newsletters, web sites, or magazines, create networks! You've probably heard something about the ideas of Christakis and Fowler — the news stories announce the fact that if your friend loses weight, you are more likely to lose weight. If your friend's friend is happy, you are more likely to be happy. In other words, emotions and actions spread. As I've said for many years (I heard it from someone and I like it) we become like the people we hang around. When I was a community college administrator I was a much stuffier person than when I was hanging around with faculty. I always used this as cautionary advice to people, telling them to be careful who they hung around with.

But it's just as important for social groups to understand. If you want people to behave differently, form groups and work with the leaders of the groups. If you want people to be more altruistic, select an altristic person as leader and give him or her information about the importance of altruism. If you want people to act more sustainably and reduce their carbon footprint, form a group and encourage the members to bring about changes. They are more likely to do this when they talk about the changes in their group than if you just give them their information on an individual basis.

What this says to me is that simplicity circles are very important! People are much more likely to live simply if they are in a simplicity group. Further, the effect will be even wider because each of these people is a member of other groups and they will affect their members.

We've always known that there are certain things that happen more efficiently if people act together. The authors use the example of putting out a fire. If you have people running to a river and carrying back buckets of water to a burning house, they are not as effective as the group that forms a line and passes the water along.

Further, it's clear that cooeration is part of our nature and has resulted at least in part, from evolution. There are just certain things done better if done with others — like fighting wild animals or predatory groups.

But we have forgotten all of this in the US. Our ultra individualistic tendencies have made us ignore the importance of groups. Now happiness research is showing that people who have strong social ties are both happier and healthier. Again, it seems like common sense, but we don't seem to pay attention to things in this culture until the academic researchers pronounce that something is so. The true test is that we must begin to act on this knowldege by not only helping to form social networks but by creating a culture that brings people together. We need more public spaces and festivals as well as shorter working hours and less commuting in private cars. We need to quit encouraging competition and making rich people into celebrities. The best thing we can do is create wealth equality, because inequality encourages people to be out for themselves and to put greed ahead of caring

Simplicity Circle Guide

Simplicity Circle Guide
Assumptions: We think that if we’re rich, we’ll be happy. In truth, after a certain point, more money does not correlate with greater happiness. In fact, it could hinder it, particularly as the income gap grows. (The biggest predictor of the health of a nation, as measured in longevity, is the wealth gap. Even the rich person in this country does not live as long as the average person in Denmark, where the gap is small.)
The biggest contributor to happiness is connection with others, something that has continued to decline.
Our consumerism is destroying the planet: polluting, using up resources, and causing global warming/climate crisis.
Our goal is to create a belief system than moves from “every man for himself” to one in which “we’re all in this together.”
Defining Simplicity:
Simplicity as Clarity: Living an uncluttered life, reducing chaos in terms of things as well as emotions.
Simplicity as True Wealth: Reducing outer wealth so we can increase inner wealth.
Simplicity as the examined life: Making conscious choices about our behavior for the well being of people and the planet.
Simplicity Circles: An Approach to Personal and Social Change.
Assumptions: We learn and change best when we learn from each other and tell our stories. We learn best when we examine our own lives, with books and experts ideas used only as a catalyst. In Simplicity there are no experts; the wisdom is in the people.
Areas Affected:
Money: Simplicity helps people save money and stay out of debt.
Things: Simplicity helps reduce clutter and consumerism.
Work: Simplicity helps us find a way to do our true work and reduce our “false” work;
Time: We’re meant to be enjoying and savoring our lives. Simplicity helps us find more time for things that matter and learn to move in a leisurely fashion that allows us to feel and think deeply.
Connection with Others: Happiness comes from connection with others with empathy, community, and joie de vivre.
Connection with Nature: If we don’t love nature, we won’t save it; we’ll only love nature when we engage with it.
Connection with the Universe: Simplicity allows us to develop our contemplative skills and be open to the forces of life.
Circle Format: Meet weekly and discuss these points. (Periodically talk first in pairs.)
I. What did you do this week to simplify your life: ( What ways did you save money? What simple pleasures did you engage in? In what ways did you “live lightly” and reduce your impact on the planet? How did you incorporate reflection into your life? In what ways were you able to slow down? How did you participate in community or make connections with others? How did you pursue your particular passion? How did you contribute to the common good?)
II. What new insights did you have about simplicity? (From reading, self, and media) Keep a journal.
III. Bring a quotation to share. (In particular, find a Thoreau quote.)

Simplicity is more than saving money

Most people think simplicity is just about saving money. Too many people are looking for temporary ways to be frugal, planning to go back to their profligate spending when the economy improves. But my forthcoming book is called Less is More, a broader approach to simplicity. It's fun to do a "fill in the blank" game. Take this sentence: Less consumerism is more ______________. More what?
I did this recently with a group of Unitarians and we got a lot of interesting responses. There were the obvious ones like, Less consumerism is more savings. But there were other, more unique, responses:

Less consumerism is more generosity: There is something about focusing on more, more, more in the consumer society that seems to make people selfish. They never feel they have enough, so they're sure not going to share anything.

Less consumerism means more creativity: In the consumer society, when you run into a problem, you buy something to solve it. But when you resist that impulse, you become more creative in you problem solving.

Less consumerism is more balance: We're all ultimately looking for lives of balance. In particular, we're sick of our frantic, frenetic lives. People who consume less usually have less debt, often allowing them to cut back on their work hours and take the time for things like exercise, reading, and naps , activities that bring balance.

Maybe my favorite is: Less consumerism is more reflection: If there's anything we need in the culture is time to think, time to make conscious decisions, and shopping takes a lot of time! (Further, almost nothing works, so you have to take it back, having more of your time stolen from you). In fact, that's the way I define simplicity: It's the "examined life," taking time to think through your decisions and choosing what's best for the welfare of people and the planet.

Try it yourself. Thinking about this will lead you to conclude that less consumerism means more life.

Simplicity and Obama’s Inaugural Address

If anyone wonders what the Simplicity movement is about, they need only read Obama’s inaugural speech, because his underlying themes strongly support the values of this movement. Let me select a few of his phrases (in bold face) to show you what I mean.


First, most basic of all, Simplicity is about challenging the belief system that the pursuit of wealth is the ultimate human goal. Or, as Obama put it, the greatness of the United States has not been built by those who “ seek only the pleasures of riches and fame.” He goes further — he blames our crumbling economy on “greed and irresponsiblity.” Obama understands that there is more to life than making money.

But the Simplicity movement advocates more than just personal downshifting in order to experience the satisfactions that come from reducing our outward wealth so that we have greater inner wealth. We also are committed to policies that create greater national well being — in particular, an economy that reduces the gap between the rich and the poor. Why? Because a large wealth gap creates a cutthroat economy with people scrambling for more, worried they’ll be left out in the cold. This mad scramble creates a society of “me first” that undermines the common good. The only way we can be free of this obsession with more is when that gap is reduced and we are equal and we realize that we’re all in this together.

As Obama puts it, we must “promise that all are equal, all are free and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.... and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous. The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our gross domestic product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart — not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.

Obama also focuses on some of the specifics of the Simplicity movement. One of our central concerns is that our egregious consumerism, which is based on oil, destroys the earth and sends us into wars: As Obama puts it, “each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.” He continues: that we must “roll back the specter of a warming planet.”

Obama echoes one of the Simplicity movement long standing protests: that the US has only 5% of the Earth’s population, but uses more than 25% of the world’s energy: “And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to the suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect.”

Finally, those of us in the Simplicity movement have long advocated regulation of the economy — Obama says that “this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control.”

Further, those of us who have been spokespersons for the Simplicity movement have always been challenged with the taunt: “What if everyone cut back on their spending? What would that do to the economy?” Well, it wasn’t us who undermined the economy! It was the reckless spenders, both large and small! We in the Simplicity movement continue to answer that question with : “What’s an economy for? So that s few can become egregiously rich? Or is it for the greater good for the greater number?” To bring about that change we need regulation.

Obama’s expression of the values of the Simplicity movement is very inspiring. But there’s one little item that I suspect few people really appreciated: He spoke of “the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job.” The Simplicity movement has long advocated a reduction of work hours as a way to improve people’s well being. And in these times, it’s interesting to note that this was a strategy used during the Depression: The Kellog Company reduced the work week to thirty hours so that they could spread the jobs around and reduce unemployment. No only did this help with the economy, but the Kellog workers came to understand one of the central tenants of the Simplicity movement: We must have more time for the things that are important. We can’t spend all of our hours in the workplace. Our health, our relationships — and even our democracy — all suffer.

When we talk about living simply, it’s not just about saving the planet or the economy, it’s about having the time for friends, family, and citizen involvement — relationships. The happiness research tells us that, after a certain point, more money does not increase happiness. The core of happiness is relationships, and our time starved, frenetic lifesyles, in their pursuit of “the pleasures of riches and fame,” have robbed us of that happiness.

It’s clear that Obama understands the Simplicity movement, and those of us in the movement who worked hard for his election can feel particularly gratified.

Simplicity Quotation: plentitude

"plentitude—the sufficiency that liberates from need and greed."
Theodore Roszak, The Making of a Counter Culture and The Making of an Elder Culture.

This is a nice way to think about Simplicity. If it doesn't feel liberating, you're not doing it right. I like this because it calls for reflection on our part. There's no rule that tells you that you can't own a car or watch television.... it suggests that you must decide about the point at which you rise above need and greed, that you have enough. This is plentitude.

Hello Everyone!

I'm excited to be starting a new blog around the themes of voluntary simplicity and "less is more." With the economy circling the drain, the concepts of simplifying, slowing down and reducing our footprint on the earth have sparked huge interest. It's too bad it took a loser of a President and an economic meltdown to achieve it, but any wakeup call in our dire circumstances is worth it.

Anyway, I wanted to say hello and happy holidays, and watch this space!