The Philosophy of Small

[LosAngelesVandweller]

I've had the vague, persistent, nagging question in the back of my brain. What's wrong with being small? In a societal sense, bigger is better I suppose. We exist in a culture that exalts noise/spectacle/growth. The bigger it gets the more relevant/important it is. Our economic model is certainly based on growth...regardless of the limits of our planet. It's...actually insane. I mean, how many Walmarts can
We have? 

I'm beginning to understand that I loath this. I'm beginning to understand that it's a very insanity based mode of thought. And I'm not even that that smart. Lotta folks are wiser/smarter than me, So what the hell is going on????

I have a very dear friend who asked me recently, "Why haven't you gotten married and had kids yet? You're very selfish." 

Kind of absurd, right? Christ, I think I'm doing the world a service by NOT having kids(not to denigrate those who are of course. Becoming a good parent is perhaps the most noble/honorable thing a person can do). And sometimes I feel I'd love to raise kids. It'd be awesome...the most human thing ever, right? But holy hell, this place has too many people already in my opinion. And I'm empathetic to a fault, and I read the fucking news, and people are starving/dying of thirsts out there's because there's too many people. 

And, what's wrong with being small?

Anyhow, sorry for the rant. I realize now that I don't have a formulated point to make, only an observation. And....nothing wrong with small, right??

 

[Theadyn]

Seems people have been conditioned since birth to want more, more, more. So thinking smaller and less goes against the way most people have been conditioned to think. They are thinking with their TV brains, least that's how I see it. Thinking the complete opposite is hard for others to fathom. It's scary for them not to follow the pack. I pity them.

 

[jimindenver]

I think it is human nature to want to improve on ones situation. Having parents born in the depression meant I grew up with the concept of meeting my needs from the bottom up and stopping there. Things that were nice to have but not necessary was seen as a waste of money and space. Now people are at a loss of how to improve their lives and turn to advertizing to know what they should do. Bigger is better as long as it has a fancy name plate on it and any more the fancy name plate is the most important thing out there. The only job it may do well is impress others but that is what we are told is important.

 

[raygun]

I'm all for living small. I used to drive people nuts with my minimalism but now that it has become more popular, I find that I don't have to explain myself as often. It's definitely cheaper and easier to pick up and move when you want (which tends to be quite a bit).

 

[RVTravel]

Society sets norms that many think you are obligated to stick to. That is nutso ; ). Don't be a sheeple.

 

[Wabbit]

LosAngelesVandweller, I don't have much to add, but here is what I do have. Sh1t stopped making sense for me when I realized that I was living a big lie. It was only a few years ago that I realized that everything I "knew" was based on falsehoods, half-truths, indoctrination, and whatever the hell else is going on. Yeah, lol, I'm kinda dense. Before that realization, I ranted about this and that and the injustice of it all. It never really occurred to me that whatever I was on about, many other people had already tread that same path. Many if not most of these people were smarter, wiser, and way more motivated than me to try and fix the system. They could not or were not allowed to "fix the system". It is a set up from the get go. I realize this is prob sounding a bit kooky, but it is what it is. What better way to get the masses to ignore the truth than by labeling the truth "crazy talk" or whatever other labels they are using that day. My "realizations" and exactly how they came to pass, cost me my ignorance. For many people, ignorance is bliss. When I lost my ignorance, there was a bit of a struggle for me to find my sanity. There were times back then that I almost wanted my ignorance back, but that was only in weak moments. I do not want ignorance in anything ever again, but that is not totally under my control. Not sure if any of this makes sense, I do start to ramble at times lol.

 

[akrvbob]

Okay, I deleted the whole off-topic thread about women. It was so totally off-topic it was easy from that point of view.

However the whole thing was so angry at the government and felt an awful lot like hating women that it's just not going to be discussed here.

I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume I just miss-read your meaning, but I'm certain many others will take it as hatred toward women and that just isn't going to happen here even as a miss-understanding.
Bob

 

[akrvbob]

LosAngelesVandweller, I don't have much to add, but here is what I do have. Sh1t stopped making sense for me when I realized that I was living a big lie. It was only a few years ago that I realized that everything I "knew" was based on falsehoods, half-truths, indoctrination, and whatever the hell else is going on.

I basically agree with this! When I first moved into a van and my life did nothing but get...

* better
* happier
* free-er

Then I knew that basically everything I'd been told about the American Dream (more, bigger, better) was either a giant lie or I was so strange it didn't work for me. Having met lots of people like me I tend to think it works for a whole lot less people than society tells us. Maybe the majority are happy with it, but just barely. I suspect very few people really are, they are just very self-deluded.

The rate of suicide, depression, addiction, obesity and alienation in this country would very much support that.

In the last 20 years I've made Anthropology my hobby and studied it trying to understand how things went so terribly wrong and how we fell into this horrible pit of lies. The only reasonable conclusion I can reach is that civilization was just a giant miss-step down the wrong path. Humans evolved to live very simple lives with very few possessions as nomadic tribes in harmony with nature. Every indication was it was a very, very good life. Civilization is just the opposite and every indication is it's a very, very bad life. At least it is for the nearly one billion (with a B) people who are going to starve this year. http://www.worldhunger.org/articles/Learn/world hunger facts 2002.htm
Bob

 

[HarmonicaBruce]

Humans evolved to live very simple lives with very few possessions as nomadic tribes in harmony with nature. Every indication was it was a very, very good life. Civilization is just the opposite and every indication is it's a very, very bad life.

Bob, 

When all is good, the population can double every 25 years.  That's an average of 4 kids per couple.  At that rate, a population would multiply by a million in 250 years.  The indication that life wasn't good for pre-technology nomads is the fact that the population never got very big.  It wasn't until civilization that populations really grew.  What kept the population down for the pre-civilized peoples?  I believe it was probably war, natural disaster, disease, and starvation.  I don't think the ancient nomads were practicing population control, like is done in China today.  If they did, it was probably via infanticide, or how the eskimos are said to have controlled their populations.  None of these things are good.  
   
And Bob, maybe a billion people will go hungry, but that also means 3 or 4 billion won't.

 

[AltTransBikes]

<a href="http://www.ecobooks.com/books/smbeaut.htm">Small is Beautiful</a>

 

[HarmonicaBruce]

How do you know that... Anyways, just wondering where you get your information/facts from?

Here's a good article about world population, from before the ice age to today:here.
Here's the Census Bureau estimates of world population from 10,000 bc:here.

I wasn't saying the population WOULD double every 25 years, I was just showing the math, that if it did, which would be very feasible, then in 250 years it would increase by a factor of 1000.  That's a conservative number, it used to be common for women to have 10 kids.  According to the article, world population at the dawn of agriculture, 9,000 bc, was 6 million.  I wonder why world population wasn't more than that?  Didn't people hunt many north american animals to extinction?  Perhaps we had population booms, then an extinction, then mass starvation.  Whatever it was, something kept the population down, that's all I'm saying.  And most things that keep the population down are considered bad.

You know, at the dawn of agriculture, I'll bet there were people who had a choice, follow the herd and kill a big animal every now and then, or dig up the ground with a stick, plant some seeds, keep animals off it for months, hope the weather is good, then months later get some food.  If I had been there I would have said "that will never work.  Lets follow the herd!"
    

 

[akrvbob]

I deleted the post about presumption and arrogance. You're welcome to make your point but not by calling names.
Bob

 

[akrvbob]

Let's stay on topic of small is beautiful.
Bob

 

[GrantRobertson]

I now work at a very large home supply store. (Won't say which one.) After just a few days of close exposure to all of the goods sold for people to decorate their back yards and all the craptastic tools, I had a kind of epiphany. I was looking at some of the merchandise as I restraightened it on the shelf and in my mind's eye I could kind of see through it as if it were just a grid-line 3-D projection. Except without the actual grid lines. It was as if I could see through all the crap, past all the surfaces, past the surfaces of the steel racks holding all those hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of merchandise...

And I truly realized just how virtual and meaningless they all are. They are creations of a corporate world that wants you to waste your life so you can send them some of said life in the form of dollars.

Now, I have never been very materialistic. But this was beyond that. I realized that even material existence is kind of meaningless.

Here's the kicker: I am not spiritual at all. Nor did this experience make me spiritual. I don't believe in any supernatural anything. And I don't believe that the material world does not actually exist. I just realized how utterly meaningless all of it is.

Perhaps, to me, all that matters are the patterns of signals that go around in the, admittedly material, brain ...um... material in all of our heads. And do some of the patterns of signals going around in your brain matter make some of the other patterns of signals going around in your brain believe that they are happy.

 

[gypsychic]

I wonder if part of where our culture seems to get it's bigger is better attitude is from how large our land mass is and how many natural resources are within it. Without knowing much about Japanese culture, I would imagine being confined by the size of the islands that make up Japan has some relevance on how they view space, allocation of resources, success, etc. for themselves and others.

I've always liked small spaces although I didn't grow up in a city where large spaces were at a significant premium. Maybe I'm just lazy but the idea of keeping so many unused rooms clean just didn't make sense to me. How many rooms does each person in a family need to occupy. I'd rather live in a nicely laid out efficiency apartment then a 2,000 ft apartment. And 2,000 sq ft isn't big in today's standards in most places in the US. Just not my cup of tea.

The idea that if 1 is good then 2 or more would be better when it comes to material goods, I believe has to do with several things. The ability to have a choice is very meaningful to most people. Having multiple items of everything is so easy to do with the relative low cost of most goods made available for many reasons at this particular time in history. The idea to have a stocked larder to make it through rough times was imparted to me by my grandparents. Having enough meant security. That idea seems to have spilled over into all areas of life, not just a well stocked pantry. And I wasn't taught when enough is enough. I doubt I'm the only one. The feeling of having physical things to give us a sense of security over the unknowable future seems prudent. Its now taken to the extreme.

That extreme is also reported on and idolized by so many through media. In the ever escalating pursuit of ratings, the extremes are shown, such as large homes, large wardrobes, multiple fancy cars, etc. These extremes become normalized by repeat exposure. That only helps corporations that want to continually sell more and more. If it didn't help these powerful corporations, I'm sure a different view would be shown by the media.

There are so many reasons the idea of bigger is better is prevalent today. Going against the flow is difficult. Many people are searching for security, or meaning, or blindly trying to fill a void they haven't identified.

Downsizing takes intention. When you're caught up in the rat race it's difficult to have time to question. Feeling secure that your ability to handle anything life throws at you in the future takes a belief in yourself and abilities that is difficult to cultivate on your own.

I feel like I've gotten off track writing this. I'll think on it more and post again later.

 

[Wabbit]

Here's a good article about world population, from before the ice age to today...

Thanks for the links, that census one is interesting. And I hope you didn't feel like I was attacking you as a person with name calling, that was not my intention. I was criticizing the talking points that were presented, not you as a person. I should have been clearer.

 

[thatchickinpa]

Yeah, for a long while I believed in the American Dream, bigger is better, etc. The end result was that I didn't feel happy; I felt like an indentured slave.

I thought about how constant material growth is simply not sustainable. The only thing that I know of that grows without bounds is a cancer cell, and it ultimately kills its host. 

Many years ago I also decided not to have children ... simply because I didn't want to raise any. But I've also been asked the selfish question. My reply is that I believe it is more selfish to have children for the wrong reasons. 

The idea of simple living has intrigued me for the past few years. That is one of the reasons I've been lurking in these forums, reading about the lifestyle I may want as my own one day. 

Chick

 

[wagoneer]

I believe in filling my cup not overfilling my cup so it does not runneth over. small is good

 

[SoulRaven]

People don't like to admit it, but slavery was never really abolished. They just changed the name, and brainwashed everyone into believing that we are free.

We are all still slaves to the rich and powerful. What the government doesn't take from us, we are required to pay to others for our sustenance.

They drill into our heads that bigger is better, and more is better. Why? To further line the pockets of the rich.

It's all a big lie. I can live cheaply and happily in my 6' x 12' home on wheels, and still have every convenience I desire.

Now I don't think I could go any smaller and still remain as happy, so there are limits, but the limits are much smaller and much different than most of mainstream society has been hoodwinked into believing.

"Needs" and "Desires" are two separate entities, but only a select few seem to figure out the difference.

 

[flailer]

I have been edited off this thread twice now.  Do I dare attempt to say anything else?     (no hard feeling from this end)   

1. Small is GRAND.  Are we not the western versions of Buddhist monks?  Living a small footprint life; but living a LARGE life because of our various philosophies?   Which include FREEDOM! 

2. To say that we were "put here for a reason" is to imply that we have no meaningful self agency.  That we have to behave an a manner by someone else's rules, and do what they want, do what is acceptable.  
I brought my Son & Daughter into this world for THEIR benefit, not for MY benefit.  Wouldn't God do the same?   Free will?  There is no Fate?     

3. I say I am on MY own mission.  This is MY LIFE.  And living my life, my way, means a life of meaning, of searching.  (that means living honestly; not living the way I was trained, which is clearly - clearly flawed) 

4. I've lived pretty large in the past, and it didn't fit my skin well.  I really really prefer the Philosophy of Living Small   

but who am i? 

Hugs all around ~