As Simple as a Pencil

This is a story that, I think, encapsulates the contrast between Simplicity and Complexity.

“During the space race, the USA spent $11 million dollars developing
a Space Pen that would work in zero gravity conditions.
Russia, on the other hand, used a ... pencil."

Simplicity rules.

Now I've heard that the story isn't quite true, but the essence is based on fact; a Space Pen was developed by Fisher, and it was used in space by NASA.

This has similarities with another story, not perhaps so well known ...

It’s night time and a man is crawling around on
his hands and knees, looking for his car keys
underneath a lamp post. A woman comes along
and starts to help him. After they’ve been searching
together for a while the woman asks the man:
“Are you sure this is where you dropped them?”
The man replies: “No, I think I dropped them
somewhere else.”
“Then why are we looking here?” she enquires.
“Because this is where the light is.”
(from Turbulence 3)

As human being we always look for solutions where the status quo lies (where the light is). If we live in a technological age, then the solutions are always technological. We sometimes lack the vision to look on the fringes for the seemingly less obvious solutions (like the Pencil).

That's where Voluntary Simplicity has its strength. It's not immediately seen as a solution. But when you discover it . . . it becomes so natural and obvious. (like the Pencil).

The Hidden Switch:

In each of us there is a switch. Most of us are unaware of it, or we've hidden it away in our subconscious mind. But its consequences are devastating, and it is very difficult to switch it off.

It is called the desire switch. It's easy to see it working now, in every High Street, when you see the madness that is called the January Sales.

At this time of the year the roads leading into Exeter are chocker. And I am informed that "retail footfall" (it's a marketing term) in Exeter is 4% greater than last year. And I thought that we are supposed to be in the middle of a recession.

It's easy to know when the desire switch is on? It's hypnotic power persuades us that we need to have more of something. We see it in Imelda Marcos - reputed to be the owner of 3000 pairs of shoes. I see it in myself when I collect more music (Almost 1200 CDs now).

What's difficult is knowing how to switch it off. The desire switch is part of our pre-historic wiring which causes us to store up food for the hard times. Nowadays though, hard times are few and far between, but the residual wiring is still inside us, pulsing away, constantly nagging us. And technology doesn't help either. There's always some new gadget that we really must have, because the Jones's next door have got one. And we are bombarded with about 3,500 sales pitches every day (that figure comes from the independent World Advertising Research Centre in Oxford). How can we resist such an onslaught?

For resist we must. For two reasons:
1: We are running out of resources. It's not just the problem of Peak Oil, but all resources (except for Bauxite) will reach their peak within the next 100 to 150 years.

2: And most immediately, climate change. We have to reduce our CO2 emissions very rapidly. Since material consumption makes up about 40% of all our emissions, this is a major part of our lives which cannot be brushed under the carpet.

We all, including myself, need a lot of help to turn off our desire switch, and this blog will be giving some tips for this later ... but if you want to start now, please read an excellent book by John Naish ... "ENOUGH - Breaking free from the world of more".