Why the Simple Life Is Not Just Beautiful, It’s Necessary
Why the Simple Life Is Not Just Beautiful, It’s Necessary
Section titled “Why the Simple Life Is Not Just Beautiful, It’s Necessary”
Metadata
Section titled “Metadata”- Author: Emrys Westacott
- Full Title: Why the Simple Life Is Not Just Beautiful, It’s Necessary
- Category: #articles
- URL: https://aeon.co/ideas/why-the-simple-life-is-not-just-beautiful-it-s-necessary
Highlights
Section titled “Highlights”- Our thinking about simplicity and luxury, frugality and extravagance, is fundamentally inconsistent. We condemn extravagance that is wasteful or tasteless and yet we tout monuments of past extravagance, such as the Forbidden City in Beijing or the palace at Versailles, as highly admirable. The truth is that much of what we call ‘culture’ is fuelled by forms of extravagance.
- Somewhat paradoxically, then, the case for living simply was most persuasive when most people had little choice but to live that way. The traditional arguments for simple living in effect rationalise a necessity. But the same arguments have less purchase when the life of frugal simplicity is a choice, one way of living among many. Then the philosophy of frugality becomes a hard sell.