How to Meet Our Most Basic Needs
Three principles for mindful and sustainable consumption
 |
This post is free today to show a sample of what Fewer Better Things is about to new subscribers. If you want to continue receiving full access to this content, please subscribe. The reason to charge for this content is two-fold: it’s helping to pay for the work I’m putting in and it shows your commitment to the ideas that I’m presenting. If neither of these reasons appeal to you, please unsubscribe and find your fulfillment elsewhere. :)
Some days I feel that the only meaning with societal life is to produce and consume until our last breaths. We work all week to produce brands which we then consume in our very limited leisure time. Brands which most of us don’t really need and who’s impact on our planet lacks both real utility, sustainability, and long-term thinking.
Money has become the new world wide religion and I have yet to meet a business leader for a public company who is making decisions based on (philosophical) ethics and (ecological) sustainability over finance. In reality, the only ethics of a company is to maximize profit and to ensure long-term financial sustainability.
“The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.” – Henry David Thoreau
That said, the invention of economics, which by the way is a social science and not a natural science, the difference being of course that it’s created by humanity as opposed to the universe, works and has lifted most parts of the world out of poverty and authoritarian leaderships. The problem is not the market economy in itself but that we in our role as consumers have failed to create healthy and mindful boundaries, choosing the short-term superfluous over the long-term meaningful.
I therefore think that it’s up to ourselves in our role as consumers to clearly define what matters so that we can focus our time, money, and attention on what we really need to live life well above what we might think we want through the never-ending onslaught of emotional and suggestive advertising.
“Consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production; and the interest of the producer ought to be attended to only so far as it may be necessary for promoting that of the consumer.” – Adam Smith
The question I regularly ask myself is: How can I meet my most basic everyday and long-term needs in a mindful way (defined by living in harmony with people, planet, and technology)? By creating clear principles to live by when I interface with the supply-side of economics (brands, companies, technology, advertising et cetera).
Identify my true basic needs by understanding who I really am, what I truly am passionate about long-term, and also understand my emotional weaknesses to avoid irrational wasteful consumption.
Identify the products and service that could meet these basic needs by also factoring in their impact and use of people, planet, and technology. As it has never been easier for companies to target consumer, it has never been easier for consumers to really research companies and their products.
Design and create a personalized everyday lifestyle where these basic needs are met by continuous reduction, reuse, and recycling. Once I live the lifestyle I want, I only need the very basics to enjoy life well. It’s when I lacked meaning and purpose that I engaged in mindless consumption.
The rewards in time, attention, and money from this strategy is of course plentiful but there is one thing much more important and that is personal integrity. By setting clear boundaries and follow well thought-out and proven principles we make it clear, in thought and action, what we really need and what we cannot accept and support. And nothing speaks louder than voting with our own wallets.
THREE THINGS
Maker: Ed Lewis is a former techie who is now running a sustainable farm up in the foothills of San Diego County while up-cycling surfboards to make hand planes.
Endineering: An interesting business book about how to end the consumption lifecycle as well as it begins.
Tech Repair: Until now hardware companies have made it impossible to repair our own products but that might soon change according to Verve.
Great piece, Per. "How can I meet my most basic everyday and long-term needs in a mindful way?" What a different world it would be if we all took this approach.
I have the feeling that the modern world really brings the fundamental question of "what is the purpose of life" to the fore. In the times past, the question was easier to ignore because we were too occupied by surviving and life's choices were preordained for us. We wfollowed the algorithm without much questioning.
The modern world has so many options that choosing one requires getting some clarity on that fundamental question. It is now more important than ever to think from the end (Begin with the End in Mind, as Stephen Covey said). But we are totally untrained in doing so...