Hi, Lyle! I sure agree with you that no one is minding the universe per se!! And I was talking about mortals who lived on earth and were very powerful and wise and came to the attention of large groups of people because of their charisma or leadership or philosophies. All of these men were teaching things which have a common thread. I think I phrased my sentence awkwardly--I personally don't believe there are any superior, heavenly forces running the show. And I will check out the book you were talking about.
I'm not sure what to say about low-tech agrarian life and the developed world. The former owner of Esprit Corp., Doug Tompkins, went to Chile and spent $14,000,000 of his own money buying 800,000 acres of Andean mountains, uncut forests and fjords which will be managed by a Chilean foundation and will never be developed. The Chilean government has just accepted it as a gift. It will be possible to hike, mountain climb, and camp there, and it is the area's largest employer. His efforts were fought by Chilean industrialists who did not want to encourage native environmentalists. He lives on very simply on a demonstration farm on the preserve's outskirts. The goal of the demonstrations farms, of which there are several surrounding the preserve, is to teach skills like bee-keeping, organic gardening, animal husbandry, knitting woolen goods, and marketing the honey. If the subsistence farmers in the area can support themselves well, and live comfortably like this, they have no reason to chop down the trees on the preserve, which is what was happening before.
I hope the first world and the third world will meet in the middle on standards of living. I wish someone would teach me how to market honey and weave, actually, because I personally want to live more simply. When I go to Costco I watch everyone push their huge carts around and feel kind of empty spiritually, like I am unconnected in some important way. (Disclaimer: I load my cart up just like everyone else does, and there is no intent to imply that I am in any way superior to anyone who shops at Costco and does not feel conflicted about it.) There is a trend right now exemplified in several books, of simplification of life--of living on less money with fewer material goods so you can live more fully and under less pressure. Americans have tons of adult toys, but are we any happier? On the other hand, it would certainly be paternalistic to tell people who have never experienced affluence that it isn't really much fun. |
