Trying to Live Simply or Simply Trying to Live: Cabin Porn and Poverty Appropriation!?
For the past decade I've been enamored with the idea of living more simply. Not merely reducing, but a radical reorganization that would shake my life to it's very foundations. Tiny houses, Simple Living, Doing more with less. Whatever, you call it I'm not alone in this dream.
photo credit Tammy Strobel
Those of us who share the dream of living more simply are often disenfranchised with the dominant paradigm of luxury, glamour and success. We are ready to kick our stuff to the curb and go live in the woods; anything to escape the exorbitant cost of living to maintain appearances that enslaves us to jobs we hate. The pie chart below shows the extraordinary weight housing, transportation and food have on our budgets.
Poverty Appropriation as a Trend!?
"But, but, think of the people who don't have that choice, who are poor and can't get jobs that they hate to buy stuff they don't need" cries July Westhale in her article The Troubling Trendiness Of Poverty Appropriation. Of course, July didn't say that exactly, but in her article she dives into the new-to-me-buzzword "Poverty Appropriation". Go read it and I'll wait here for you...
But first! What she gets right...
photo credit Andrew Moir
First, let me slice out a big chunk of her article that I certainly agree with. Trailer park themed bars, white-trash costume parties, and the glorification of junk food in the name of irony is a pretty terrible thing. I loathe hipsters as much as the next red-blooded un-ironic American. Yet I don't think these are the same people who are trying to "Live Tiny", so they muddle her article with extraneous mud-slinging. I frequent San Francisco and I don't know anyone who's ever been to the Butter Bar, the white-trash themed bar, July mentions in her article. I suspect it's patrons are the same type of people who think that blackface is appropriate for Halloween. I'm not sure how these individuals tie into the premise of her article, besides as a wobbly leg to prop the rest of her argument up on.
“That must be nice. To have that choice.”
Tiny living is a radical downsizing movement. It's a complete shift of paradigm away from spend, spend, spend to spend, make do with what you have, and do without. It's not an easy choice, and a lot of people choose to live simply because they must. To them it doesn't feel like a choice rather it's a moral imperative.
To Know is to Act
When an individual becomes aware of the absurdity of the capitalist paradigm and confronts the cognitive dissonance, a choice must be made. To ignore the dissonance and resume the status quo or to act upon the knowledge they have gained by wrestling with this dissonance.
This absurdity takes the form of looking for meaning in our lives through our purchasing power, status, and possessions. The alternative view is that our gluttonous consumerism threatens the very environment which surrounds and supports us. Our lust for achievement tears apart cultural and social bonds and turns life itself (ours and others!) into a commodity for the market.
Westhale fails to consider this imperative. She fails to mention the civil rights and religious leaders who've taken up poverty as a means to escape an economic life intrinsically wed to violence and exploitation. Instead she globs onto the commodification that has occurred to the tiny living movement, the glossy photos of tiny houses and romanticized simplicity. This commodification inevitably sprouts up where there is any space to take advantage and make a few bucks.
...but is it really that bad?
From the February 2015 Issue of Country Living Magazine
I was head-over-heels happy when my mother's tone shifted from "You want to go live in the woods?" to "Oh my gosh, I got my Country Living magazine and it showed a picture of those tiny houses you are always talking about. I get it now". It took Cabin Porn to push her over the limits of common-sense that her child didn't want anything to do with success and simply wanted to go live in the woods and eat berries and sticks.
Thank God for Cabin Porn!
While it sucks to see your ideas sold to you by the very thing you are trying to dismantle, I get it July Westhale, but at the end of the day, I don't mind a little romanticism of the 'lifestyle'. We need to do everything we can to shift the paradigm from greed and consumption to living within the bounds of production as quickly as possible. The faster we can get people out of their materialist trance and into a more attainable and sustainable mode of existence, the better chance that we might have to survive as a species.
The paradigm shift towards simplicity is often accompanied by another shift towards more egalitarian modes of existence and subsistence, but Westhale never considers this perspective. This shift returns people to community, repairs cultural breakdown and restores connection and compassion with others. It brings people who were once separated by their stuff and their things into relationship with their neighbors who may not have had the same opportunity to acquire stuff and things!
These values are often inline with the traditional Utopian views. Living within your means of production means greater autonomy and purpose to your life. During the Golden Age of Science fiction, Utopia became urban construct, with glossy apartment buildings in dense urban centers where all of needs were provided and people were connected through common social values and goals. Those of us who sought out those glass and chrome prisons now turn our eye back to the antiquated Utopian ideal of Walden's pond. Cabin porn, of course, follows in our wake. Yet, living simply has nothing to do with cabins, or communes. It can happen any time and anywhere. It's a philosophy, not a trend.
"Because, let me tell you, there is nothing simple about being poor."
Westhale, comes from a background of poverty, she's right there isn't anything simple about being poor. Yet, living simply isn't simple. It isn't Cabin Porn. Simple doesn't necessarily imply easy. Such a vast reorganization of one's life to better align with their values require tough choices, hard labor, and discipline. It's rewards are worth it if you want to make an impact on the world around, if you want your economic choices to be an expression of your personal values, and if you want to decentralize 'stuff' from its altar and reconnect with the rest of humanity.
You know, I really want to dig deep here and provide some form of valuable feedback but I'm blow away by how great this article is. This is amazing Renee. Great work. This is probably one of the best examples of journalistic integrity I've seen on this site.
Take your time, darling. I know you've got a great story to share when you are ready!
Great subject and i like your writing style. Bookmarking. Cashtags: $b.tinyhouse $b.minimalism
Good stuff. Some personal questions for you regarding the article, because minimalism is hard to achieve.
Have you made concrete moves towards being minimalist? If so, where did you move from and to? Do you have a family? What kind of reduction did you see in monthly spending? What do you do for a living?
Thanks and nice insights (full disclosure, I didn't read July's article which you were rebutting)
Hey Daut, Thank you!
For me personally, I'm still in the middle of the cognitive dissonance. I deal with it every-damn-day. I refuse to accept materialism, but I also find it hard to 'sweep my tinsel' out the door.
"Obstinate are the trammels, but my heart aches when I try to break them. Freedom is all I want, but to hope for it I feel ashamed. I am certain that priceless wealth is in thee, and that thou art my best friend, but I have not the heart to sweep away the tinsel that fills my room.
The shroud that covers me is a shroud of dust and death; I hate it, yet hug it in love. My debts are large, my failures great, my shame secret and heavy; yet when I come to ask for my good, I quake in fear lest my prayer be granted.” -Rabindranath Tagore
This is a really personal question to me! My financial situation forces a kind of minimalism on me. (I wouldn't go so far as to say I'm in poverty, or even poor, but it's a struggle to pay both rent or food these days. It's weird here in California, a weird mix of luxury and poverty). I find myself unable to pursue what I've studied and have taken work in an office. I make do with my phone that doesn't work properly, and my car that's falling apart and that my landlord is a slumlord. I deal with chronic pain and juggle which bill to pay this month. Yet, if you've seen my videos, my walls are decorated with art and I'm certainly not going to starve to death anytime soon! It's become the new norm. It wasn't always this way, so I cling to those possessions from a former life, only heightening the cognitive dissonance.
True minimalism is something just beyond my reach, that will require all my bravery and wits. Being stretched so thin I cannot make a mistake or misstep in reorganizing my life because there is no safety net beneath me. Not if I wish to maintain my autonomy and participate in society (which I feel is vital to shifting these paradigms from within!) I hope it is something I can achieve in the future, when I am able to formulate a concrete decision about the best path for my life.
Yet there is celebration in making do with less. I'm glad not to be in debt. It's given me profound respect for those who've never had it any other way. It's made me more generous and more loving.
Concrete actions I take... hmm... I don't like buying anything new! I do a lot of shopping at thrift stores! Yard sales too! There are amazing finds to be had, which can be found at a fraction of the price .It does allow me to live more within my means.
It fosters creativity to fix things or re-purpose them! Also finding things that are both functional and beautiful is important, doing away with the extraneous and keeping only what speaks to my heart.
As I mention, the radical reorganization of ones life is not to be undertaken lightly and just for funsies!
Yes, I'm located in Irvine California and the cost of living is absurd compared to other places I've lived: for instance, my 600 square foot 1 bedroom studio is 1.5x more per month than the 3 bedroom 2 bath apartment I had in Scottsdale, Arizona 5 years ago.
I've never personally used it, but have you heard of soylent? It's essentially a meal replacement, which contains all of the nutrients your body needs, in liquid form and costs ~$60 a week. I love to eat and probably spend 5-6 times that on food, so if you were looking for one way to start minimizing, this is a good start and an easier (relatively, changing your diet completely is obviously very hard) way to save funds instead of finding new apartments or moving to the woods.
wow, Soylent green ? omg
Soylent is a novel solution to the problem! I'm not sure that's quite right for me. I love my food! My steemian network buddies might disown me!
I think taking the time to cook, cooking from scratch, and being creative can help mitigate the costs of food in a way that better fits my lifestyle. Cooking is entertainment for me too!
But I know bachelors who swear by it!
It isn't that economical to be frank, it's just convenient. It's more or less like ensure or similar meal replacement/adjuncts. However it's in powder form and thus has it's benefits in that regard over your typical bottles or cans of ensure and similar. The cost per 2k calories is about 8 dollars. This may or may not be enough for one adult per day, but if you are using it as some extra nutrition it's not the worst option. Basically, in moderation it won't harm you.
It is not suggested to use it as a long term meal substitute. I would suggest that nobody ever consider living on soylent, or ensure for that matter, as their only nutrition source.
It can give you gas, but they went to a new iteration 1.6 from 1.5, and I don't know how that version fares in that regard.
Of course home-cooked fresh meals are superior, but they take time, fill up your fridge and is generally going to have more overhead costs.
I'm tired. Hopefully this is coherent and useful.
Cheers
Surprisingly, soylent isn't that terrible tasting but I found myself depressed by day 2. Its not for the faint-hearted, that's for sure. Someone somewhere has the recipe posted though, so I think you can actually make it for less than the namebrand version.
when I first researched it I saw some DIY options, but talked myself out of it when I saw numerous posts about how it gave people extreme gas :O
Congratulations ! It sounds to me as if you have the "financial" aspect of minimalism down, now to work on the "physical" aspect. I look at approaching minimalism as you would if you decided to eat more nutritionally. You don't just throw away all of your food and go to the health store. When you do go to the store just replace the junk food with better choices, in other words a little at a time.
Same with minimalism, you just decided to buy only what is needed, not on a whim or a want. Teach yourself to call things "junk you don't need" when you want to buy things you don't need. After a period of time you will not be bringing home and then stepping over "Junk" that you really don't need and all the junk becomes junk you don't want.
Good luck on that decision when you are ready to embrace it ... It is NOT easy!
Great article.
Live within your means, this needs to be everyone's mantra! All that materialism does is get the rich super wealthy and the rest of us more in debt. Some of the 'richest' people I know have the least.
Thank you Ophelia! Yes! I remember my mother telling us when we were growing up that although we weren't rich, we were rich because we have each other!
I work with a community in Micronesia who by all accounts have nothing, no vast resources except the ocean and coral reefs that sustain them, no wealth in the western sense. Yet they are so rich! They celebrate everything! They have such a profound sense of community. No one goes hungry, no one is homeless, no one is unemployed. It's easy to envy this kind of connection, but I don't think that is quite the same as romanticizing their tenuous survival!
I agree, July is confusing two very different groups of people. Yes, the Bay Area is filled with techies who think it's cool to pay $4 for toast and $40 for a PBR tall boy, but those people do not want leave the city, buy a tiny house, and start living amongst the poor people. No. They might airbnb a tiny house in Redding for the weekend because it's hilarious, but come Sunday they are going back to their very tiny, but impossibly expensive apartments in the Mission.
Seems I should write about this. Especially with my travels that I came upon last year.
I think your perspective is vital to the discussion!
I agree. Will be sure to write on this. Busy with a poker series this week. But seeing as I have lived very minimally with my backpack on my shoulder. Scavenged for much of my food. Although I had water bottles I filled up at parks. And some money and bought some basic needs stuff. Jar of peanut butter & hydrogen peroxide for example.
I think that has been a theme of obsession for quite a lot of people in the past decade :). I have noticed this trend myself, and include myself amongst those who'd like to go the minimal-space route.
Whenever someone steps outside of society's current "norm", it threatens people within the norm. Their immediate reaction is to ridicule the "abnormal" behavior so that they no longer feel threatened by a new paradigm. Any break from the system must be punished.
So you'll see everything from authors writing articles ridiculing minimalist living, to towns/cities even outlawing it because the tiny homes aren't tied in to public water/sewer/power systems.
Anything to keep the sheeple in line, dependent on the system, and not thinking for themselves.
I've done the tiny house thing, though it wasn't by choice. Living in a one room cottage built in the 1820s might have been picturesque, but it was a logistical nightmare and certainly more trouble than it's worth.
Of course, a modern-built tiny home is another animal altogether, and it's different when you have the option to choose the life rather than have it thrust upon you due to circumstances beyond your control. There's much in the appeal of being secure in your space that's just enough for you and the necessities, knowing tag you're living well within your means in a responsible manner, but again it's vastly different when it's that or homelessness.
A tiny house would not work for me at 6'2!
Do you think that voluntarily doing without, or living more simply, can create a space for people "who have circumstances thrust upon them" to better achieve autonomy and freedom?
Oh absolutely, it teaches you what really matters and what you can do without. Of course that can be taken to extremes; when my circumstances improved, I found myself still locked into that mindset, even though I didn't have to live that way any more. I guess I have post-tiny house stress disorder!
Great article. It breaks my heart that so many companies sell Mini homes etc. (cabin porn) as a new adventure "toy" at prices 99% of the people that need such a small place can afford. I do appreciate your sympathetic approach and want to thank you for shedding light on the subject.
Like most, I don't want to get into the empathetic version of this discussion. It just hurts to much to even talk about being there or having been there ... On behalf of everyone that has, I appreciate your compassionate approach dealing with this matter.