[lbo-talk] voluntary simplicity as secularized calvinism (or, how to achieve a state of grace by buying locally)

snitsnat snitilicious at tampabay.rr.com
Sun Mar 27 15:07:32 PST 2005


At 02:01 PM 3/27/2005, jthorn65 at sbcglobal.net wrote:
> >
>Just as it's generally counterproductive to discuss consumption choices
>it's just as
>counterproductive to dismiss peoples desire to do so. Getting mad or
>exasperated with Tully
>will in all probability just send him somewhere else where someone will
>give him what he
>thinks are good explanations and definitions. Where is the progress in that?

Good. I killfiled him. My experience with voluntary simplicity Chucklefucks is that no amount of talking changes a thing. They are religiously devoted just as much as they generally were religiously devouted to consumerism before they were born again. Their whole LIFESTYLE is wrapped up in it, they cannot give it up without one day having to be critical fo their entire lifestyle. And that becomes a problem because they fetishize guilt. It's too great a burden to bear, psychologically, and they've spent far too much time viewing themselves and their lifestyle as superior.

Go back and read his discussion with Gar (Seattle thread). Guilt, guilt, guilt. We are all guilty and we should wallow in it and punish ourselves for our sins. Get me my cat-o-nine. Combined with the constant binary thinking of Good/Evil, Us/them, I/Other (or Chumps!) it is a form of secularized Calvinism where your worldly efforts at proving your state of grace are transferred from an obsessive work ethic to stave off the feeling of terror to a relentless obsession with a morally correct lifestyle -- for you and everyone else.

It comes replete with the a secularized born-again ethos where the 'talking cure' (testifying) is put in service of re-creating your self through ritulistic practices: You describe your former evil, viceful, destructive lifestyle (wallow in the guilt), trembling with bitten-lip and teary eyes confess how you came to the saving grace of the Voluntary Simplicty movement. You worked 70 hrs a week, earning 100k, and consumed, consumed, consumed, surrounding yourself with stuff. Stuff that had to be cared for and cleaned. All that work, all tha consumption brought you to the brink of divorce, led you to drugs and drink, destrioyed friendships/family relations, and your life was a miserable pursuirt of stuff. Then, one day, a flash! The answer to all this terrifying uncertainty, the relentless paper chase of stuff and bills and credit card debt was to give it all up and live the simple life. Eradicate the old life (punish it, eviscerate it) and be born again into the simple life

I know Carrol doesn't like Freudian theory but man-o-man-o-man, this secularized version of xtianity is ripe for psychoanalytic analysis.

Hve no idea what Tully is like, but thems my observations of these kinda folks. Those observations are exactly what you paid for it: squat.

k



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