1. We have around 6,000 million years worth of consuming, building, wasting and general living to do before changes in our sun
ends all life here.
We have seen exponential growth in almost every area of life in the last 200 years. There are 6,000 million potential years of
such growth ahead of us. This is clearly an unsustainable prospect. So, how can we change course to a lifestyle that IS
sustainable for the years ahead?
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The mindless game that the goods producers and marketing men are playing must be obvious to everyone now. Buy. Consume.
And do it, Forever....
To survive in the long term we must disconnect from their game plan.
A Low Maintenance Lifestyle solution consists of several integrated elements:
i. The self-created pursuit of a low maintenance lifestyle
ii. Government support and underpinning of a 'Be All You Can Be' culture
iii. Introduction of a country-wide 'Citizens Entitlement Grant'
iv. Resource release from all subsequently redundant government agencies
v. A planetary community
In detail:
i. The self-created pursuit of a low maintenance lifestyle
This is the oldest form of lifestyle on the planet. Through it, everything possible was used to aid survival. Energies were used
wisely and nothing was wasted. If these principles were not adhered to you died. It was as simple as that.
We are realising that we are not immune to these realities, that we were fed an illusion of security in order to make us buy. This
dream-state is rapidly turning into a nightmare. Now it is starting to become very real to us that, just like the ancients, we too
must survive the future.
This is the broad background to the long history of low maintenance lifestyles.
In the modern world there are several possibilities available to us that were unavailable to the ancients:
Use the collective energy as focused through government to provide the basic essentials for your daily survival.
Seek to maximise Being as opposed to Doing and Having.
Organise the communal use of tools to maximise utility and to minimise waste.
The essence of a Low Maintenance Lifestyle is: Buy Less Goods
The cycle we are on now is that we must buy ever increasing numbers of goods to keep everyone employed so that they are
able to buy ever increasing numbers of goods and so on ad infinitum.
The final product is of course everyone owning everything on a concrete planet and feeling totally miserable.
Madness! Yet that is the future we are facing. The politicians call endlessly for "More growth. More growth." But we can
already see and feel what is growing all around us. We already feel sick of this modern world with its stress, greed, criminality
and selfishness. Do we want another 6,000 million years of that?
The marketing men want to fill you with the obsession to have. They want you to be filled with longing for their products.
They want you to be endlessly dissatisfied with what you already have. They want you to be in a state of constant longing for
satiation and to never achieve it.
Keep in mind:
Most of the true happiness you ever find has little to do with possession.
Most true happiness is gained by useful co-operation with others.
Points ii, iii & iv would begin to weaken the hypnosis of the mass marketers:

2. ii. Government support and underpinning of a 'Be All You Can Be' culture
iii. Introduction of a country-wide 'Citizens Entitlement Grant'
iv. Resource release from all subsequently redundant government agencies
All four elements contain the essential ingredients for a sustainable life for the indefinite future. There is no avoiding the fact
that government will have to be the agency which creates any reform. We and our immediate ancestors have transferred almost
all real power to this agency - so now it must work for us and for the (almost) endless generations to come.
Element ii. is easiest to achieve - but it would need to be constant and deeply integrated into every area of government policy from education to conditions of work.
Elements iii., iv. & v. are the essence of how the future can be survived.
The largest change involves a move to a "citizen´s entitlement grant".
I believe every citizen deserves the basic wherewithall to live a decent life. The only agency available to control such a task is
government. We all know that the resources are now available on this planet to do it. At the moment almost all the resources
are devoted to wrecking the place!
In outline, my idea is that when an individual is born an interest bearing account is set up automatically. The amount would be
sufficient to cover the basic essentials of life such as: food, medical treatment, decent, warm and weather-proof housing,
education and enough left over to build a decent life.
How would such a costly exercise be funded?
That is where point iv. comes in - resource release. In a long transfer process (changing horses, very tricky!) once citizens have
the resources to live automatically supplied, then government can start to close all its offices dealing with unemployment
benefit, health and social security and many many other departments.
Jobs have almost always been pretty soul destroying - we need to change our whole focus from having and doing (producing
and having) to being. So, the grant would mean you didn't have to work. If you wanted to work you would still receive the
grant - this leaves the incentive to those still addicted to having in the future. (The rest of us would perhaps look on from our
loungers and smile pityingly as they continued their mad dash to oblivion!)
The theory doesn't even sound easy in outline does it?! But this is only a very rough outline. It wouldn't be at all easy and there
would be lots of problems like : What about the people who don´t use the money for the necessities but spend it all on booze or
drugs? That´s one of the toughest ones - it´s possible to visualise a perfect system but usually the people within it have to be
perfect too!
At any rate, something needs to change. Right now we are on the road to hell.
v. A planetary community.
This is a vision for a better future planet-wide. Winning a decent life for all people. Resource planning & redirecting ( not the
communist way) The whole world focused on being and playfully communicating - sharing ideas, songs, dance, stories,
experiences - a harmony of being. Pie in the Sky. Yes, but "old" ideas such as compassion, love and mutual respect are about
all that can save us now.... Connection, communication and cooperation.
We are all here together. On this beautiful island world.
Perhaps we should all begin to BE that way.
Perhaps we should start to work together for a future that involves less work, less money, less stuff......... but more LIFE.
Phrases for a better future...
First and foremost: BUY LESS GOODS.
Apply: Minimum is Maximum - Reduce to the Max.
Change to: Practice Voluntary Simplicity.
LIVE: A Low Maintenance Lifestyle.
The reward: Connecting to REAL Freedom, to Childlike Lightness and Wonder, to a world of never-ending Fascination and
Inquiry... to the joy of BEING.
Recommended reading:

3. `To Have or to Be?´ by Erich Fromm (ISBN 0-553-23100-6)