Minimalism Is Not Optional

I watch with some amusement and incredulity at Barack Obama and the debate over the budget deficit. What blows my mind isn't the debate over what to cut. It is Obama's dismissive words and attitudes about the whole affair. For Obama, it seems that cutting the budget is simply an option, and he has chosen not to do it. But cutting the budget isn't an option anymore than choosing not to get cancer. Reality has a nasty habit of having the last word on everything. President Obama and others in government are under a delusion.

This same sort of delusion exists among the rest of the public not just in regard to government spending but also their own lifestyles. We know these people. These are the ones with mountains of debt. All their credit cards are maxed out. They drive new and expensive cars they can't afford. They struggle to make the payments on a McMansion. They own a Jet Ski, a boat, and a motorcycle. But "own" is not quite precise since they are making payments on these items, too. As they struggle to get by, you suggest something like getting rid of the Jet Ski. Then, they say something like this, "I love my Jet Ski. I just couldn't live without it."

For the Jet Ski lover, no argument will work. There will have to be missed payments, repossession, and foreclosure. Until it all falls to pieces, reason will not work. Only reality and the consequences can shake these people out of their delusion. Trust me, I have had this conversation with many different people, and it is always the same. They believe they can continue to live beyond their means forever. My minimalist lifestyle is simply an "option."

I have been turning this over in my head this week, and I have reached the startling but sound conclusion that minimalism is not optional. Minimalism is essential. Minimalism is not merely a lifestyle choice, but the only lifestyle choice that works. Everything else is a delusion. It is people trying to pull off a balancing act with an anvil in one hand and an anchor in the other.



I have never been into the Jet Ski lifestyle. Part of it was lack of interest on my part, but the other part is the simple fact that I can't afford this crap. I have enough cash on hand presently to go buy one of these things, but the reason I have the cash is because I don't go around buying Jet Skis or any other consumerist crap. But if I buy a Jet Ski, I will also need to rent space to store it or move into a house with a garage. But for the cost of the rental space, I can rent a Jet Ski, ride it the two or three times it takes to get over the thrill of it, and turn it back in. Jet Skis are really boring. The thrill of one comes from owning one and inspiring the envy of your friends and neighbors.

The reason minimalism is not optional but essential has to do with the issue of sustainability. The environmentalists have taken over this word to some degree with doomsday predictions concerning global warming, peak oil, and the rest. I tend to be dismissive of these predictions because they almost always turn out wrong going back to Malthus. I just focus on the practical realities of the limits on time, money, and energy. I don't recycle, but I do shop at the thrift store and eschew the SUV. I try not to be wasteful because it helps me. I'm not nearly as concerned about the planet. In the long run, Earth will be swallowed in our expanding sun as it goes through its lifecycle. Separating my garbage is not going to change this.

Defying the limits on time, money, and energy is not sustainable. You can spend more money, but this will require you to work more. Working more takes more time which means less time to spend with the things you spent the money on. Work also takes your energy, so by the time the weekend comes around, the warrior in you opts to sleep in. People aren't enjoying a lifestyle so much as building a collection of stuff they don't have the time or energy to enjoy.

It is easy to pick on the Big Spenders, but time is as big a deal as money. I am very guilty on this front. I don't manage my time very well, and this leads to really bad habits like multitasking, eating in the car, eating at the desk, eating fast food, neglecting chores, etc. I compile ambitious To Do lists, and I get a lot done. But what I do and what I write down to do are vastly different. This leads to massive frustration and misallocation of time. When it comes to time, minimalism is not optional. It is essential. Choose the important things to do and eliminate everything else.

Energy is the other big one. Because people spend money and need more time to make money and more time to enjoy the things they spent the money on, they decide to cut back on sleep. They burn the candle at both ends. Then, they fall asleep at the wheel of their SUV flipping it and the Jet Ski they were hauling into the ditch. This is what happens when you spend too much, do too much, and sleep too little. The upside of this situation is you can let the repo man figure out how to get your shit out of that ditch.

The maximalist lifestyle isn't sustainable. There is no balance there. You can push it for a long time, but it leads to failure. Forced austerity sucks because reality makes your decisions for you. Minimalism is simply voluntary austerity. It is choosing simplicity while it is still a choice. But whether it is forced or voluntary, people end up better off for it. Minimalism takes the weight off of you. It lets you be free again.

There are only two kinds of people. You have minimalists, and you have future minimalists. You have those who embrace the lifestyle, and you have those who throw in the towel on their maximalist lifestyle. Success as defined by the wider culture is seeing how long you can maintain the delusion. How long can you defy reality? Even rich celebrities get smacked down by reality.

Sustainability is the key, and this is what minimalism gives you. It allows you to live in balance with reality. It forces you not to try and have more and do more but to enjoy less and do better with what you have. This is the only right way to live. Anything else is living in defiance of reality, and reality always wins. ALWAYS.

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