we gotta know things

The baggage we carry is real.

Whether material, emotional or spiritual, the weight many of us carry is heavy and palpable. On top of that, each day we are bombarded by an endless stream of facts and contradictory interpretations about the ecological, racial, gendered and economic crises we face. This over-saturation often causes confusion, anxiety and a great deal of uncertainty that we inevitably shut down. In this state, we desperately try to cling to something—anything—we feel control over. We hold on to what we know, consoling ourselves with what feels most familiar—the world as it is. The world as it has already been constructed to be. This is problematic because when we revert back to the “familiar,” we often end up replicating and re-inscribing a culture³ predicated on (and sustained by) the colonization, oppression, and dehumanization of people and planet. By participating in the world “as it is,” we actively perpetuate the unchecked assumptions of white supremacy and consumer-capitalist patriarchy (hooks, 1999). When we shut down, we trap ourselves in the traumas of a world that actively profits from our passivity. We become so stuck in a materialist paradigm that we are unable to see how all these seemingly disjointed catastrophes are actually connected by the hedonistic desire to satiate a never-ending thirst for the violent trinkets that sustain our way of life.

We need another way.

Simple living offers us a path towards a different future. When I write of simple living (or simplicity), I am expressing a philosophical way of life grounded in the practice and action of letting go. “Simplifying” is much more than just a tool or means to reduce our material possessions. Living simply helps cultivate an intentional worldview where our personal and political act of resistance and refusal untether us from the traps and traumas of violence, exploitation, extraction and domination. In a world fueled by the slave logics⁴ of excess, simple living becomes an embodied stance against the hedonistic values of a system so quick to turn the living Earth into deadened raw materials—materials which, too often and too quickly, get discarded, abandoned, and left to be washed up on ‘some beach, some where’ as cheap plastic. What simple living offers is an invitation to release; to let go of everything that does not affirm life—affirm you, affirm me, affirm us. By choosing to intentionally live simply, we actively co-create different types of relationships; ones which give us tools to transcend the violence that underpins our society while, simultaneously, helping us grow the types of values and morals that move us towards justice, liberation, and freedom.

Ultimately, change is not possible if we ourselves aren’t willing to change. This is not to blame individuals for the systemic ills of colonization, white supremacy or consumer-capitalist patriarchy. Rather, it’s a call to say we have choice, we have agency—especially in the micro-movements we make in everyday life. We can choose to think, live and act differently. By recognizing our attachments to the “things” in our lives, we can choose to resist and refuse what we do not support or condone. In doing so, we actively create distance and form a wedge between us and the system. This wedge gives us the time and space to fearlessly envision ways of existing that are not predicated on enslavement, domination, oppression, and control. With each mindful action, we breathe life into the visions that exist beyond what we currently experience as the “way things are.”

From this new and different place, our relationship to “the system” becomes fundamentally altered. As we simplify, we widen the epistemic chasms between us and those who seek power, control and profits over our lives. In time, the space gained through refusal significantly increases our time, energy, and abilities to organize. It is liberating to feel that our choices can free us from bondage, and give us levels of autonomy we never knew possible. Yet, as we feel these incredible feelings, we must take great care not to mistake the forest for the trees. To believe simple living alone will save us is a trap. It is not enough for us to remove ourselves and/or retreat from society. Simple living by itself does not liberate us from the systemic ills of racism, sexism, or classism. As long as the ethic and premise of domination remain, climate change, white|male|human supremacy and ecological devastation will continue to plague us⁵ all. We need creativity and collective actions that move beyond the slow, stagnant approaches of top-down political reform. By creating a wedge between us and the dominant forces wanting ownership of our lives, simple living gives us distance, separation, an opportunity to fully-understand what we are in and the time and energy necessary to collectively work to face the catastrophes in our midst.

By creating this wedge, we are able to breathe life into the world we wish to see—a world of love, reciprocity and mutual aid. The personal questions, practices, and techniques that we choose to embrace as we pursue simplicity must connect our personal decisions to larger collective and restorative actions. While our choice to resist or refuse to participate in consumer-capitalist patriarchy is powerful, it is much more powerful to understand and be able to contextualize how our actions are tethered to the actions of everyone else. We are because others are, and the systemic ills that we face—be they climate change or racism—need societal remedies to address the pain and traumas of modern life. Our own domestic private actions can then become an initial step towards our collective struggle for freedom.

Embracing simplicity teaches us how to slow down and experience the essence of life in this moment. It’s not about the act of simplifying itself—how many items we get rid of, or how many pants we now own, or how organized our closet is—instead, it’s about engaging a process that enables us to ask deeper questions about our material life. Questions like, do my actions align with the kind of world I want to live in? and are my actions regenerative to the planet, to humans and non-humans alike, or are they serving to destroy our only home? By allowing ourselves to be fully-present, mindful and deliberate in our actions, simplicity can put us on the path to live with the Earth, not against the Earth.

If you are ready to embrace this path, here are a few texts that inspired my process. May they be useful in your journey as well.

• Malcolm X’s (1963) Message to the Grassroots
• bell hooks’ (1999) Simple Living: An Antidote to Hedonistic Materialism.
• Leo Babauta’s (2007) Simple Living Manifesto
• Jim Merkel’s (2003) Radical Simplicity: Small Footprints on a Finite Earth.
• Shunmyo Masuno’s (2009) The Art of Simple Living
• Yolanda Acree’s (2015) 6 Minimalist Principles for Black Liberation
• Christine Platt’s (2021) The Afrominimalist’s Guide to Living with Less
• Thích Nhất Hạnh’s (2021) Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet.

By focusing on the essence—the roots—of what sustains us, opportunities arise to question and challenge the ways we live. From this place, we can intentionally and deliberately craft alternative ways of living that work against violence and oppression. Although simple living, in and of itself, is not ‘the answer,’ it is a way of life that encourages self-determination and autonomy. Therefore, choosing to live simply allows us to not be swept up in the currents of mainstream consumer-capitalism or the trappings of supremacy. In this way, simplicity is an act of resistance and refusal; but—in a deeper sense—to live simply is a deliberate and courageous act of love for our collective future, which is actively being created each-and-every waking day.