We Shall Have A Great Simplification

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

The desire for simplicity in humans is a recurring dream, like equality and fraternity and such. It is also always bad news when it’s applied outside the individual.

“I want to simplify my life” is okay, if often misguided if not thoroughly thought through and negotiated, because “simplicity” has trade offs and most of what you’ll think will make your life very simple will actually make it massively more complicated in the details or in ways you didn’t think of.

There are two ways I can think of to truly simplify one’s life, and the results of it are not as straightforward as it might seem. And the tradeoffs, ooh, boy, the tradeoffs:

One is to become addicted to a drug, such that it’s all you think about every moment you’re awake. I have read enough biographies of former addicts to know that what they were looking for, in some ways was simplicity. They might express it as “to stop hurting” or “to escape” but the truth is that what happens is their life is massively simplified because ONLY THE DRUG matters. Acquiring it, using it, rinse, repeat.

Of course the problem with that is that drug use itself brings massive complications, from the decay of your own internal “thinker” and “feeler” to well… what you do to acquire drugs which often even in places it’s legal, as your need grows and your ability to work for it decreases, often involves very complicated and dangerous relationships to other human beings.

The other way is religious conversion, particularly if you join a monastery or convent, where life is by design simple and ordered, in the sense you don’t have to think about anything or what you’ll do next (if you pick the right order.) All those decisions are made for you.

Of course, in many ways, the convent or monastery has its own issues. Read any life of a saint whose superior hated him or her, and how difficult it was to navigate the personal relationships.

The way out of it of course is to become a saint, which makes things very, very simple. I think. Or very complicated. I wouldn’t know. I’m as far from sainthood as an earthworm is from a star.

But when the “We need to return to simple ways” is applied in the collective it’s always a danger sign, and the result is always hell on Earth. It also always ends up in tyranny.

A lot of the “communes” of the sixties and seventies were a desire for that simplicity without the spartan religious faith of religious orders. We know how many of them slid into cult of personality, madness and even complex murder plots. (Beyond Jim Jones.) Well, I know it, because I read a lot of true crime, now and then. (Usually when profoundly depressed.)

And the current simplification movement seems to consist of a lot of posturing and posing by people who grew up very wealthy indeed. So, you’ll have people who were given expensive cars for their 16th birthday talking about how you should never have more than you can take with you in a small pull-behind trailer. Or people who can actually afford mansions at 20 talking about the joy of tiny houses. (BTW tiny houses are insane. there is nothing in them you can’t get in a very basic, used RV. And when their prices start being the same as of a small NEW RV, what’s the point? Other than of course classism. Makes you think.)

The most ridiculous one is “you’ll own nothing and be happy.”

There is no such thing as owning nothing and being happy, and it has absolutely nothing to do with greed. It has to do with self ownership.

If you can’t own the basics of what keeps you alive — clothes, a shelter, food — you don’t own your own life. It’s sort of like joining a monastery, of course, but one without religious faith, and run by large, foreign entities of dubious morality. They will abuse you, use you as an object, and you really won’t like what they demand of you for your daily rice-bowl.

Your ancestors knew, when they fought against tyrannical band-leaders, and often struck out with their favorite spear and the skin of the animals they, themselves had hunted and cured.

Note I’m not the person standing here saying you need to be as rich as possible, and live a massively complicated life to be happy.

I’m one of the very lucky people who had to face that and make that decision. Oh, not in a big way. I was never offered a million dollars — any of the people reading this for whom that’s pocket change who has a million dollars, I’m willing to test this in those circumstances. Come on! — or any such great amount. It’s just for about a year and a half Dan made about double what he’d made up to that point. What it required… Was a traveling job, which meant we spent a lot of that on stuff like going out to eat when he was home, so that I didn’t have to spend time away from him. Taxes were also next level. But more importantly we realized we simply weren’t willing to pay the price for increased income. (Which boiled down to about an extra 10k a year, after all the extra expenses/taxes. Nothing to sneeze at but–)

This forced us to think of exactly what price we were willing to pay, and what we could live on. So, I realized I didn’t actually want to have the sort of extreme money where all our work, all the time, would be for us to administer our wealth.

As an example, I gave up on the idea of becoming so massively successful that I could have several houses. It sounds great. Like Agatha Christie, I love the idea of houses and decorating houses, and not having to worry about selling them. … but I can think through it, as well. Agatha Christie came from a culture where you — of course — also got at least a general servant and housekeeper per house. If you have to pic administration companies for each house, keep an eye on everything, etc… You know what? I’d rather rent a hotel room when I go somewhere, even if I do it repeatedly. Not as much fun, granted, but much simpler.

Basically, my goal for simplification and a simple life is to have enough money to live on, so I don’t have to think of if I can afford this little thing I’d like, and I don’t have to think about how much I spend at the grocery store, or how much the car is going to cost to fix, etc. And to have enough time to write and pay someone to do the other tasks. (In this perfect world, it’s easy to find handymen and craftsmen to do stuff.)

There are auxiliary bits to this, of course. For a truly simple life, you should be as healthy as possible, which imposes a discipline of its own, I guess. (I’m so falling down on this.)

After that it gets murky. People try to be “simple” by giving up all attachments and worldly relationships and connections, but for a certain type of mind — mine — I’d go completely insane and massively complicate my life by going inside and analyzing everything to bits.

I’ve found that one way for me to simplify, or at least calm my emotions, is to surround myself with people and pets I love. That way I can concern myself with them, and ignore the complicated and confused crosswaves of thought and feel. (Also, it makes me happy to have people and pets I love. And yes, the kittens are coming along fine. They’ve almost completely given up on waking me up by chewing my toes, and are now learning to wake me up by lying down on my chest and purring till they’re petted.)

One final caution on simplicity, which our side of the political isle is particularly prone to: “In simpler times.”

Someone on Twitter was referring to one of the founders as a “simple” man. It made me giggle considering how complicated and well read, and well thought they were.

Past times might seem simple to you, because you know how it ended.

It is true that people, in general, had less options and fewer things, but trust me, this doesn’t make anyone’s life simpler. Because it makes you think about you know, where the next meal comes from, or it leaves you alone with your thoughts more, and those can get verah complicated indeed.

In fact, most cries for simplification in the personal — whether the example used is a future utopia “you’ll own nothing and be happy; or the simple, good old days, which weren’t — and a desire to regress to childhood, when the world seemed simple because we were taken care and failed to see the complex choices and trade offs.

And in the plural the desire to simplify “society” or “the way people live” it boils down to: “All those people doing things I disapprove of should stop it already.”

That way lies enormous complication, death, famine, and hell comes on its heels.

Choose your own level of complexity and live with it, and stop concerning yourself with how simple or complicated the life of others is.

124 thoughts on “We Shall Have A Great Simplification”

      1. Simple is deadlifting an engine block. Get your mitts on it and stand up.

        Easy is for things that require no significant mental or physical effort. Like recognizing that Communism is a trap.

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        1. Communism is slavery to the state. Slavery to all those antisemitic white Ivy League Bureaucrats.

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          1. Slavery is about as simple as it gets, short of death. No decisions (because no power), no worry about the next meal (whatever Massa decides to feed you), no worry about survival (because its out of your hands), no family troubles (because no actual family). As the king would say, “Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.”

            Simple! :evil:

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  2. In the simple days this quote applied: “I dig the ditch to get the money to buy the macaroni to get the strength to dig the ditch.” A nice simple life.

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  3. I hear in this cry of “you’ll own nothing and be happy” the undertones of “the State shall own everything and will distribute it according to your needs.”

    And every time I hear that, I put in another order on Amazon for DVDs and physical CDs.

    Because if you don’t own anything, the people in charge can rent it to you-at their own rates. Think of all the programs that we used to buy-and are now “services.” Gamers know this, because every AAA and most AA games have been carefully built so that you can either pay extra, on top of the purchase price of the game or have your experience take much longer than the person that did pay.

    And don’t get me started on “games as a live service” model, which might be one of the few things that I still agree with Not-Jim Sterling about.

    It’s all about control and the ability to ensure that you’re a captive market. Because these people don’t like free markets…it requires them to work to keep you coming back for more.

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    1. Why I broke down and bought Epubor Ultimate, to decript ebooks, which are stored in Calibre away from Amazon and Nook Apps. Sure Calibre has addin scripts for both, but too-much-work, when quit working. Epubor I send a message. Took awhile before they got Amazon working again. But so far, fingers crossed.

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      2. Interesting.

        I don’t have problems with Calibre except that it can’t de-DRM the new Kindle format.

        I’ll have to check out this Epubor Ultimate,

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        1. Not hard at all. I did it easily. And my favorite saying is “I wrote software. I don’t use it.”

          Easy to interact when something goes wrong. When Amazon Kindle de-DRM quit working, emailed. Granted they got every piece of information I could give them (former occupational hazard. I know what I wanted from users.)

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    2. This. There are so many things I mean to get physical copies of, as I can – the fact that Netflix won’t put out DVDs of their own shows is something that really gets to me. I do not WANT subscription services. I want to save money, buy what I want when I can afford it, and be a Responsible Person.

      The MSM is making it much harder than it needs to be to be a Responsible Person.

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      1. I’ve been buying a lot of CDs, DVDs and blue-ray disks. Just picked up 6 anime series on sale, along with Willy And The Poor Boys by Creedence and the first 4 Three Dog Night albums.

        I’ve got some loooong want-lists, too.

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        1. So long. Soooo loooong.

          …Among other things, one of my wishlists is full of books on the history of, and DVDs of stories set in, Northeast Asia, which had some Very Interesting Things happening over the centuries….

          Interesting bit? In the introduction to “Tales of the Far West”, I believe Kenneth Hite summed up the best westerns as, “Civilization must be protected from the Barbarians, and to do that, somebody has to pick up The Gun. However, if you pick up The Gun, you become a Barbarian.”

          He then noted that this has a lot in common with wuxia; heroes protecting civilization yet always outside of it.

          …I find this story-inspiring!

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        2. We’ve been wanting to get Season 11 of Vera, but a) it’s streamed by the ‘zon in the USA, and b) no Region one DVDs are available. (Had a standing order for one when Amazon was being coy about it, and gave up after a year.)

          OTOH, Kim du Toit mentioned an all-region DVD player on one of his “Favorites” posts (Not the one with $250,000 cars :) ) and it was pretty affordable. Installed it today, and for a wonder, it uses the flavor of HDMI that our old Vizio TV understands. The Vera DVD is due next week. And the player was pretty affordable.

          (Amusing side note: I have a Megatek player, and the remote for it and the Lonpoo(!) are compatible. Turn on one DVD player, they both go on. Open doors, the same. There are a lot more functions for the LP, so I’ll skip triggering them both.)

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    3. The original context of the quote was, AIUI, someone talking about the increasing number of subscription/rental services. Instead of purchasing DVD’s, rent them, or subscribe to a streaming service; instead of purchasing a car, rent it, and so on. Thing is, your rentals can be taken away at any time, and you’ll have nearly no recourse, because you didn’t own them.

      Also, with things like Sony deleting things you thought you had “purchased” because their licensing agreement with the copyright owner expired, you need to make sure your “purchases” aren’t actually rentals.

      Personally, I see no ethical issues involved in “pirating” media that you had previously purchased but that someone else decided to take away from you based on contracts you had no say in. Sony’s customers would be fully ethically justified, if not technically legally justified, in finding torrents of all the shows they had previously purchased, to make sure they can continue to watch the content that they previously paid for. After all, when they paid for it, they were operating under the good-faith understanding that this was a one-time payment for permanent access to the content, just like purchasing a DVD.

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  4. BTW tiny houses are insane. there is nothing in them you can’t get in a very basic, used RV. And when their prices start being the same as of a small NEW RV, what’s the point? Other than of course classism. Makes you think.
    ……………….

    More expensive. We’ve never paid $80k for a trailer the same size as a lot of “tiny homes”. While most $12k, even $35k, trailers don’t come with “loft beds”, no reason why they couldn’t (because not requested?) Have seen bunk beds over queen beds. Heck we bought a pickup overhead camper with a bunk bed over the dinette (bed). Where our toddler (with add on railing) slept. Note, have no idea what prices are now. We paid: $8k – 1990 for the camper (sold for $9k). $12k – 1994 27′ trailer with slide (hey, you try camping in a 9′ camper with a 4 year old in the mountains for a week, when it is pouring down rain; sold 2005 for $8k after *hubby had to live in it for 18 months). $16k – 2008 22′ with slide, sold 2020 for $12k, after a scare that brought up “what if mom has to hitch and drive this thing home” :-) We hotel it now.

    ((*)) Or why hubby growls if someone asks “so when are you selling everything and taking an RV (usually motorhome) around the country/snowbirding?”

    ((*)) Thankfully we still had it in 2003 when we needed it. Had talked about selling because only using only couple times a year (a week at a time) since we were tent camping every month with troop. But didn’t.

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    1. At one point in the ’90s-early 2000s hubby was traveling to shooting competitions nearly every weekend, spring through fall. We looked into getting an RV, as a lot of competitors do, but after running the numbers he found that we could stay in the finest hotel in town every weekend for less than the cost of the payments on a new RV (or stay in the Sleep Inn for less than a used one). And no worries about repairs, or towing, or…. anything!

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      1. Depends on where you are traveling to, how long you are staying, and what fuel prices are. For us, it is break even, for anything over a few days (we stay a week or two). Even with the extra fuel cost of a truck VS fuel efficient car once at location. We’d go to National Parks, and stay in the national park campgrounds. (We still do, but we go during “down” season. Campgrounds aren’t all open. Lodging costs are more “reasonable”.) Plus, camping is what we did.

        We’ve been paying for our trips with the money made off the 2020 sale of the pickup and trailer. OTOH we were paid almost double for the used truck (11 years old), and the trailer (used 13 seasons), what they’d been worth in 2019 (dang near what we paid for them, not counting inflation, even for the truck that was unheard of), and we could have gotten more (greedy we are not).

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      2. Cartridge or black powder? In the 1970s, my father shot BP seriously…by which I mean we went to a shoot about 20 times a year. Wound up with an RV after camping in 20 degree weather in a tent (Mom put her foot down on that one).

        Ultimately, we wound up buying a trailer, taking it up to the North-South Skirmish Association’s range near Winchester, VA…and parking it there. Which made things very easy for the next 25 years.

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        1. Skeet! He was never a triple A shooter, but he was pretty good and often won his class. We went to almost every shoot in Virginia over the years and had a lot of fun, even won a few decoys at the Duck Shoot on the Eastern Shore. Those were the days…

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          1. Indeed they were. The money’s in trap, but skeet is more fun (and, like sporting clays, better practice for upland game season). :-) Haven’t done either for around 30 years.

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        2. My daughter’s scoutmaster won a “break the stick” competition shooting black powder this summer. Thing is, the “stick” was a 2×4, they’d gone to a tricky black powder formulation, and this camp is literally on the coast, so very damp.

          He’s the first person to EVER complete this challenge.

          (He’s also the local district shooting sports director, is a trainer who trains trainers, and gave them some advice on how to get better use out of the powder they’re getting.)

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  5. Another excerpt from my work biography that I’ll quote rather than rewrite, but it seems relevant.

    “My current focus is on ontologies because they’re a useful and essential part of the growing field of artificial intelligence. Also I liken the field of ontologies to what, I believe Elon Musk, said to a gathering of teachers about the future of teaching in the online world, “I think teachers should be paid a million dollars a year! Unfortunately I’m only going to need about a thousand of you.” Ontology creation is a high-value skill that requires a background not easy to acquire.

    “When I was in grad school, we had access to a huge database of information on the American public, put together for Social Science research purposes. To execute a research project with my newly-learned statistics, I decided to search for what variables corresponded to high income. I input education, type of industry, hours worked, and several other variables I can no longer remember. To my great disappointment, the only variable that significantly correlated with higher income was number of hours worked. I even removed part-timers from the query, but alas, the correlation stood. There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch, as they say. If I had been more savvy, I would have looked at the outliers (residuals in stat speak). Now I aim to be an outlier—someone with an essential skill that is hard to acquire. I recommend it.”

    Of course, now I’m retired and living what Sarah describes as the good life, as long as I have my health.

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    1. Ditto.

      We planned for life without SS, because SS was going to be bankrupt by then, and so “means” tested. We didn’t want to be where we “had to have SS”. That we actually have SS available. Bonus! Extra bonus, we can give a hand up to our one and only child. Probably. Maybe. Most likely. Eventually. Without stinting ourselves. And we did it without “breaking” ourselves working.

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  6. I took a very, very large drop in pay when I left the investment bank I was commuting NY to Chicago for and took a much smaller, much lower paid job. I flew out every Monday and flew home — most — every Friday. EWR to ORD what fun. The children were paying the price, particularly number one son who’s on the spectrum. So I left that world and simplified my life. The wife said “there’s more to life than money”. and as always she was right. I asked her recently what would have happened if I stayed at it and she said “you’d be dead from the stress.”

    Now, this was possible since we had lived well below our “means” and had money put by. We live quite well, no complaints. The wife hasn’t had to work outside the home and the children have no student debt.

    Still, most of my former colleagues can’t understand it. They all fell into what an old boss of mine called “the seduction.” See, in that world, there’s always a big payout just ahead of you and your expenditure rises not to your current means, but to the next level of means. Now you need the Brooklyn brownstone, the kids have to go to the private schools that are more expensive than Harvard, the new wife needs new boobs, and the first wife 🤣🤣🤣you get the idea. it’s stupid, especially as the pyramid really narrows, as an awful lot of people are finding out right now, alas.

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  7. Choose your own level of complexity and live with it, and stop concerning yourself with how simple or complicated the life of others is.
    ……………………

    We could have made a lot more money through the years. Because when I was working, then dad told his bosses “put me where there is straight 8 hours”. His hours were “7am – 3pm” or “6am to 2pm”. This allowed him to be home as, or soon after kid got home. Allowed him to be coach and scout leader. I took care of the AM because my AM arrival times were flexible (as long as I got 40 hours in, who cared). Minimized daycare, even when daycare was all day. Daycare for our son was good. It put him with other walking infants, toddlers, and preschool. By the time he hit kindergarten our schedules worked great.

    Home schooling, even if one of was home, wasn’t the best option through ’90s or even early ’00s. Although I wish it had been. Our son did not drink the Koolaide. Because of scouts or because we monitored homework (made sure it was done), IDK. Don’t think we were helicopter parents. Unless helicopter parents are also the parents that show up to do (coach, scout leaders)? Not based on other parents observed, but maybe too close to the picture?

    The extra money hubby could have earned would have been the overtime jobs. When jobs available were 6am – 6pm, that is 4 hours at 1.5x, or another 6 hours regular pay equal (salary not exempt = salary + overtime). Plus, he declined to go out of town, which then added travel time pay at overtime rates, and net per diem at federal rates (net = rate – actual spent). No, taxes would have eaten some, but not all. But we had dad.

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  8. Ah, “I” problems.

    And yes, it’s a big warning sign– first ran into it in marriages.

    It’s always “we” need to do the thing the folks with an “I” problem want done, and when the work is finished, it’s “I” did this, and “I” did that…unless something goes wrong. Then “we” need to fix it, or THAT is when they notice who actually did the work, so they can be blamed for it.

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  9. We live in the kind of forest where other people go to camp. Now that we have a fire pit we have all the fun of camping without having to buy a camper, pack a camper, tow a camper, clean out a camper, store a camper or maintain a camper.

    We decided to never go to the city for money and also because our folks were here and we wanted our kids to know their grandparents. Our kids, however, all left for the big city, one of them overseas. Now that their kids are starting to leave the nest, they are starting to want to “simplify”. Commuting, city hassles and so on aren’t too much fun, apparently. We wouldn’t know. But we wish they would have decided sooner so we could have seen our grandkids more.

    The tiny house thing is the bougie equivalent of living in trailer. People don’t live in trailers or trailer parks if they can afford better. Ditto, tiny houses. But kids these days are being conned into thinking they are saving the planet and living simple by overpaying for the privilege of living in a was than single-wide space in the overpriced equivalent of a trailer park.

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    1. In the case of my cousin’s two children. The son, wife, grandchildren, live in a tiny home. Now that the farm corporation have bought the farm between his parents and her parents, last I heard the house on that farm is being renovated, then they will move in, and sell the tiny home. This is a matter of managing a farm and can’t build another house on any of the 3 properties. His sister and her new husband have a 5th wheel and pickup. This is because his job training will have him traveling for his job, to job sites. She can get jobs anywhere, or “stay home” with the children, when they have them. Neighbor has a similar job. Unless the job site is reasonable commuting distance, he is gone all week. Hard on the kids. Hard on significant other (she knew what she was getting into). He tried “taking a break” (i.e. quit, with an open invite back) and trying to get something local. He went back.

      FYI. The farm. This is why on many rural properties people are using tiny homes or RV’s (most RVs are not made to be lived in day in and out). While they can’t build a house on the property, they can put in RV pad, electricity, wells, etc.

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  12. well, the “simplest” life is lived by prisoners in jail … usually no job, someone else does your laundry, nothing to do but eat, sleep, read, workout and avoid being raped in the showers …

    In some ways I feel our “elites” want us in a prison … right now they can’t just lock us all up … but if you look at the ideas they promote … 15 min city, no private vehicles, no air travel, eat bugs and like it … life starts to become a prison in every thing but name …

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    1. Just as an aside… Jail/prison ain’t simple for the inmate. They are pushed into all kinds of “programs” have requirements to attend classes or other court required stuff. Most also want an in-house “job” of some sort as it gives them something to do – and boredom is huge in prisons. So, it’s not simple in one sense but it is very, very structured and an inmate can slide through the time but still has a lot of “stuff” that is required each and every day (count, programing, etc.).

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  13. Sometimes it doesn’t take much to “simplify” your work life. I had a chance to do some work that required me to fly out Sunday and come back on Friday night with everything paid for and a very, very nice amount of pay. Nope… couldn’t do it as I loved being home each night way to much. My folks had ups and downs with jobs but Mom never worked outside the home and once they had an empty nest she did volunteer work at the hospital. Dad was home every night, sometimes a bit late but when I got up in the morning, there he was!

    For me I did a lot of different jobs in early life but finally settled into “training” with an MsEd and found myself in government jobs. I spent 23 years with one state and eight with the last one. After awhile you find you’ve got “golden handcuffs” with the whole pension gig. As my last year of employment rolled around I had plans to go for another two years – Wife and I ran the numbers, looked at my workplace environment and where it was heading and I pulled the pin and got out when I did. Not as much money each month but enough to meet our needs, put a bit away and be able to have “treats” now and again. Retired for me has become my simple life. Yes, thank you for asking, it’s wonderful!

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  14. There is a thing called “minimalism” on the Intertubes. I stumbled across a video on YouTube (something about organizing closets, iirc). That woman was quite sane, although I didn’t care for her aesthetic (video taken in her house; not a thing on any wall). She referenced a bunch of other people who seemed (I didn’t verify anything) significantly less sane.

    She showed a tweet, that I can’t believe anyone would take seriously, that said, “A real minimalist only owns 13 things.” Yeah. Right. I’m wearing nine things, right now (ten, if you count the headphones). One would need to spend rivers of money to only own 13 things. No house, so rent. No cooking, so eating out. One outfit and no washer/dryer, so frequent laundromat visits. No seasons, or more than one outfit required. In a city, without a house, it is not unreasonable to get away with no car, but one is then trapped.

    Mocking aside, there is something to be said for getting rid of clutter, both literally and metaphorically.

    I remember being so proud that I moved from my first to my second apartment in a taxi. Denver to Rapid City (40 years later) was three U-Haul truck trips with the remains in the pickup truck bed on the last trip. And the stuff we just left behind!

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    1. When we moved from Covallis to Longview, it was 5 pickup loads, and not full loads.

      Moved from rental to bought house using pickup. More trips, but not much more.

      House in Longview to Eugene rental. One big moving truck (company paid).

      Eugene rental to bought house, where we are now? Big truck, multiple trips, but not packed tight (just easier than moving couches in truck). Plus cousins moved 10 chord of firewood using two pickups.

      Move now? OMG Not a chance in the world.

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      1. We hit the other extreme. About a year before we were married, $SPOUSE-TO-BE was laid off from $GENERIC_SEMICONDUCTOR, and financial reasons meant she moved in.

        Her stuff was reasonably extensive, and by the time we left Silly Valley, I’d been in that house for 17 years (previous house, 8 years). Had a lot of stuff, between furniture, clothing, books, and wood/metalworking tools & machines.

        We moved with a full pickup, a full-ish tent trailer, and the other car full. The rest had been stored (after massive culling with donations/dump runs) in three storage unit bays. The moving company took two bays’ worth, and I took a train to San Jose and rented a Budget box truck for the third. I drove down for the movers and got one machine tool, and did a final trip with a utility trailer for the last machine tool. (Was not going to get a metalworking lathe up that ramp, no sir!)

        We gave away a lot (“What happened to the Tupperware box?” “Dunno. Donated? Lost in the move?”) and still gave away more when we settled in. $TINY_TOWN’s library got a good amount of books and VHS tapes.

        The shop/barn has about 20 years of accreted stuff in it. I’m doing a major cleanup this week (and the next, maybe multiple weeks). Looks like the dump run will be impressive. I don’t think I’ll have anything to donate. Maybe. The next woodworking project(s) will be Moar Storage.

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      2. When I graduated college, all m6 worldly possessions (plus my grandmother and her suitcase) fit in a 2 door chevette.

        Now…aieee. we’ve lived in the same house since 1990, and I have ALL my parents’ crap. 😱

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    2. 13 things? Well, let’s see. I have a library, that’s one. Clothes, that’s two. And so on. I rather suspect that that’s the only way to get to 13 things without being, as you mentioned, insane about it.

      What’s that you say? My library has over a thousand books in it? Well, to quote Gimli from the movies, “That still only counts as one!”

      Liked by 1 person

      1. “That still only counts as one!”

        If divided as “individual property bits titled by name” being individual things with “the rest” as a unitary concept of a thing counting as one, I believe I have less than thirteen things to my name.

        On the other hand I know I have more than thirteen pencils.

        And stuff I own constitutes vastly more than thirteen molecules.

        So, as is reported to be how some folks can beat a poly, I guess my answer depends on how I frame the concepts behind the words in the question.

        Like

  15. My favorite quote (which is probably a paraphrase): “In war, everything is simple, but the simplest thing is difficult.” I repurpose that a LOT. It is applicable to so many things beyond war.

    Liked by 1 person

  16. The Simplification, from A Canticle for Leibowitz, occurring among the survivors of a nuclear holocaust:

    “Let us make a holocaust of those who wrought this crime, together with their hirelings and their wise men; burning, let them perish, and all their works, their names, and even their memories. Let us destroy them all, and teach our children that the world is new, that they may know nothing of the deeds that went before. Let us make a great simplification, and then the world shall begin again.”

    Or maybe that’s not what you meant…

    Like

      1. You certainly succeeded in bringing it to my mind, although I am a known Walter Miller partisan :-). It is certainly NOT a good thing in Canticle as the brothers of the Albertian Order of Liebowitz rage against it to save the knowledge, the truth, as it exists in varying degrees of success. Our Brahmandarins embrace the Simplification for a variety of reasons. Mostly it is because people with limited choice and limited knowledge are easier to control. Partly its because they’re some kind of ersatz puritans fulfilling Mencken’s definition that they are afraid somone somewhere is enjoying themselves in unapproved ways. The idea of wrong fun haunts their nightmares.

        Liked by 1 person

          1. Understood dear hostess if I have not made that clear. That the Brahmandarins have (somewhat more than symbolically) become the Simpleton mobs of Canticle For Liebowitz is what you had implied.

            Liked by 1 person

        2. The world is full of self-important, self-righteous, obsessed assholes, endlessly tormented by the conviction that Somebody, Somewhere is Doing Something they don’t approve of, and driven by a compulsion to Do Something About It at any cost.
          ———————————
          Hmmm, so just dragging text into the box doesn’t trigger the login. You have to actually type something first.

          Liked by 1 person

  17. Sometimes simplification is as easy as deleting apps from the phone or computer, and hitting the Unsubscribe button on every annoying email. And it’s free!

    Replacing $1/quart soft drinks with 20¢/quart iced tea (hooray, Celestial Seasonings!) was a no brainer, too. Which. Saves. You. Money!

    Liked by 1 person

  19. I had a simple life when I was single. I worked, went to the gym, read books, spent some time with friends and family, and lived in an apartment. I knew the world was crazy.

    Now I’m married, still work, have too much family and friends, fur dependents, and a decent size house (requiring maintenance) in a nice neighborhood. Everyone paying attention knows the world is crazy.

    Still know volcanoes have more influence on global change than mankind will ever have. Geology > Climate Crisis BS

    Like

    1. I suspect axial precession has even more influence, at least long-term, but don’t tell the idiots…

      “AAAHHHHH! Stop [driving that way; slicing your golf swing; chasing your tail; doing triple-spins…]! You’ll affect axial precession, and that will cause the Earth to [freeze; boil; develop acne; go off in a corner and pout…].!!!”

      And yes, they really are that stupid. :roll:

      Like

  20. OT…Our minister’s wife gave me a book and asked me to give her my opinion. (The book is, “Awe,” by Dacher Keltner). Her opinion was, “I read it, I don’t think I’d read it again…”
    Well, I’m reading it and I suspect: a) it bothered her but she doesn’t know why; and b) I think I know why. The author is, quite literally, a San Francisco liberal who has never questioned a single aspect of his very progressive worldview. Of course he’s a professor of psychology at Berkeley.
    Good grief, he’s shallow.
    Sorry. I just had to get that out.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Depth is consequences. It is responsibility, the burden of trust, history, real meaning, and an ever wider field of interrelated causation that never ends.

      So of course the liberal is shallow. They shy away from owning responsibility. They deride history, obfuscate meaning, and deny any link between their perfidious actions and the entropic consequences they engender.

      They may seek to ape the actions of better men, but be not fooled: it is but imitation. Their science is a cult. Their religion is politics. And their works are, by the vast majority, theft.

      Knowing this, it is any surprise that they continue to fail? The very building blocks of enduring success are beyond them. The only places they survive are unnatural environments where lies are lauded and truths are anathema.

      And even there, they fail more than they succeed.

      It is only through ever more frantic distractions and deliberate maleducation that this is missed by the busy folk of the country.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Less and less everyday, even some of their economic slaves are waking up to their failures. My biggest fear is that yes, they will destroy the propagandists in the press, and then be sated. Allowing their puppet masters who are the real harbingers of evil to escape retribution for their sins.

        Liked by 2 people

  21. What they really mean is they want to decide what you can have and buy with the money they allow you to keep from your hard work. Of course, that is after they have taken everything else they need for themselves from your hard work. They want you to drive electric cars run by coal so they can be guilt free flying their jets to the Maldives. It Is Never About Anything Other Than Appeasing Their Own Guilt And Making Someone Else Pay For It. They don’t want to live the simple life, they want you to live the simple life so they don’t have to. You are the sacrifice they are willing to make.

    It was interesting how quickly all the communes collapsed after everyone realized that there was not someone else to do the work and they had to do it themselves. Screw it, if I have to work I’ll get a real job with my dad.

    Like

    1. Some time ago, when I was in France, the guide explained how not having the money to buy lots of stuff was actually great, because of all the government services. Having a minimum of 10% unemployment and living in an apartment were part of normal life. Oh, and driving was a privilege that had to be re-earned. Limited transportation options were not a problem, per this person who lived near Paris.

      Tell that to the people in southern France who had their access to public transportation cut by the government a few years ago.

      Liked by 1 person

          1. That was certainly true when I was in France in the late 2000s. Once you got away from offices in Toluse, the locals had NOTHING nice to say about Paris and northern France. One lady in Sarlat scorched my ears with her description of what Paris could go do with itself. That was before the central government started cutting back services to smaller, remote, or both, areas.

            Now, granted, the Langue D’oc grudge goes in part back to the 1000s and the minor tiff over the Albigensians and the northerners breaking the power of the Counts of Tolouse. Events in the 1880s (forced transition to Parisian French in the schools et cetera) and 1790s probably didn’t help.

            Liked by 1 person

            1. When I went to France in the ’50s with my parents to visit my paternal grandmother, numerous aunts and uncles, and even-more-numerous cousins, we rented a car (a Panhard, IIRC) in Paris and drove to Marseilles. Since the car had Paris plates, it was fairly common to hear “Sal Parisien!!!” (“Dirty Parisian!!!”). Drove my dad nuts, since he grew up in Marseilles and never lived in Paris. Occasionally he’d respond politely (yeah, right…), and as soon as he opened his mouth they’d know he was a local. Actually got some embarrassed looks, and even a couple of apologies. :-)

              Like

  22. “You will own nothing and you will be happy.”

    That is a command, not a suggestion. Last warning.

    Like

  23. Well, comments closed on the sale post. So, OT – glad you have that up. Got me running over there, because I wasn’t sure I’d bought “Draw” (I had) – but while there, realized I hadn’t bought any of the “Darkship” books, except for “A Few Good Men” – and that in MMPB.

    So have corrected an oversight. (On a 2X points day, too!)

    Liked by 1 person

  24. Own nothing, live in a tiny house, eat ze bugz, and be happy, dammit.

    So rent everything you use or wear, exist in a trailer you are not allowed to move which you rent, placed on a designated parking spot which you rent, and eat bugs, which apparently you will rent since you own nothing.

    Sure you can travel to somewhere else – if your social credit score Lety’s you rent a vehicle, and the local charging infrastructure lets you charge it that much.

    I just keep coming back to their just unending desire to be the dacha-occupiers in the old Soviet system, telling the Party minions what to enforce on the now liberated proletariate. They jet to Davos every year to cosplay being the enlightened elites in charge of everyone else’s lives, so the unwashed masses can be properly directed in the ways of their odd little Gaia worship cult.

    So re Davos the next time it’s full of these individuals, I proposed the Ripley Option:

    Liked by 1 person

    1. It is a start. Just that, a start.

      If it was done by Islamic extremists, too many of their mind numbed robotic followers would protest the fact that Muslims are being blamed for a crime they committed. Remember, burn down your local Ivy League institution for the holidays.
      “Marxist nuts roasting on an open fire, Napalm nipping at their Nose” ….

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Dear Fibbie Commissars;
        I forgot the Tee Hee and sarc, to show it was humor. I know you anal retentive moronic communist traitors have no sense of humor so I thought I would make it clear it was humor, because I know you are a humorless bunch of misbegotten barely human sludge that even your own damned to hell slut of a whore mother wouldn’t admit to giving birth to. Have a nice day.

        Liked by 1 person

    1. I just saw the first sign of the end of the Matriarchy, Baileys Chocolate Cream. Booze and Chocolate all in one. Your done ladies, it’s over….Tee Hee

      “Ichz not bouze Marshta ichz chocolates, hicc”

      Liked by 1 person

        1. Most of the time I don’t regret not being able to drink any more. But Baileys plus chocolate? Damn! (Though I hope it’s a lot better than Nestles…)

          (Already nostalgic for somewhat fortified eggnog. Oh well, the craving shall pass. :) )

          Like

  27. The wish for simplicity is the wish to return to childhood. Part of growing up is realizing that everything is complex.

    As Leonard Read made clear in his 1958 essay “I, Pencil”, no one person even knows how to make a simple pencil. If a pencil is that complex, everything else is much, much more so.

    Liked by 1 person

  28. ‘Simple’ is another word for ‘none too bright’.

    What the Leftroids demand are simple answers to complex questions, that don’t require them to think too hard, or at all.

    “Pollution-Free Electric Cars!”
    “Green Energy!”
    “Ban oil!”
    “Ban Eeevul Guns!”
    “Defund the police!”
    “Open Reform the border!”

    Problem is, if you do think about any of those, they turn out to be not so simple after all.
    ———————————
    Complex questions never have simple answers. Hell, most simple questions don’t have simple answers.

    Liked by 1 person

  29. Simple questions often have the most complex answers. I reference the question from the short story ‘The Last Question” by I. Asimov. , Can entropy ever be reversed?

    Like

    2. “The Last Question” was a kick-ass presentation at the Buhl Planetarium in Pittsburgh.

      And just now tried to look it up online. I am heartbroken to see it has closed. Moved to some other part of Carnegie. Of all the places of my childhood, it was one of the most treasured as a rare outing.

      Sigh…..

      Liked by 1 person

  30. If you have a car, you are free to go where you want, when you want.

    If not, you are dependent on the routing and schedules of ‘public transportation’ which are not established for your convenience and can be changed without your approval or consent.

    They can be mind-bogglingly stupid, too. I used to have a 25 mile commute which took 40 to 50 minutes depending on traffic. I was stuck without a vehicle for a week, and it took 3 hours to get there by bus and train. They were not only slow, the schedules were not what you’d call efficient. Especially the trains. The northbound train pulled into Oceanside about a minute after the eastbound train left the station.

    Every.
    F*ing.
    Day.

    I got to watch the ass end of the train I needed to be on rolling away down the track, and then wait half an hour for the next one. What drooling idiot scheduled that? I walked two blocks to the bus stop at 6 AM, and got back there on the last bus around 9:30 PM. A week of that was more than enough. As a way of life? No F*ing way.

    But that is what the elitists want for ‘the rest of us’.
    ———————————
    People can make stupid mistakes, but only the government can force everybody to make the SAME stupid mistakes.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. This is precisely why the left’s war on personal automobiles needs to be fought against, and reversed, at every step. Depend on someone else for transportation, and you are hostage to their whims, both deliberate revenge for political statements you make that they don’t like, and the more common gross stupidity like the train scheduling idiocy you ran into.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Speaking of stupid, the San Diego Trolley does not go to the airport. Billions spent with great ceremony, more than a hundred miles of dedicated track laid, and they didn’t run a branch 2 1/2 miles from downtown to the airport.
        ———————————
        Only idiots believe they know how other people should live their lives. The stupider they are, the more blindly they believe it.

        Like

        1. “…they didn’t run a branch 2 1/2 miles from downtown to the airport.”

          Because the cab and limousine lobby gave all the committee members hockey tickets, or whatever perk they give in San Diego. Trolley to the airport means no money for cabbies and limos.

          There’s probably -no- city in North America with a train/streetcar/subway to the airport. And there is a reason for that. The reason is corruption.

          That’s not snark or cynicism by the way, that’s exactly what they did. Socialism, at its finest.

          Liked by 1 person

            1. Yeah. You notice the LRT line doesn’t go all the way to the train station? You still have to schlep all your crap (and children, and old people, and etc.) on and off a bus. That’s not an accident.

              Also, notice that the train does not have a proper line to the airport. That is not an accident either.

              They don’t build public transit for the public, or for transit. All you have to do is look at the maps and it becomes pretty clear.

              Like

          2. The Reader notes you are correct about San Diego. Not only does the trolley not go to the airport, but last decade a small fortune was spend rearranging the road access to make it easier for cabs and limos to get in and out.

            Liked by 1 person

            1. Yep, MARTA runs right through Hartsfield-Jackson. Last time I was on there, years ago, about half my train car was TSA drones commuting from inner-city bad neighborhoods of Atlanta to the airport. And boy, it made me feel so good about flying to realize that these TSA drones were about one step up from either slinging crack in Techwood or being squeegee guys on a street corner off of Peachtree somewhere.

              Liked by 1 person

              1. It was a little better when I used MARTA to get to the airport in the mid 1990s, but that was at 0600 for a red-eye. And never during the evenings.

                Like

            1. That would be a miracle. If it is true that the train really does go all the way to the airport, and you can get from the train to the terminal without a bus ride (or a mile walk) then it is indeed a miracle, and also the exception that proves the rule.

              Out of all the US and Canadian cities, it’ll be the only one. -Maybe- San Francisco has a link? I rented a car, I’ll tell you that.

              Next question, can you ride the train without getting mugged/killed?

              Like

              1. Never been to it myself, but according to the Wikipedia article, the Dulles station is an above-ground station next to a daily parking garage and has moving sidewalks connecting it and the garage (and other hourly/daily parking) to the terminal, via an existing pedestrian tunnel. So fairly close, I guess, if it’s by daily parking. The metro station at Reagan National has been there forever and is connected directly to Terminal 2 by a pedestrian bridge.

                Liked by 1 person

              2. In Boston the MBTA (local subway/Light Rail) runs ALMOST to Logan via the Blue line then via a devoted Shuttle bus (similar to what you’d get if you came from Hertz or similar). I’ve done it in the past. Honestly if your outside Metro Boston you’re better off finding one of the shuttle bus sites usually 10-15 bucks round trip and 9 bucks a day parking in nice guarded lots works great. From North shore where I am to use the T you either have to drive to Revere Beach T stop to get the blue line (at which point in ~2 miles more of driving you are at Logan Airport) or you have to do some cute jig of Commuter Rail, and at least 2 T lines, Either Orange or Green to Blue). If you have ANYTHING more than a carry on this is madness at commute hours. Coming from the South of the city on the T can also run you through some ugly sections, It seemed to be getting worse as I left the city in 2020 as the homeless/ insane really seemed to love the Red line as it runs probably 2 hrs end to end so cost is minimal for a decent nap or to get out of the weather for a while.

                On the connection issue there is a cute one that has existed in Boston since the 19th century. Rail from South of the city comes into South Station, Rail from the North of the city comes into North Station. Early attempts to connect them were (allegedly) thwarted by the (Hansom) Cab operators who did not want their incomes reduced. They;re a little over 2 miles apartAs recently as the ’90s there was an attempt to put a connection in as part of the Big Dig (AKA Tip O’Neill tunnels) but the combination of cost (Big Dig already went billions over budget), Local opposition, and technical complexity due to the grades you’d need to go below Boston (and that it would be solidly in the water table most of the way because of where the stations are) meant it never happened.

                Like

          5. BART has a station at SFO airport. It took a while and a lot of money to complete, but it’s there now.

            Note that the BART stations in the city are as bad as some of the San Francisco city streets for drug use and people “camping”, so out of town visitors who have to change trains have adventures, but the tracks go to the airport.

            Liked by 1 person

          6. -no- city in North America with a train/streetcar/subway to the airport.
            …………………..

            Not true. Reagan International DC has a subway station. I intended to take it from there to my motel after the 2005 Jamboree bus from Fort A.P. Hill. Or at least research, back then said there was. But … Let’s just say by then the 10 or so days of humidity had done a number on me. I took a taxi. (Was also at the hotel way earlier than check in time. The look on the desk staff when they told me that it’d be 3 hours before they could check me it (it wasn’t but they weren’t “wrong”) when my answer was “Okay. I have a book to read. And I am not ‘out there’,” was priceless.)

            Liked by 1 person

            1. Vancouver and Montreal both had the Olympics. You would think they’d have amazing train service to the airport, so European right?

              Summing up, out of all the cities in N. America, we’ve got SF, DC, Atlanta in the USA with proper train service to the international airport.

              Vancouver has an LRT type thing bragging 1/2 hour to downtown. Nice job Vancouver.

              That’s four (4) cities in North America with trains to the airport. (How many cities in N. America have subways/street cars/LRTs for public transit, Lefties? More than 4, I think.)

              Montreal has a bus, the train does not go to the airport. The subway does not go to the airport.

              Toronto has the most gawd-awful bus service to Pearson. TTC barely goes there. You’d be very hard pressed to get to the airport from downtown, it would take hours. They do have a new thing called the Airport Rocket that goes direct to Islington Station (extreme west end of the Bloor subway line) but the only reason I know that is it was listed on a map. Transit info from the airport website doesn’t mention it. Additional note, the TTC is increasingly full of junkies riding around to stay warm. Important safety tip kids.

              There you go. ~:D

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          8. Reagan National Airport (in DC) is smack on the blue line of Washington Metro. Right to the terminal. I’ve flown out of there multiple times, taking the train to the airport and back. The problem is that the train station was still a mile or so away from my apartment complex, and the bus is not synced to the train station, no.

            Taken the train to Baltimore Washington, too, though the problem there is that the Amtrak station is quite a ways from the airport proper.

            Retro-fitting transportation sucks pretty hard. It’s expensive, and it often involves a lot of eminent domain use.

            Like

            1. Normally politicians, like games and streamed movies, are just rented. You have to go on with the expectation of continuous maintenance.

              Like

        3. St. Louis light rail ends at the airport. Wife and I missed a connection there years ago and spent a pleasant day at the Arch and the gentrified area around it

          Like

  31. Hmm. I guess that puts you at 150 million kilometers from sainthood then. Right in the backyard from an astronomical perspective. Heh, you’re only 8.3 light minutes from sainthood.

    A starving dog always makes the calculus of whether the pittance of food his owner throws him is worth not eating the owner himself. Something those “large, foreign entities of dubious morality” rarely consider when downsizing your rice bowl.

    Wants and needs. I have as many wants as the next person. Most of them impractical, so rather than an actual want, let’s just call them pipe dreams. Because I’m not going to do anything to try to satisfy those wants (other than occasional lottery ticket purchase.)

    Needs are the same too. Adequate food, clothing, shelter, water, waste disposal, air (need electrical power for that 8 hrs a day, so add that to the needs), healthcare. The first three were what we were taught in school when I was a kid, and too basic for reality. But all of them have to be satisfied by my producing, and keeping, enough value to other people to afford to purchase them for myself.

    The problem with the keeping is taxation, and inflation. Both of which the government is responsible for in this age. Prior to dropping the gold standard, inflation and deflation varied based on supply and demand, but always returned to a base value of gold. Now inflation is driven primarily by inflation of the money supply by the government, and only because our illustrious looting representatives print it to cover their excessive spending (and even then they can’t print enough of it fast enough, their debts keep piling on.) As for the taxation, justification for more taxation because they offer more services is a crock. I didn’t ask for, or need, those “services”. They’re merely an excuse to take more money from me to give to their criminal cabal.

    Liked by 1 person

  32. ‘Simplification’, huh? Come to think of it, everything is simple for the dead. Especially voting.

    That’s all they’re doing in Canuckistan, really — they’re just ‘simplifying’ their health care. If your medical needs are too complex and expensive you get ‘simplified’, all neat and efficient. Or if you just happen to croak during the six months you have to wait for treatment…
    ———————————
    Under socialized medicine, each patient incurs expenses which end when the patient dies. In private practice, each patient provides profits which end when the patient dies. Which patient would YOU rather be?

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Please do not get me started about MAiD and “healthcare” in Canuckistan. Soon to be the leading cause of death in Canada, if it stays on track.

      Also, the Canuckistan joke is wearing quite thin lately, with mayors refusing to attend Hanukkah ceremonies in Canadian cities because the Islam vote outnumbers the Israel vote. We’re waiting for them to ban Christian ceremonies next, because of diversity you know. It’ll be nothing but “holiday season” paganism and sales at retail outlets.

      We who live here are not amused, you can take my word for it.

      Liked by 1 person

        1. Whenever a socialist says “There will never be [ list appalling nightmare here]!!!” then you know two things:
          1. Yes, there will be.
          2. And they want to be running it.

          And stop pushing the red button, can’t you? That’s the one that releases the hounds.

          Like

  33. “All those people doing things I disapprove of should stop it already.”

    Yes. To which there is only one answer: “Get off my lawn.” Sometimes it helps to add some bad words in there, to get their attention.

    Freedom is what you get when socialists are fearful and hide what they are from decent people. They never stop being socialists, but they know to shut up about it.

    When they are -afraid- to come on your lawn without permission, that’s when society is working right.

    Liked by 1 person

  34. Albania was the poster child for “You will own nothing and be happy “. My wife grew up there and remembers it as a happy time as long you followed the rules.

    The rules:
    You could not own anything, not even a chicken.
    You lived where you are assigned- her family was assigned space in a house with 2 other families.
    You rode the bus or walked. Only Party members rode in cars.
    You worked where you were assigned. Party members got the best job.
    You could not travel or move to another place without permission
    You could not turn your head when you walked past the “Bloku” where all the Party members lived.
    There are more, but you get the idea.

    When you broke the rules you were put on a list to be watched.
    For a serious infraction you were sent to a Kamp and now have a bad biography. You can not talk to others. My wife had an Aunt who was in a Kamp.
    You were assigned to work in the fields, building roads, railroads mines.

    So be happy.

    Liked by 1 person

  35. If you think about it, our lives today are pretty simple. Flip a switch, you get light. Twist a knob, you get water, cold or hot. Set a dial, you get just enough heat to cook your food without burning it. Driving your car to the grocery store is a whole lot simpler than foraging for food in a wilderness filled with deadly perils, or just harnessing an uncooperative horse to a wagon lacking anything resembling suspension.

    Our cave-man ancestors would think we live like gods. Or better. Did Odin’s palace have air conditioning? Or showers and flush toilets? Not in any myth I’ve heard about.

    True, it takes a lot of complex infrastructure to make our lives so simple, but anybody from the ‘simple’ past would marvel at what we take for granted.
    ———————————
    Today’s problems are the solutions to much worse problems in the past. They can’t be solved by going backwards.

    Liked by 1 person

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