A Simpler Way: Crisis as Opportunity

By Samuel Alexander, originally published by A Simpler Way

August 26, 2015

Society
NOTE: Images in this archived article have been removed.

A documentary about simple living, permaculture, and local economy as a response to global crises.

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The dominant mode of global development today seeks to universalise high-consumption consumer lifestyles, but this has produced perverse inequalities of wealth and – to an extent that is no longer possible to ignore – is environmentally catastrophic. We are called on to take shorter showers, recycle, buy ‘green’ products, and turn the lights off when we leave the room, but these measures are grossly inadequate. We need more fundamental change – personally, culturally, and structurally.

The purpose of the documentary is to envision a way of life that positively responds to the overlapping global crises of climate change, peak oil, economic collapse, and consumerism. Genuine progress today means building a new, more resilient world based on permaculture, simple living, renewable energy, and localised economies. Most of all, we need to reimagine the good life beyond consumer culture and begin building a world that supports a simpler way of life. This does not mean hardship or deprivation. It means focusing on having enough, for everyone, forever.

The tiny house we built at Wurruk’an:

 "A Simpler Way" is being written and produced by Jordan Osmond, founder of Happen Films, and Dr Samuel Alexander, co-director of the Simplicity Institute. We are super passionate about this project and believe that the message is urgent. By supporting our documentary you are investing in a revolution of consciousness that will help produce what Charles Eisenstein calls "the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible".

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We hope to raise $10,000 toward the production of this documentary, which, in line with our ethics about simple living, will be spent efficiently and thoughtfully. Funds raised will contribute to:

  • Jordan’s basic living costs whilst living simply at Wurruk’an
  • Buying necessary camera gear and hard drives
  • Buying music for the film
  • Travel costs
  • Promotion of the film once it’s completed

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Find out more about the campaign on the indiegogo site here.

Samuel Alexander

Dr. Samuel Alexander, co-director of the Simplicity Institute, is a lecturer at the Office for Environmental Programs, University of Melbourne, Australia, teaching a course called ‘Consumerism and the Growth Economy: Critical Interdisciplinary Perspectives’ into the Master of Environment. He is also a Research Fellow with the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute. He is author of eighteen books, including Degrowth in the Suburbs: A Radical Urban Imaginary (2018), Art Against Empire: Toward an Aesthetics of Degrowth (2017), Just Enough is Plenty: Thoreau’s Alternative Economics (2016), Prosperous Descent: Crisis as Opportunity in an Age of Limits (2015), Sufficiency Economy: Enough, for Everyone, Forever (2015), and Entropia: Life Beyond Industrial Civilisation (2013), and he is editor of Voluntary Simplicity: The Poetic Alternative to Consumer Culture (2009) and co-editor of Simple Living in History: Pioneers of the Deep Future (2014). A full publication list is available here.

As well as his academic work, in recent years Sam has been working on a ‘simpler way’ demonstration project which became the subject of a documentary, ‘A Simpler Way: Crisis as Opportunity‘. He is also founder of the Simplicity Collective, a website and social network dedicated to exploring the relationships between voluntary simplicity, energy descent, and post-growth / degrowth economics.  Dr. Alexander’s PhD thesis, conducted through Melbourne Law School, is entitled “Property beyond Growth: Toward a Politics of Voluntary Simplicity”.

Tags: a simpler way, powering down, social movements, voluntary simplicity

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