Cult of Less

[crankyoldman]

Somehow the word "cult" is very apt.

I have mixed feelings about the idea of living out of a harddrive. Mainly because, well, it's a tinged privileged. There's one form of not having a lot of stuff due to poverty, but somehow it's just not as hip as this. :/

And what about art? I happen to sew a lot now, and that requires a certain amount of stuff to do properly. I think the majority of my accumulation of stuff is related to costuming or the fact I collect art. Am I tied down because of this, or is it a part of the enrichment of my life? I rather like making things, and a stash is very helpful for that (instead of having to go out and buy stuff every time I make something... often I can adapt what I have around).

As much as I love the digital world, there are things I enjoy about the physical one. What about you?

Comments

[kaptainvon]

Reading the article, I agree that it smacks of privilege - it's worth noting that we're talking about spiky-haired twenty-something software engineers whose designer clothes are among the possessions they choose to retain, which is quite telling.

The stripping down of material possessions does have a certain appeal to me from time to time, but it's in constant tension with an inner desire to live in a kind of wizard's study. Plus, like you, I have pastimes that involve a lot of stuff-making, and which I can only fund through being a scrounger, a hoarder and a general accumulator of unconsidered trifles.

I view the exciting digital world as a distraction from actually making things more than vice versa, if you follow. That said, I wouldn't mind skipping straight to being a disembodied machine intelligence. Bodies are annoying.