What could you live without?

Cassandra · #1 (**permalink**) 08-26-06, 01:15 AM

Sometimes, when I am destressing and feeling in a hermit's mood, I will imagine myself living in a little round stone hut in the middle of the woods. That's it. Stone hut, dirt floor, door.

As the fantasy continues, I invariably think... man, I'm gonna want running water. If I have running water, I'm going to need an electric pump to feed it into the hut. I'm definitely going to want a toilet, so that means plumbing leading away from the hut. Then, I'm going to need a shower, I mean YUCK. Of course I'm going to need a shower and I just couldn't live without razors...

And this continues until I'm back in my own apartment with all the lights and appliances and computers.

I try to think of ways to simplify my life all the time, but I keep finding there's so much I'm not willing to give up.

Cassandra

WallStGolfer31 · #2 (**permalink**) 08-26-06, 01:22 AM

Nothing, I need it all!

JeffBox · #3 (**permalink**) 08-26-06, 04:58 PM

There is plenty I can live without, but there is almost nothing I would want to live without that I have (that's why we bought it in the first place). Stuff I could somewhat easily live without:

- TV
- nicest housing at college
- reserved parking spot
- a few less clothes
- smaller budget
- computer
- car

Those last two would make my life much more difficult but I certainly don't NEED them. There are busses and a library. Interesting exercise, the first ones I thought of quickly but it took me a while to realize what else I don't really need, and maybe take for granted. Be happy for what we have! : )

MDZ · #4 (**permalink**) 08-27-06, 12:08 AM

I agree with Jeff here, it all relates back to that backpacking therory of mine :-) Cell phone is another one. A few years ago I never even used one, now I have it all the time. That doesn't mean that I need it though.

Cassandra · #5 (**permalink**) 08-27-06, 01:20 AM

I keep justifying these frivolous things to myself. I have the cheapest cable tv package I can buy. And I actually would live without cable, except that if I did, then I couldn't have cable internet access, which I have completely convinced myself I need for work. LOL

But think of this another way. Every time a terrorist plot is averted, the media (bereft of any killin's and whoopin's to report) focuses on how the world could easily be shut down by such and such activity. And I, who admittedly don't travel because there's no where I want to go, think... "Alright... the worst that's happened is someone's flight has been delayed. Maybe a family is temporarily separated. But everyone can still get home." I completely don't get the big deal about not being able to travel around the world in a matter of hours.

Much like the Y2K fiasco when people thought something horrible was going to happen if all the computers stopped working. And I was thinking, "Worst case scenario... I'm gonna be eating weenies out of a can and drinking ditch water while someone figures it out."

How did people get so dependent on technology that the absence of it... no the threat of the absence of it creates such panic. Have we gotten helpless or just lazy?

Cassandra

WallStGolfer31 · #6 (**permalink**) 08-27-06, 02:25 AM

Cassandra,

With each new peice of technology, we introduce a higher standard of living. These comforts seem to be just that, comforts, but they are not. These things allow us to free up more time, and divert what energy was used to complete that task before to more productive things. Technology begats technology, and thus we create a higher standard of living each year and year. Thus we need these comforts to stay productive!

gijoe9 · #7 (**permalink**) 08-27-06, 05:02 AM

I can live without everything except my friends. My friends would take me in and clothe me, feed me, and house me. Most important thing of all my friends love me as much as I love them.

Cassandra if you want that little round hut made of stone in the middle of nowhere I could build it for you. If it is in the right place you can have indoor plumbing without the pump or the electricity.

Come to think of it I have lived your fantasy in a fashion for a year Oct 99 to Oct 00. The things I learned were that I enjoy my own company and that I needed to learn how to get more out of a day.

I would miss this computer more than any of the other modern addictions but only because it connects me to many friends in cyberspace and it is them I would really miss. The next thing would be powertools it takes a lot of sweat and swings to chop down trees for a fire or to build with. I could probably even make due with no tools if I had to.

But here I sit in front of my computer a modern man dreaming of my ancestors and there simple life. They probably did not have the energy or time to dream about anything beyond the moment and their own imediate discomforts.

Some day I will own a house (hut) made of stone and I will have a simple life.

Joe

TheSherbs · #8 (**permalink**) 08-27-06, 09:25 PM

We as humans are pretty dependent on others. I mean, if every grocery store in the USA decided to close and stop shipping food, I would be screwed. I don't own a farm or farm animals. I would have to eat leaves and small animals. If that ever happened though, I think we all can agree that the 5hit would be hitting the fan. In that case, I plan on building a self-sustaining house in a decomissioned nuclear silo. Solar panels, wind generators, water purifiers, air purifiers, and years of food stocked up. Oh yeah, and lots and lots of guns and bullets.