Being idle

This is Juliet’s mind again:
Hello world. I’m participating in active resistance – I’m being idle

I read the German newspaper Zeit today. It featured a very nicely written article on the anarchist and author Tom Hodgkinson.
who wrote several books about the importance of being idle as a form of resistance. It wasn’t particularly news- he advises people to abandon their TVs, learn a handcrafts and spend less time working and more time with your family and friends. He believes that if all people acted like that, society would be much healthier and happier. Even poorer people who don’t have the choice to reduce their amount of work or living standards right now would be much happier if people were less focused on earning and owning. Fair enough.

But simple as it sounds- usually it doesn’t work. Most people remain stuck in the machine of earning as much as possible and spending their money on what media creates to be their needs. It’s no secret.  Most everyone I know has at least a slight idea about the fact that the spiral of earning, buying, earning more and buying more is endless and will probably never be satisfactory. Still the smallest amount of people I know has the strength to take a step back from consumer culture.

 The author of the article named a friend of hers who was constantly being offered better jobs- he was working as an IT consultant on a part-time basis- but constantly refused these offers in order to keep his free time and remain less tempted by consumer culture. He usually wore torn pants with colourful patches and didn’t care too much about what society expected from him. Reading this I sighed and wondered, why so many things which I consider to be right still remain theory and only make it into my life and actions so slowly.

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Sometimes I feel like I have to oscillate between being an anarchist of fantasy (as Pipilotti Rist so nicely  put it) and a hermit crab in order to be satisfied in life.  I want to step back from consumerism, although I have to admit that I still suck at it. But I want to do it. I am one hundred percent sure that this is my way and that it’s the only way to deal with my environment and the society I live in. I love the big city. I love the rush, the smell, the nameless masses of people I don’t know- I’m really convinced that most of them are lovely and would be worth knowing. I like the city lights at night. I like the large bridge I have to cross every day to get to the city center. I like the noise and the speed because it makes me feel vivid and young. I like how I sometimes feel like loosing grip in it.

But this is only part of the deal. I spend a lot of money. Living in a big city is always tempting if you like shopping- I am a person who enjoys it. I could buy new things ever day, just because I see something or even out of boredom. (Especially wool, pens and nail polish…) I mean there are things I want to spend money and time on- material for arts, art classes, exhibitions, journeys etc. But I need to remain focused.
Maybe I could challenge myself to only buy necessities plus material for arts for a couple of months?