The art of doing nothing.

The following points are extracts from the book ‘Do Good Lives have to cost the Earth?’ in the chapter written by Tom Hodgkinson, ‘The Art of doing Nothing’ - an alternative, non-capitalist way to live.

We agreed that the individualist-Protestant-expansionist-capitalist experiment had gone wrong, having caused gloom, despondency, and servitude for individuals, and potential environmental disaster for the planet. “Clearly we will have to live differently, cutting down on plastics, travelling, oil consumption.” “But you can’t have a programme based on giving things up” she said (she being Barbara Ehrenreich, author of ‘Dancing in the streets’ – in which she argues that the removal of festivity, ritual, and regular partying from Western culture over the last two to three hundred years is to blame for our current malaise, bipolar disorders, anxieties and melancholy). That would be too ascetic and self-denying. “We have to show the world that there is a new world of pleasure and fun there for the taking.” Pleasure and fun, these are the keys. We have to carve out an ethical approach that demonstrates good lives, far from costing the Earth, will actually save the Earth. We need to show that the good life means grabbing hold of a new life, one far richer and more enjoyable than the money and status dream that motivates us today.

…We found that thrift, far from being a self-denying virtue, was a positive and joyful one. Thrift is creative. It is creative because it is anti-waste… it is anti-capitalist. Capitalism loves waste. Waste is at its essence. Waste is money. It means more spending… But a good life means plenty of abundance as opposed to a sickening glut, which is the capitalist way. In medieval times, feasts followed periods of frugal eating which served to increase the pleasure of the feast. For Lent this year I gave up alcohol, partly so as to get more pleasure at the end of Lent when I could drink again. Puritans hated lent and the idea of fasting: it was a pleasure-based idea, not a self-denying one.  But anyway, it is important to recognize that the opposite to consumer capitalism is not some sort of boring Cromwelian, Lenninist world (Cromwell banned colour in clothes, dancing and music).

…So how do we smash the system? We do nothing. Or at least a lot less. Doing is the problem… it is man’s scurrying around, his self-important interference, his urge to do things, which has got us into this mess in the first place. If we had the good sense to just sit around and contemplate the heavens rather than plundering and subjecting the world and it’s people, then we wouldn’t have caused the crises we’re in now. .. Instead of marching, picketing, writing letters and all the rest of the ineffective  panapoly of consumer action, just go and lie on a hill. Get out of the way. Don’t go on holiday. Don’t drive a car. Don’t bother.

Capitalism was originally hostile to the green movement but has now embraced it whole heartedly. This is because capitalists have realised that there are massive new profits in store. And why? Because of new technology. New technology means money. It means more growth and that’s what they love: growth. They love growth because the whole system depends on greed: I buy shares in a company because I want those shares to increase in value faster than inflation. Therefore, it is not the bottom line that interests business, it is the rate of growth. But they can only grow by feeding, and feeding very greedily: feeding on human labour, or by mining the Earth of its resources. No one is interested in companies that stay the same size. 0% growth means death to business.

So be weary of the green movement. To me it looks like the other side of the coin: a lot of work, a lot of money spending. The good life avoids both. We need also be on our guard against the Puritan-socialist strain in the green movement, which looks to me a lot like Methodism in the way it imposes austerity on other people, and comes across very much as anti-pleasure. And too much worrying! Worrying itself is a capitalist concept, like the future. Worrying leads to the purchase of more stuff as we try to shore up our anxieties with objects.

We need to abandon fear and the first fear we need to abandon is the fear of not having enough money. Of course we need to be sensible about money – we need it for rent and food. But do we need money for fun? …When you reduce your outgoings, you reduce your dependence on wages. When you reduce your dependence on wages, you do not need to work so hard. Therefore thrift leads directly to idleness and self-sufficiency. Idleness creates time which you can spend with loved ones rather than working.

The alternative to capitalism is not the self-denial of a monk. It is not a serious-minded, Puritan austerity. It is rather the embracing of a new world of pleasure and fun and freedom. When you stop working and stop spending, you start living.