“Our houses are bigger, but our families are smaller; we have all the modern comforts, but less time.
There are more academic qualifications, but there is less common sense; our knowledge is bigger, but our faculty of judgment smaller; we have more experts but also more problems; more medication but less health.
We have been to the moon and back, but have problems crossing the street to meet our neighbours. Mankind builds more computers which can contain more information than ever before, but our communication is becoming more limited. We have too much quantity, but too little quality.
We live in a time of fast food and slow digestion, big people but small characters; high profits, but impersonal relationships. We live in a time of big facades behind which you will find empty space.”
Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai-Lama [citation from Rob Hopkins, “Transition Towns”, p.208. ]
lovos.org is a forum for people who realize that we are living in a time of transition – a period of global change. Some are trying to greet these changes with positivity and creativity, so that a positive development may result out of it. Ingenuity is most often found in simplicity, so it makes sense to think again about simple living - just for oneself, as a member of a “developed society”. Reality begins in the head.
lovos.org is an interactive platform set up to encourage the exchange of information and ideas about how we can alter and enhance our lifestyles to be more ecologically sustainable, aware, caring and integral, so that a hiqh-quality life with honesty and respect may be reality – today and tomorrow, for everybody and everything.
Please be aware, that my mother tongue is German and that I keep this Blog all for free. So please forgive me mistakes concerning the language and also that I don’t actualize simultaneously in the german and the english part of lovos.org. It takes incredibly a lot of time to evaluate information that shall widen the perspective meanwhile stimulating realistically and/or positively to take action in creating our life sustainably and worth living. Take care & all the best!
Home. A film by Yann Arthus-Bertrand. A unique journey around the planet through the landscapes of 54 countries captured from above, awakening the awareness of how everything on this planet is interconnected and the urge to take action together for a sustainable lifestyle.
Links
> Al Bartlett (Professor Eremitus, Physics. Arithmetic, Population, and Energy. Correlations & consequences… unvarnished!)
> Downshifting (Wikipedia)
> GrowthBusters (Blog of the filmmaker Dave Gardner for the film “Hooked on Growth” – upcoming 2011. An eye opener…)
> Low-Impact Living Initiative (LILI)
> Sustainable Development (Wikipedia-Portal)
> FourYears.Go. (A worldwide Campaign to change the course of history)
“We can describe voluntary simplicity as a manner of living that is outwardly more simple and inwardly more rich, a way of being in which our most authentic and alive self is brought into direct and conscious contact with living.”
Douane Elgin (Wikipedia > Simple Living)
Ever heard from Leopold Kohr?
I didn’t before December 31, 2009. André, a friend of mine, gave me the hint and I give it now to you: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold_Kohr
Leopold Kohr can be called the fingerpost off the meander of globalized megalomania (therefor he got the Alternative Nobel Prize by the way). So here he shall be a representative for all those people who create brilliant alternatives to the system we are in now and which leads us obviously into a dead end.
CHANGE must happen – there is no doubt. But it won’t come from the system that causes the problems – this isn’t but an illusion.
So let’s watch out for ideas of people who come from the basement and who are not supported by the power. We will find them on alternative paths like unsponsored blogs in the internet or in little offline-communities near us like transition town movements, permaculture-groups and so on. They are upcoming or already existing everywhere… we just have to care and to take action! And action starts already in the daily decisions of consumption everybody takes. So don’t think, you can’t change anything… you do, too! We all do – we are the problem or the solution! It is essential what and how we consume and it is that we take action – personally, at home, in the family, on the job, … in all our personal habits and actions!!!
So don’t feed global enterprises with money anymore if there are alternative little companies in your surroundings where you even may build up personal contacts. Work on your resilience and of course also the self-sufficiency of your personal community/village. Most of us have become much too dependent on the globalized system and its machinery.
If you don’t believe it, make a little test: Do you have a garden and stock so that you have enough food and beverage for at least three weeks – anytime? Or do you have to buy them daily/weekly? If you can’t say yes to question one, it is highly recommendable to think about it. And to take action… now!
“Slow is beautiful” (Leopold Kohr) and “small is beautiful” (E.F. Schumacher)!
Comment by simply sustainable — January 3, 2010 @ 11:50 am |
Please take note that the English version is similar but not equal to the German one. I concentrate my updating-activities on the German version – simply because it’s still only me who feeds the Blog with information – all for free.
And actually there are more projects but evaluating information that I’m engaged in (it’s about self-sufficiency and commons based peer-economy) – also all for free.
So please also check my recommendations on the German version of lovos.org – especially the links, literature and documentation.
Thanks for your comprehension.
Comment by einfachesleben — January 8, 2011 @ 12:39 pm |