The sale of books on how to live the simple life, continues to increase and this year in the first three month, we have 13 times more books sold than the previous year. A Japanese book on ten minimalists: "I want to live in room without anything" translated into Korean, is a good example of the trend.
We can see this expanding on SNS with information passed on and received by those who want to simplify their lives. The article goes on to mention this is not a recent phenomenon but goes back to the sixties in Japan and the United States. After the Second World War, many saw the barbarity of our civilization, and began to shun the unnatural and artificial. People have always followed the natural and a life of non possession, and it appears again. In 2011 with the earthquake and Tsunami in Japan, many precious items suddenly disappeared. Water was transformed into a murderous weapon, changing the thinking of many on the value of goods and their possession.
This attachment to material goods is also seen in Korea. With its quick economic growth, Korea was engulfed within the whirlpool of extreme competition, materialism and consumerism, accompanied with ostentation, bringing fatigue in its wake. A person's personal improvement, healing and mentoring, etc. did not permit the pursuit of a splendid lifestyle, and price required. Problems with continual progress, and the stagnant economy had something to do with the change of thinking. Problems with environment and new ecological understanding also played a part.
Opposition to spending was in the current context of resistance to the consumerism of capitalism. In the West, it was not only their ideology but a result of practice. France has the 'Vide Grenier', (cleaning out the attic) which in English would be a flea market sale. For the last ten years, the number of sales and people attending continue to increase. The press calls this a fight against waste. Economic crisis is involved but more so the lack of virtue and the superficiality of capitalism; minimalists are determined to not thoughtlessly be taken in by words. In France the key words, according to the writer, are organic, just trade, togetherness, and second hand.
'Planned obsolescence' is a phrase, an open secret, where products are made to wear out. This is the phrase used to criticize the way many businesses operate.
He finishes the article with quotes from Laudatio Si. "This task [social and ecological awareness] will make such tremendous demands that (we) could never achieve it by individual initiative or even by the united effort of men bred in an individualistic way... The ecological conversion needed to bring about lasting change is also a community conversion."
