Bill Watson's Easter message

The New Zealand government doesn't want to encourage models of voluntary simplicity because they're in opposition to the values of the fast track' economic model. Most of us live and work in the fast-track environment, in one of the big cities. We are caught between two cultures, with a foot in each value system, half slave, half free. I lived & worked in Asian cultures for years; the Chinese analyse the problem this way: Observe the cormorant in the fishing fleet. (You know how the Chinese use cormorants, or shags, for fishing--in Guilin you can watch them on bamboo boats with a half dozen or so of them, each on a lead with a ring around its neck. The bird dives for a fish, but he can't swallow the larger ones because of the ring. The fisherman picks up the bird and squeezes the fish out through its mouth. Then the bird goes fishing again. ) Cunning, eh? You might ask yourself, 'Why is it that of all the different animals, the cormorant was chosen to slave away day and night for the fisherman? The answer is simple: were the bird not greedy for fish, or not readily trained, or not efficient in catching them, would society have created an industry to exploit the bird? That means that GREED, TALENT, and CAPACITY FOR LEARNING are the three criteria, the basis, of exploitation. Once you subscribe to society's guide to affluent living, you are trapped, aspiring to be the 1%, because although that value system is not necessarily designed to make life worth living, it gradually and surely increases your greed and makes a cormorant out of you. You will never meet your minimum requirements, simply because couched underneath all of the fancy words is the subtle rhythm of 'MORE.' The way out of the trap is obvious: the more you are able to moderate your desires to collect things around you, and your attachment to material wealth and status and the trappings of power, the greater will be your chances of escaping the fate of the cormorant. That to me is the essence of voluntary simplicity. The tyranny of the corporate elite will linger on, in one form or another, to the degree that individuals can't get the ring off their neck (I'm reminded of the penguin-savant in Happy Feet with the plastic six-pack holder stuck around his neck, thinking it made him "special" while it was killing him). The culture of mindless production and consumption will remain in force as long as the community impulse, that seeks to celebrate and share existence, is suppressed. An alternative plan lets go of the hierarchical system, opens to the individual; lets go of a single history, and opens to a multi-versed community: be it through self-employment, working with and for people we actually respect and support, developing non-consumerist strategies such as communal living or voluntary simplicity, or going into the global market place as genuine warriors for change. And what to do with the demons that are driving us toward destruction? When they realise they can't get away with it any more and the celebration gets strong enough, invite them to dance. Everyone loves a party, and if enough people start to actually have fun, the toxic part of ourselves may choose to cash out of its game and join in.

 Cheers and Happy Easter, Bill Watson