The Politics of Living Simply“Caring and Sharing”

By: Kiv Bui, David, Astrid, Yingzhao, Garen

Research Question

•How does bell hooks’ major points in relation to the topic of living simply •How does bell hooks’ major points in relation to the topic of caring and sharing?

•What are some real life example of living simple that happened in real life?•What are some real life example of caring and sharing in real life?

Group Question

What does class solidarity mean?What is the difference between class

solidarity and charity?

bell hooks’ Major Points In Relation to The Politics of Living Simply

What does bell hooks mean when she talks about “The Politics of Living Simply”?

•Bell hooks means everyone has to follow certain steps and be willing to change their lifestyle to live equally and simple. For example live like most poor people.

“To stand in solidarity with the poor is no easy gesture at a time when individuals of all classes are encouraged to fear for their economic well-being.  Certainly the fear of being taken advantage of by those in need has led many people with class privilege to turn their backs on the poor.  ” (hooks p.46)

•We need to stand in solidarity with all classes. •We need to build unity between the poor, middle, and rich classes

bell hooks’ Living SImply

“At church we were taught to identify with the poor. This was the spoken narrative of class that dominated my growing-up years. The poor were chosen and closer to the heart of my divine because their lives embodied the wisdom of living simply”. (hooks p. 39)

• Most of the time just because people were considered poor• They were viewed to be more holy and closer to the divine since they were living simply.

.”To see the poor as ourselves we must want for the poor what we want for ourselves. By living simply, we all express our solidarity with the poor and our recognition that gluttonous consumption must end”. (hooks p. 48)

• In order to stand in solidarity with the poor we must want the best for them, we must want what we want for them also.• The greediness and selfishness must end if we want to express our solidarity with the

poor.

"United States is one of world’s largest producers of trash. Trash is produced at an alarming rate of 1,609 pounds of trash per person, per year."• "Almost every hour, nearly 250,000 plastic bottles are dumped."• Plastic bottles constitute close to 50% of recyclable

waste in the dumps.• Cell Phones and its burden on the environment.• "About 130 million cell phones are retired annually

in the United States. Collectively, these cell phones weigh about 14,000 metric tons."

Real Life Research In Relation To Living Simply.

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Real Life Research and Example In Relation To Living Simply.•Bea Johnson who Humes Edward mentioned in his book, Garbology, cares about minimizing waste, looking for alternatives for things she bought and consumed that made trash.

Bea says “it wasn’t hard to identify consumerism-the accumulation of stuff-as the main engine of waste, disorganization and unnecessary expense.” (274) • She lives simply by minimizing the waste, so she finds many ways to have non-trash alternative• 4Rs of green living-reduce, reuse, recycle and refuse, • Even though people might think she is poor; she just live simply.

•Eric Brende, in Dawn Hewitt’s article, “LIVING SIMPLY”, who graduated from Yale and MIT chose to live smply.

”From the fast-paced life of high technology at MIT to a richer, more leisurely and savory existence, using our own arms, legs and heads to perform most of the everyday tasks machines once performed for us”• Living 18 months with his wife without using any technology. • He choose to perform and doing everything using his hands, legs and head. • For example: walking to the bank or washing their own clothes.

Other Example• Examples show Bee Johnson caring and sharing:• 1. Bea Johnson shared a list of a year’s unrecyclable trash in her household

to her friend and told her story that how she started. (P270) “”He figured we’re saving about forty percent over what we used to spend”, she told her friend.”

• (She shows her friend how she lives simply and the list of a year’s unrecyclable trash in her household. It shows she is willing to show her simply life to her friends and want to introduce this kind of lifestyle to others, because she thinks it is good.)

• • 2. Bea Johnson shared her son’s ninja-lunch YouTube videos and other stuff

on her blog. (P281) “The Johnsons’ answer to this classic question was to attend to their own nest first, to put down the wasteful things that once defined their home and possessions and then find ways to help others to do the same with Bea’s blog and de-cluttering business, with their son’s ninja-lunch YouTube videos, with the example of a different way they provide to friends and local businesses in Mill Valley. ”

• (She shares her own life experience and teach others to live simply. It shows she is willing to share and spread her thoughts of living simply and want others to live in a low-wasteful way.)

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bell hooks’ Major Points In Relation To Caring and Sharing

What is bell hooks trying to suggest by ‘’caring and sharing”?She thinks that rich don’t care about poor. Bell hooks sees such a thing as something against God. She

wants to break the idea of class segregation by suggesting people to care about each other by sharing the things they can to help each other.

“God had given them a paradise of bounty on earthand they had not shared. The rare ones, the rich people who

shared, were the only ones able to meet the divine in paradise,and even then it was harder for them to find their way.” (pg 27)

This quote states one of hooks’ beliefs about the ones who don’t care about the poor. She think thats it’s against God. Those who care about poor have a spot reserved in heaven.

Indeed showing solidarity with the poor was essential spiritual

work, a way to learn the true meaning of community and enactthe sharing of resources that would necessarily dismantle

hierarchy and difference. ( pg 39)bell hooks brings friendly communities as an example where people caring and sharing is greatly expressed.

For instance Northridge mall is the home for our community because it cares about the community.

Caring and Sharing Continued

“Resisting unnecessary consumerism, living simply, andabundantly sharing resources are the easiest ways to begin aneconomic shift that will ultimately create balance.” (pg 162)

This is what bell hooks suggests to do in order to break the class segregation. Her ideas are like Humes’ idea in terms of consumerism and living simply. By

balance she means equality.Unfortunately in our society people can’t resist their consuming habits and

most of them don’t live simply.

“Significantly, while the uncaring rich and powerful, especiallythose in control of government, big business, and mass media,

were and are at the forefront of campaigns to place allaccountability for poverty on the poor and to equate being

poor with being worthless, lots of other non-wealthy citizenshave allied themselves with these groups.” (Pg 45)

One of the reasons why hooks wrote her book is expressed in this quote.

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• According to the Internal Revenue Service records of Americans, "Taxpayers who earned $50,000 or more in 2008, Donated a median of 4.7 percent of their discretionary income to charitable causes." • "Provided $135-billion to charity, nearly two-thirds of the

$214-billion donated by all individuals in 2008." (Emily Gipple, Ben Gose).

• "Two of the top nine states have high numbers of Mormon residents, who have a tradition of tithing at least 10 percent of their income to the church. The remaining states in the top nine are all in the Bible Belt."(Emily Gipple, Ben Gose).

• Church teaches you to identify with the poor and live simply.

• Statistics show that nation wide, states associated with religion are more likely to be charitable due to their faith.

Real Life Research In Relation To Caring & Sharing

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Total ContributionTotal Contribution

Contributions By House HoldContributions By House Hold

Real Life Research and Example In Relation To Caring and Sharing

•”He figured we’re saving about forty percent over what we used to spend”, she told her friend.” (Humes, 270)

Bea Johnson shared a list of a year’s unrecyclable trash in her household, her method of living simply (4R to her friend and told her story that how she started.She believed this method is good for saving up money and resources.

•“For birthdays and Christmas, the family emphasizes the giving thing of experiences rather than things”(Humes, 279)

Bea’s family chose to have more time spending with her family rather that buy decoration item for event and instead, she hand made them.

•“There are lots of ideas and experiments in sustainable living generated through permaculture principles, and sharing them in person creates

opportunities for everyone to learn, for everyone to be inspired, and for everyone, no matter how new they are to permaculture, to come away with

practical information that they can go home and apply." (Baird, LIVING SIMPLY)

The idea of sharing his knowledge using face-to-face method is either living simply without technology but also because he care for those who listen, they are able to learn

more, and inspire by the performance.

Other Example

• Living simply• 1, when she went to grocery shops, she brings three

reusable shopping totes with a number of mason jars in them. (P276) “She brings three reusable shopping totes with a number of mason jars in them.”

• 2, Johnson buys a local dairy brand of milk that comes in returnable reusable glass bottles. (P276)

• 3, she keeps two big mason jars of flour on hand all the time for baking-quiche, pizza, cookies. (P276)

• Those habits Bea Johnson has show that she lives simply in different ways and it is totally possible to live simply like those ways.

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Analysis!

What is the difference between class solidarity and charity?Class solidarity is when people come together and unite, It refers to the ties in a society that bind people together as one. although

charity is when people just donate to those in need.

How does the politics of living simply relate to the social classes?The politics of living simply relates to social classes because in order to live simply you must give up a lot and be willing to live with

the things the lower class does.

Why are living simply, caring and sharing are hard things to do?• “hedonistic consumerism” and “material longing”• There is fear of being taken advantage of, for both the rich and the poor. • They are chosen to be like that.• They work hard so they have what they have, why share? It is Unfair.• They think being with the poor make you look poor. • Living simple, makes people think we are poor.• Rich want to be richer when poor is falling to be poor.• Other people share, care and save already, why us?

In Conclusion“ it was possible for us to gain class power without betraying our solidarity toward those without class privilege. One way that we achieved this end was by living simply, sharing our resources, and refusing to engage in hedonistic consumerism and the politics of greed. Our goals were not to become wealthy but to become economically self-sufficient” (pg.108)

“Most people, the first thing they say is, all this fighting waste must take up so much time and effort. It must be exhausting. And I say, just the opposite. I have more time than ever for family activities, for arts, for whatever I like. I spend less time shopping, less time cleaning, less time picking up. I’ve never been happier or more relaxed.”

"He's a big believer that we should choose our technology carefully and be conscious of the way machines can negatively impact our lives by removing exercise, community interactions, and opportunities for rest - picture the stress we've added to our lives by making ourselves constantly accessible through e-mail, phone and text messages," said Maggie Sullivan (LIVING SIMPLY)

Reference/CitationsPicture: •http://www.foodforthoughtbooks.com/event/resistance-resilience-community-book-discussion-where-we-stand-class-matters•http://www.traemcneely.com/2011/08/17/sharing-is-caring-black-white-tablet-phone-background/

Books Citation•Hooks, bell. “WHERE WE STAND: Class Matters” New York: Routledge, 2000. Pg. 60 -108 •Humes, Edward. Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair with Trash. Penguin Group. New York: Avery, 1994. Print. Tue. Article/Statistic CitationHewitt, Dawn. "LIVING SIMPLY: Simply Living Fair Offers Ideas for People Seeking Harmony with Earth." The Herald - Times, (2010): March 23, 2014.

Gipple, Emily, and Ben Gose. "How America Gives." The Chronicle of Philanthropy. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Mar. 2014. <http://www.philanthropy.com/article/America-s-Generosity-Divide/133775/>."Recycling Statistics and Facts." All-Recycling-Facts.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Mar. 2014. <http:// www.all-recycling-facts.com/recycling-statistics.html>."The Environmental Costs (and Benefits) of Our Cell Phones." TreeHugger. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Mar. 2014. <http://www.treehugger.com/clean-technology/the-environmental-costs-and-

benefits-of-our-cell-phones.html>."What's In My Phone." Minerals Educations Coalation. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Mar. 2014.

<http://www.mineralseducationcoalition.org/pdfs/Cell-Phone.pdf>.