Nice post. But I couldn't resist commenting on this:: I just got back from living in Moscow, Russia for a year and a half. I'm only 19, and I didn't know what to expect besides cold. But over there, there are not any 24 hour super stores. God knows that we needed them at times, since it took us two weeks to find an alarm clock, but I had to do without. I lived without a lot, much like Samuel did living in the forest. I didn't have a TV, VCR, microwave, toaster, dryer, dishwasher, vaccume, car, movie theatres, magazines, etc, NOT because we couldn't get those items (electronics are the big craze over there, and anything is available for a price) BUT because we didn't need them. I got to start fresh outside of a society where people don't try to sell you everything, and it surprised me how little I really needed.
My response: you know, I think that these appliances fulfill a need in the context of modern consumer society. They give consumers a sense of community, they allow each consumer to shut out the noise made by all the consumers using their appliances together (just as your car radio allows you to block out the noise made by the freeway you're driving on), and they make life easy when life fighting for one's share of the system might otherwise be hard.
Now perhaps these needs are better fulfilled by the sort of lifestyle Claire is advocating. Or maybe we really need a change in the context of modern consumer society, so that we don't need to fulfill all of our needs at Target, Wal-Mart, and the local supermarket chain. I'll leave it as an open question, since I'm busy advocating everything at once to anyone who will listen, and hoping something will stick.
None.
