Eileen has bestowed the Frugal Subversive Award upon my humble ranting and litany of obsessions. Yay! This has inspired me to think lots about frugality this week.
While I very much like the concept of subversive frugality, and all it entails in terms of using our individual purchasing power to support or NOT support various systems of production, I am most drawn to the concept of elegant frugality.
As far as I can tell, the concept originally belongs to lovely old Henryk Skolimowski, ecological humanist extraordinaire. Mr Skolimowski obviously neglected to attended a plain English writing course, however his book Eco-Philosophy – Designing New Tactics for Living, published in 1981 , and purchased from a second hand book store in Melbourne in 1990, became a seminal text for me. I struggled through his dense words, forgiving him his gendered language because his historical location in the moofy late 70’s and early 80’s, when we were all a bit mushed up in the head from struggling through bad Foucault translations probably encouraged him to write poorly. There are lots of gems in this little book, and this is one of them:
Alternative Lifestyles do not require living differently but also knowing differently.
We must be able to provide a rational justification for our new life styles, which will amount to nothing less than providing a new rationality.
We must be convinced in our hearts and minds that our frugality is not a depressing abnegation and self-denial but an act of positive manifestation of new qualities; only then will it become elegant frugality.
Therefore, alternative life styles must signify not only changes in our technology, economics, and patterns of living, but changes in our morality, rationality, and conceptual thinking. (pvii-viii)
Anyhoo, the origin of the subversive frugality award is Rhonda’s amazing Down to Earth blog. I feel a bit shy about sending the award on to other folks, and crazy mamma has already memed Scarecrow’s Garden, and of course, Scarecrow has memed Doc, and Eilleen memed me, and Rhonda started it all, and that about sums up my little online frugality tenticles!
Anyway, I am going to be brave and forward my subversive frugality award to Kristy at Gobler's Run. I have been lurking around Kristy's blog for a little while, and am enjoying it very much indeed! Congratulations Kristy - I love your blog!
Here are Rhonda's Instructions for the Elegant Frugality Award:
If you are given an award and want to take part in this meme, you can in turn select three other bloggers who have inspired you to be a frugal subversive. Passing the rules on with the award will make it easier for everyone to participate. Congratulations on the award. I hope it helps you spread awareness near and far.
MEME RULES
1. When you are tagged, write a post with links to three blogs who have inspired you with their frugal creativity or innovation.
2. In your post, please link back to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme and save the award graphic.
3. Leave a comment or message for the bloggers you’re tagging, so they they know they're received the award.
4. Display the Frugal Subversive Award badge to identify your blog as part of the movement that is turning its back on consumerism at any cost.
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