The Fifth World:Second Virtue

From The Fifth World

II Simplicity is virtue. The most beautiful form of simplicity is the elegant circle of self-sufficient consumption and creation. In all forms of accounting, do not consume more than you have already created.

Contents 1 Jeff Vail's Expansion 2 In the Fifth World 2.1 Infrastructure 2.2 Structure 2.3 Superstructure 3 The Four Virtues

[edit] Jeff Vail's Expansion

Original source

Again, forgive me, but have you ever seen an episode of "Cribs" or "Pimp my Ride" on MTV? If not, count yourself among the lucky ones, but IF YOU HAVE... then you should immediately understand where I'm going with this. Call it "conspicuous simplicity" if you will.

But back to the concept of the second virtue, simplicity is the necessary ethical opposite of the over-consumption that drives our civilization. Specifically, the elegant simplicity of self-sufficiency. We must strive to achieve more and more loaclized self-sufficiency, both by localizing production and reducing consumption. This is the key step on the path towards establishing a rhizome world (as opposed to our hierarchal civilization). Rhizome is egalitarian, networked, sustainable. The main focus of my book "A Theory of Power" is the historical critique of this concept: Rhizome vs. Hierarchy. Rhizome can be beautiful: that is what you see when you look to nature.

The final sentence, "In all forms of accounting, do not consume more than you have already created", attaches two more key concepts to the principles of self-sufficiency and rhizome. First is that the vaunted free market system of economic allocation does indeed work extremely well--IF AND ONLY IF the true nature of all costs are accounted for, as the impact everything and everytime. When making decisions, we must make them with the awareness of all externalities, all "hidden costs" (that are usually in plain sight, but we prefer to ignore them). Polution, loss of genetic capital, unsustainable use of environmental resources, impact on the mental health of people we have never met, etc. Only when all costs are accounted for in price can the free market provide "virtuous" guidance.

Finally, the instruction to "not consume more than you have ALREADY created" provides guidance to "save first, THEN spend what you have saved", rather than to enter the cycle of perpetual credit, growth and inflation that is the basis of the modern economic model. Elegant stability, not perpetual growth MUST be our goal, if we are to live sustainably, peacefully and with fulfilled ontogeny.

[edit] In the Fifth World

[edit] Infrastructure

[edit] Structure

[edit] Superstructure

[edit] The Four Virtues

1. The First Virtue: Own only that which you must presently use, for all else is deceit. Use little, as virtue is derived from experience, not consumption.
2. The Second Virtue: Simplicity is virtue. The most beautiful form of simplicity is the elegant circle of self-sufficient consumption and creation. In all forms of accounting, do not consume more than you have already created.
3. The Third Virtue: Virtue is found not in secrecy or in the constraint of freedom, but in acknowledgement, and accepting responsibility for all costs of one's actions.
4. The Fourth Virtue: Understanding the universe of connection is virtue. Connect with space through silence. Connect with time through experience. Free yourself from ego through awareness. Protect transcendent beauty.