slow living is NOT a capitalist 'trend'...

slow living feels like it prioritizes living for enjoyment rather than for accomplishments, there is a time and place for big goals and productivity but it shouldn’t be all we live for

I went to a business university, but it actually made me more anti-capitalist instead of more bussiness-man. The worst concept I was interoduced to was "creating needs". So you don't need something, but marketing experts trick you into thinking otherwise and bang - you just bought a product. The positive is now when I learned that I'm much less prone to such manipulations.

That is very interesting, I have been slow living for years now. All of my friends and family denigrate me for my laissez-faire attitude, taking long walks in the woods, living in the moment, rather than keeping up with their expectations of me killing myself by climbing the corporate ladder and becoming rich. Never liked Capitalism, never liked Hustle culture, never felt that money and productivity made me happy. People spend their entire lives killing time to get to a point when they are old and grey before finally slowing down and appreciating all the things they missed, I dont want to do that, I want to experience life here and now

In these times I always think of Ursula K Le Guin's quote: 'We live in capitalism, its power seems inescapable — but then, so did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art.'

As a Canadian who lives out in a basement in the suburbs I feel this. Their aren’t enough open community spaces it’s been designed that we live in a box to get into a box to drive to a box to work, shop for food or things, to visit someone else box but outside of this their isn’t much open active community. The monetary privilege to afford to enter another space outside of your home is high that many don’t and so we sit in our little boxes in north America trying to find some meaning.

A couple weeks ago I saw a tumblr post about how much work living off the land is. I grew up in poverty with eight siblings in the country. Every spring we would plant a garden and tend to it until winter. We’d can and freeze as many vegetables as we could. We also raised chickens and turkeys and we’d butcher them and freeze that as well. We had berry bushes, grapes, raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, blackberries. Keeping up on all of this was a lot of work. Every day we picked strawberries, peas, tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers, or berries depending on what was in season. Everyday we fed the chickens and turkeys twice. My dad still had ten hours work days, most times six days a week. On top of this we had the normal housework which, if you have more than two siblings, you know is a fucking lot to keep after. I am grateful to have grown up gardening and living with lots of space to play in when I had time. My point is that slow living is not a countryside lifestyle. Slow living is community lifestyle, or a lifestyle where you plenty of make money easily. Living off the land is fucking hard work and making enough money to provide for a family is fucking hard work. We need communities that support everyone inside the community in every way, not just weekly gatherings. Where we share land and food and watch over each others’ loved ones and work together. Reading the book Work by James Suzman really helped me see community and work in a whole new light

I recently read about a sociology theory called "the third place" which argues that humans need 3 places: A workplace, a home and a third place to relax and socialize. The third should be distinct from your home. While i was reading about it, i realized that, at least in my home country, Greece, the third place is always a local coffee shop for men and the mini market or the hairdressers for women. This is mostly true for older generations, nowadays most people meet, socialize, discuss, relax at the central square or some nearby coffee shop where they take life easy and relax. In my home city cofee shops near the sea are also popular. If you ask me, this carelessness is what i miss from my culture here in Germany.

When I lived the slow-life in the city, I felt like I couldn't talk about it. People would actually get a little angry when they found-out I only worked three days a week and wasn't looking for more.

Not only our souls needs us to embrace slow living so does Mother Earth. Our capitalist way of life is killing us and the planet. I’m making slow living more and more a priority each year 🌻

I'm so happy that you've eloquently explained this. 'The left' isn't about being lazy. It's largely about ensuring a balance between work and everything else: family, community, leisure, etc. It's about working for those things, rather than just working to make billionaires richer.

I think what is missing from a lot of the slow living videos like Leah’s is that it is easy to parachute into places like an organic farm and sort of cosplay working the land. I am not doubting that helping with daily tasks is not challenging but it doesn’t show the full picture of how financially stressful it is to keep a small agricultural business afloat and how much time and work it takes to get to the point of bountiful production.

When I was in university, I read a book called "Travailler deux heures par jour" (working two hours a day), from the 70s. It calculated that if we shared equally the necessary and unpleasant toil, we could all "work" only 2 hours a day. Then do whatever we want the rest of the time, including unconstrained productive stuff. I probably read it just at the right time, being lost as a student, having no idea where my life was going. Then I discovered the whole "décroissance" (degrowth) movement, which confirmed that our work-centered society was neither good nor sustainable. The "slow" trend never clicked with me, though. I think it seemes more centered on individual choices, and much less political, while the décroissance aimed to question our whole unsustainable way of life in a rich country, exhausting ressources, disturbing the climate, and making us depressed on the way. Since then I've tried to find the right balance between work and freedom. It seems that people are questionning work more and more, and as the government tries to postpone the age of retirement, the topic is hotter than ever.

I was raised in small village in a farming family. I used to joke when I lived abroad and in big cities that when I finally snap I will move to the countryside again. Now at 24 I have returned not because I snapped per say but realised I just never fit in to the busy competitive environment. I spent a good chunk of my life envying the ones who naturally thrive there and felt like a complete isolated loser. I had the choice during the pandemic to reevaluate and start new. I up and left and feel immense gratitude. I feel at home in a small community helping elderly and kids, studying for a higher level of education so I can give back more. I never would have had this energy and motivation in the wrong environment to better myself for others.

I don't live to work. Two years ago I reduced my working hours to 3 days. I was mentally exhausted, I felt like I'm constantly at work. Come Sunday afternoon, I was already thinking that the next day I will be back at work. I understand people are ambitious and want to have a successful career, but this is not for me. Yes, I earn less, but mental comfort has no price.

I always hear about how work culture should not be changed because poor and middle class people will be lazy. But when CEOs get paid $20M salaries, I never hear anyone say "they don't deserve it because they'll just waste it on yachts and private jets."

I often have the conversation with my housemates about how we don't like Work, like 8-5 sit at a desk and do tasks that are often very intangible and be micro-managed by a nosy boss, but we enjoy other types of work, cleaning the home, helping a friend put together furniture, woodworking, sewing, planting a tree. Even if it's more physically demanding than a desk job, doing this kind of work is immediately rewarding because you see the results immediately and see the benefits to you or your community much more clearly than sending off a report or an email you don't even know will be read.

I feel like capitalism really can try to enter every part of your life when you aren't looking and it can ruin things that may have been intentional activities that helped center your mind. I mostly say this because I come from a family that is very focused on how hobbies can be used for financial gain, everytime I pick up a new hobby my family encourages me to start selling the item I'm making. This takes away from a low stress hobby and makes it back into a stressful job, taking away the pleasure of the hobby. It has been realizing this that has helped me to better intentionally live more slowly, putting a barrier between work for money and hobbies for fun.

I was a university professor for 5+ years, quit when I got pregnant. Became a freelance writer when my daughter was about a year old. I hustled. Worked with as many clients as I could. Published a book. Created a course. I lived that CEO life where I woke up at 4am, read a book, did my exercise... All of these while taking care of my daughter. It was financially rewarding but so incredibly physically draining. I broke down one day. Told my husband I needed to slow down. Let go of my clients except for one. Slept in until 10am. Lived a laid back lifestyle. I got pregnant with my second child and now have a 5 month old. I love my life. The hustle culture took me away from motherhood, which is really the one thing I genuinely enjoy.

i personally differentiate between money work versus life work. i want to do things, be creative, help others. the problem is that money work often does not align with these goals. if i could just volunteer for political organizations and campaigns forever i would work 50+ hrs a week, but that doesn't pay the bills because it is not considered valued by capitalism. really loved this video!!

As someone from a developing country with political crisis and civil wars going on in rural, slow living seems like a privilege to me.The social infrastructure of the country is so disputed and I see so many people have lost the awareness to embrace the little things in life. I will have to say Self-care, slow living, such things are not an individual concept but it’s rather related enormously to political aspects and the infrastructure of the society being created over time. I wish someday I could help the community in my country to at least be aware of this concept. Such a inspiring video.