The un­plug­ging move­ment rep­re­sents more than the main­stream as­sim­i­la­tion of mod­ern en­vi­ron­men­tal­ism. The trend to­ward in­te­grat­ing green con­scious­ness into the pop­u­lar dis­course is a step in the right di­rec­tion. Yet, the no­tion that ma­te­r­ial cul­ture can at­tain ex­is­ten­tial sal­va­tion by buy­ing or­gan­ics in re-us­able bags leaves me un­sat­is­fied, unin­spired, and im­pa­tient. The con­sump­tion of feel-good-about-your-pur­chase la­bels pack­aged around mar­gin­ally bet­ter goods and ser­vices only raises ques­tions about the mar­ket­ing cam­paign and a hol­low feel­ing. After decades of hard-fought bat­tles, we are toast­ing vic­tory from a wa­tered-down ver­sion of con­ser­va­tion, sus­tain­abil­ity, and so­cial jus­tice.

Al­though good has come from the green move­ment, con­sumers still con­sume more than ever. Re­new­able en­ergy, ef­fi­ciency stan­dards, and pub­lic pol­icy hold promise for re­duc­ing the im­pact of our lifestyle, but one sim­ple nat­ural law trumps these well-in­ten­tioned ef­forts: if you cre­ate more, peo­ple will con­sume more. If more food is avail­able, a species’ pop­u­la­tion will grow until it ex­ceeds car­ry­ing ca­pac­ity. When the pop­u­la­tion ex­ceeds car­ry­ing ca­pac­ity, it has to shrink until it reaches sus­tain­able lev­els.

This logic ap­plies to us as well. Our cul­ture de­mands that we find a way to con­sume more. More re­sources, more en­ergy, more con­sumerism is the sure­fire mod­ern recipe for per­sonal suc­cess and a grow­ing econ­omy. Tech­nol­ogy may allow us to do more with less, but it doesn’t get at the heart of this prob­lem.

We must sim­plify our ma­te­r­ial de­mands and take pos­ses­sion of our own iden­ti­ties. Re­duc­ing our de­pen­dence on the in­dus­trial life-sup­port sys­tem for in­di­vid­ual pur­pose, col­lec­tive iden­tity, and sus­te­nance is the most re­li­able way to at­tain equi­lib­rium with the planet and our­selves. Much more cer­tain than wait­ing around for fu­sion-pow­ered fly­ing trac­tors har­vest­ing local heir­loom or­gan­ics (al­though that would be cool).

Many ma­te­r­ial, eco­nomic, and so­cio-po­lit­i­cal ob­sta­cles stand in the way of mass sim­pli­fi­ca­tion of our ma­te­r­ial lifestyles. What do I have to give up? Where would I live? What would I eat? Are there cars? What do I do for work? Is there even money? Are you sug­gest­ing we aban­don it all and live like cave­men? These are worth­while ques­tions.

How­ever, this isn’t where the rapid and spon­ta­neous dis­man­tle­ment of the cur­rent sys­tem (the Great Un­plug­ging) be­gins; not with pon­der­ing the phys­i­cal form of the fu­ture and doubts about mea­sur­ing up to aus­ter­ity. It starts with one ques­tion: “Is your soul pre­pared for dras­tic change?”

Win peo­ple’s souls and their minds will fol­low. Win peo­ple’s minds and their bod­ies will act ac­cord­ingly. The best way to mo­bi­lize peo­ple to solve our pre­sent cri­sis is to get them ex­cited about an­swer­ing “Yes!”.

If suc­cess or fail­ure of this planet and of human be­ings de­pended on how I am and what I do... How would I be?
What would I do?

Buck­min­ster Fuller