A low-cost future

Anything that can break down will one day break down. We live in a universe governed by entropy - the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Heat always moves from hotter objects to colder objects, unless energy is supplied to reverse that direction of heat flow. Out of order comes chaos. The Second Law of Thermodynamics asserts that a natural process runs only in one way, and is not reversible. Place a mug of hot tea on your desk, leave it for long enough, and it will cool to room temperature. Energy runs down. We age, we die. A freshly picked strawberry eventually rots. Light bulbs burn out. A car wears down with use. Entropy is a one-way process. 

In practice, in our daily lives, we cannot turn it round or stop it. But we can slow it down.

Buy a cheap pair of shoes and they will wear down quickly. Buy a well-made pair of shoes, using stronger materials, and not only will they last longer, but they can be repaired. 

The more things, however, we possess, the more there is to break down, to wear down, to decay. The more things that break down around us, the more we worry about having to repair or replace them, the more money we need to spend to fight the entropy that is all around us.

So buying fewer, but better things, we can slow down that process - and thereby reduce the cost - of mending or replacing. And the things that we do need to have (rather than just want to have) should be taken good care of, so they last longer.

The other day, while waking up, a spontaneous intuition flashed through my mind unbidden - "LoCoFu - Low-Cost Future". Wow! I like it! We can all do with getting by on less. So much that surrounds us is unnecessary. Much of what we have is because 'that's the way it's always been'. Dinner service for twelve. A fireplace for burning logs. And above all - a big car. Because our next car just has to be bigger and better than our last car.

This unthinking consumerism is costing us our planet - it also makes us prey to people who play on our insecurities to sell us things we don't need to impress people we don't know. Do we really need to impress our genuine friends with the material niceties we surround ourselves with?

It is our unconscious, unthinking, unreflecting drive to promote ourselves along the status hierarchy that gives rise to much consumerism. Any company car-park in the 1970s would be a place where the pecking order of executives and salesmen was displayed by trim-levels of their cars - the low-grade L, the middle-ranking XL, above it the GXL, and then sportier models. 

If we are to survive as a species, the rich world (us) needs to pedal back on our material aspirations. Fewer things - but better things. By better, I mean not gaudier, but more sustainable. Made to last. Made to withstand the entropy that increases as the result of daily use. 

So - if you can avoid buying something - do so, thinking of the long-term. You will not only be contributing to a more sustainable future - you will be saving yourself money.

This time last year:
Evolved Consciousness

This time three years ago:
Goodnight Belarus - may God keep you

This time eight years ago:
Motorbike across Poland to buy fine Polish wine

This time nine years ago:
Eat Polish apples, drink Polish cider

This time ten years ago:
Hottest week ever 

This time 11 years ago:
Progress along the second line of the Warsaw Metro 

This time 12 years ago:
Doric arches, ul. Targowa

This time 13 years ago:
A place in the country, everyone's ideal

This time 16 years ago:
I must go down to the sea again