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Last night as I was walking around a part of West Tokyo, I saw many people dressed like hippies, and I asked myself, “Where do those guys do their shopping for their hippie-style clothes? Is there a hippies’ goods store or do they make everything at home?” I then asked myself about how the act of purchasing and Japanese consumerism would mesh with the whole idea of living simply and freely according to the hippie ideals. I then saw some youth dressed in fatigues that reminded me of the different wars in the Gulf and decided to forget about the issue of political statements represented by clothes and walked into the first live house around to listen to some great music by Le Club Bachraf, and enjoy the rest of the evening (although I did giggle at a girl in the audience who wrapped an over-sized shmagh around her neck that reminded me of Superman’s red cape).

This afternoon, I had an interesting chat about the rise of “downshifters“, which may be defined as:

Downshifters are the antithesis of the acquisitive yuppies of the eighties. They believe that time is more important than money and that it is better to work less and be happy and fulfilled than be well paid for struggling with jobs that are stressful or unrewarding. Though it was heralded as “a new Renaissance philosophy” by the Trends Research Institute in New York, which is credited with inventing the term in 1994, the idea is far from new and, for example, echoes the Gandhian “voluntary simplicity” of the 1930s. To downshift means to cut out unnecessary expenditure and cultivate a simpler lifestyle with time to do more of the things one wants to do, but not go to the extremes of dropping out of society or attempting self-sufficiency. Some who have gone this route say that they have been able to make savings because a substantial proportion of their income was spent coping with the emotional and social consequences of overachievement and maintaining a consumerist lifestyle. Ironically, it seems a requirement for remodelling one’s life is financial independence; significantly, downshifting has been taken up principally by middle-class professionals who can afford the loss of income. The word is a figurative use of a term originally applied to changing gear in a car and which dates from the 1950s. (source: http://www.worldwidewords.org/turnsofphrase/tp-dow1.htm)

I found out that this rise in downshifting has been happening in many parts of the world. According to this article from 2005, the number of people in the UK moving out of London in 2005 was nearly 263,000 while those moving to London was only 153,000. I imagine that the trend is similar today, although the proportions would be different due to various reasons. I’ve heard of those wishing to downshift in the United States moving to places like Vermont, or moving into houseboats or farms in various parts of the country.

I have also been wondering about how this relates to a few social problems in different parts of the world. Here in Tokyo, for instance, the number of stress-related suicides among businessmen was nearly 400 last year alone. I wonder how this idea of “downshifting” would affect different parts of the world such as Japan, or even the Rentier Society of the Persian/Arabian Gulf in which there is this unusual appetite for consumption over production. (For an interesting article on the nature of Rentier Societies, check out “Province Building vs. A Rentier Society” by McMillan and Norrie). I wonder how would downshifting change such societies

Back when I was still in high school, I went on a week-long trip to Cyprus with my Biology class to do some research on Ecology at the Environmental Study Center in a small village called Kritou Terra. We didn’t get to see much of the village, but we did see that life there was very simple and the majority of the residents were elderly people who preferred to remain in this village forgotten by time. I remember being taken aback by how relaxed life was over there, and every morning, on our march between the cabins we were staying in and the research center, there was a rusty old tractor which I’d rub for good luck, announcing to everyone in my class - much to their amusement, that I will return to Kritou Terra one day to be a farmer (even though I am the most impatient person on earth when it comes to agriculture - just as my father about this!). Other places I’ve thought about is somewhere hidden Latin America, the Cedars of the Mount Lebanon (near the Gibran Khalil Gibran museum in Bsharri), or the open plains of Nova Scotia.

The way I see it, “downshifting” doesn’t sound like such a bad idea when you’re still young, don’t have an established career (whatever that is supposed to mean), and are very disillusioned about what you’d like to do next in life. It could also be the start of many challenges. For now, I’ll keep “downshifting” as an option in the future, but it’s not completely viable now as I am still living the college-student budget lifestyle.

(Too bad, I missed National Downshifting Week 2008, but the website is worth looking at)