Downshifting Abroad

Downshifting Hijacked by the Green Movement

April 22, 2007 on 6:46 am | In Downshifting | 2 Comments

Sustainability in all aspects of our lives is a laudable aim in my opinion, but what has this got to do with downshifting. Take an example: Mike and Lynn decide that they’ve had enough of the stressy jobs, the grumpy bosses, the commuting and the sheer lack of time to enjoy life. They look at their circumstances and decide to go to Spain and set up a small but interesting business providing proof reading and translation services to expats on the Costa del Sol. They buy a small place just out of town in a semi rural area for the peace and quiet and work almost entirely by computer/internet. They work their own hours, set by them, don’t commute to anywhere unless it’s to the local tapas bars; go to the beach every weekend and summer afternoons; have two children who grow up bilingual in the only two truly global languages, and they all live happily ever after. Hard work but less stress and they are in control of their lives. They are typical downshifters.
Now that is as much downshifting as anything else, in fact more so, but at no time did they raise chickens, buy organic produce, plant their own vegetables, or recycle their waste; yet so many websites/books/newspaper articles and ‘downshifting days’ now simply provide offerings of green wisdom and advice to do all of these things if you are a serious downshifter and these sites merely seem to be off shoots of green politics. There is even a ‘National Downshifting Week’ in the UK. The website offers little except the usual green sustainability message (which is good, but isn’t necessarily downshifting).  In fact one of the suggestions on the site is to use ‘……preferably organic ingredients’ in a simple meal,  indicating to my mind that you need to work more hours for your grumpy boss to increase my income to pay for these very expensive ingredients. And in general, they are more expensive. These sites seem to suggest that if you aren’t green, you aren’t a downshifter.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for a drive for sustainable living, but don’t you think that the Downshifting Movement or ideal has been hijacked by the greens. Downshifting can be all about going green, but it doesn’t have to be, and often isn’t.