THE FREEDOM WAY
(Page 2 of 26)
Nobody was interested in the simple life then. Everybody
wanted the complicated life - build big cities, build big
fortunes, surround yourself with possessions and servants,
and outdo your neighbors. So Thoreau's voice was literally
one crying in the wilderness.
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But see what has happened in the last century. No writer is
more respected than Thoreau, no book is read more devotedly
by intelligent people who have discovered it than WALDEN.
Maybe too late it has dawned on us that in this life which
Thoreau championed, the simple life, the life of time and
leisure and thought and good things which do not cost much
money, there is the best life a human being can find.
And, as you read a short time ago, it is not only the good
life now; it may be the only life a man can lead and
preserve his life, because always over us like a pall of
smoke is the threat of sudden, devastating, complete atomic
attack.
But suppose such an attack doesn't come. We are still
likely any day to wake up to the fact that our ancient and
powerful enemy, Depression, is riding again. Remember the
Depression which set in in 1929? Remember bread lines?
Apple sellers on the street corners? Leaf rakers? Suicides
among the once wealthy men? Pinched faces on the street?
Worry and woe and the fear that you might never eat again?
The simple life will help obviate that. Better than money
in the bank, bonds in the safety deposit vault, credit at
the stores are the things with which you live surrounded
when you live the simple life.
This, then, is your guide to getting back to the simple
life; a practical everyday manual which will help you to
put your feet astride the path that leads to the only life
that, since the beginning of man's stay on earth, has led
to his complete development and satisfaction--the simple
life!
SECTION I
WHAT IS THE SIMPLE LIFE AND WHY YOU SHOULD LEAD
IT
"Our life is frittered away by detail. . . Simplify,
simplify. "
- Thoreau
The literal meaning of the word civilization is life in the
city, and when we speak of the growth of civilization, we
mean the growth of urban or city life. Unfortunately, city
life is tempting, alluring, and so in ever-increasing
numbers people turn to it.
But it isn't the most wholesome nor the most enduring form
of life, and now, what with the threats you read about in
the introduction, civilization is facing its gravest peril
since the time when Ghengis Khan and Tamerlane just about
wiped it out with their barbaric hordes.
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