Jeremy Bernier

Simple Living (Stop Feeding the Beast)

December 02, 2018

Here are the material possessions that I need to live a life that I’m content with:

  • Shelter
  • Food
  • Laptop with internet connection
  • Cell phone with internet connection

That’s it.

Anything else is pure luxury.

It feels like the media constantly shoves products down our throats, making us feel like we need to buy this crap we don’t need to feel complete.

CONSUME

But fulfillment via material possessions is at best temporary - your new car makes you happy for a week, and then you get used to it and that “hole” in your life is still there.

The only way to truly feel fulfilled is to get rid of this hole, to rid yourself of any dependency on external material possessions for your own internal happiness.

Most material purchases are for status signaling anyways (eg. expensive house/car, luxury handbag). I think it’s pretty self-explanatory that buying something just to impress other (shallow) people is absolutely pathetic.

That doesn’t mean one must move into the countryside and become a monk or live like an Amish person, cutting themselves off from all modern technology. I love technology and the internet and would prefer to continue participating in it.

I just don’t need 99.999% of the sh!t that people want me to buy. I don’t need a penthouse suite in a big city, a fancy car, expensive clothes, and whatever other meaningless crap everyone is peddling.

monster eating garbage

Give me a laptop and an internet connection and I’m good. I can access any book, article, video, TV show, song, or software ever made for free.

When traveling, I used to stay at AirBnBs and hotels, but now I live in hostels because I prefer the social atmosphere. If I really wanted to save money and be free I could just sleep in a tent.

monster eating money

The capitalist machine wants you to buy sh!t you don’t need with money you don’t have, because without your money it dies.

Stop feeding the beast and let it die.


Jeremy Bernier

Written by Jeremy Bernier who left the NYC rat race to travel the world, work remotely, and make the world a better place.