It is a voluntary and consciously chosen simple lifestyle that confronts consumer society and its expectations. The simple way of life is not the same, but it touches, among other things, the minimalist, frugal lifestyle, or even the pursuit of self-reliance, the way of life of those who withdraw from society.

Those who choose a simple lifestyle basically strive to rationalize their lives according to their own circumstances, and to satisfy but their basic needs (which may vary from person to person) rather than accumulating unnecessary material goods. Simplifying our lives can take many forms, including: moving to a smaller home; simplifying our wardrobe; using public transport or a bicycle instead of cars; increasing self-sufficiency through gardening or self-made products; switching to a plant-based diet and favouring local food products.

However, voluntary simplicity is not a recent concept, and throughout history many thinkers, writers, and even statesmen have encouraged their followers to simplicity, for example Diogenes, Saint Francis of Assisi, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Lev Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi. The term voluntary simplicity itself was coined by American philosopher Richard Gregg in his work The Value of Voluntary Simplicity published in 1936.

According to radical ecological theory, the solution to the ecological crisis can only be achieved by a total transformation of the current social, cultural values and attitudes. For thousands of years, the essence of human civilization has been the pursuit of dominance, and our economic system is increasingly exploiting the natural environment as a mere source of raw materials and energy. Therefore, within the current system, it is impossible to achieve effective results with isolated green measures, and we need to fully overhaul our individual and systemic practices.

Based on the principles of deep ecology and social ecology, radical ecology seeks to create a liveable and sustainable civilization.

Social ecology treats man as an entity above and beyond nature, but recognizes that the protection of the natural environment is the key to humanity’s survival. In addition to exploiting nature, it examines the social processes and their mechanism of action that influences climate crisis. Deep Ecology sees the biodiversity of our planet as a complex, non-hierarchical, coherent system, of which man is an integral part. In this system, every living thing is of equal importance, so man is one of the elements of this network, neither separate nor dominant.

A soft or passive revolution is a non-violent transformation of political and social fabric, a process that often spans years, or many decades. Soft revolutions that transform entire social systems often take the form of cultural, literary, artistic, or social paradigm shifts.

The term passive revolution was coined by the 20th-century Italian theoretician, Antonio Gramsci, who referred to the Italian social and political changes between the two world wars.

Individual, community, institutional, or even corporate strategies that respond to climate crisis and gradually gain ground can also be interpreted as gentle revolutions. Such strategies include, for example, the pursuit of zero waste, the pursuit of self-sufficiency, or recycling at the individual level, and the transition to renewable energy sources or sustainable economic systems at the community and corporate level.

The economic boom following the austerity measures during the Second World War inspired families in Western Europe and North America to accumulate more diverse material assets, which resulted in the formation of what is today called consumer society. In order to drive continued economic growth and increase profits, companies have, over time, encouraged the population to buy disposables instead of durable goods and to replace their defective items and household appliances with new ones.
Whilst an article in Live magazine entitled Throwaway Society in 1955 welcomed the appearance of disposable items as a modern innovation to ease the burden of everyday life, today more and more people are re-evaluating our wasteful way of life.

Today’s consumer behaviour has reached a point at which we purchase new products or replace old ones in advance of real needs. Our useless items that we are bored with are mostly a burden on our environment as non-recyclable, often polluting, waste. All this is supported by our economic system, e.g. by the planned obsolescence of electronic devices or fast-changing fashion trends.

Our wasteful economic system is also affecting the food industry. According to statistical statements, 40% of food produced or imported in the United States is discarded.

Slow movements is the collective name for heterogeneous organizations covering many areas of life that oppose fast-paced consumer society. The first slow movement, called “slow food”, was launched by Carlo Petrini in Italy in 1986 to set them against fast food restaurants, which were gradually gaining ground in Europe. In 1999, Geir Berthelsen had a vision of a whole slow planet when he founded The World Institute of Slowness, while in his book In Praise of Slowness published in 2004, Carl Honoré defined slowness as a principle affecting all walks of life.

Instead of constantly rushing, busy working, hustling and “multitasking”, slow life encourages you to do fewer tasks and activities, but to do it in the best possible way, being present at the moment in different areas of our lives. Slow food emphasizes eating quality food bought at farmers’ markets rather than fast food, and enjoying delicious meals with others. Instead of mass-produced, poor-quality clothing, which becomes obsolete in a month or two, followers of slow fashion support buying or making more expensive but durable, well-tailored clothing once in a while. Similarly, the principles of slowness can be applied to the field of travel, parenting, work, or health.

In 1987 the United Nations declared that sustainable development “meets current needs without affecting the ability of the future generation from meeting their needs.” Sustainable development as a principle is aimed at social progress, the key to which is to ensure an economic development that respects environmental conditions. Our current economic system relies on continuous and unlimited growth although it is impossible to exploit the finite natural resources of a finite-sized planet infinitely, and thus it is unsustainable. However, sustainable development does not only concern the environmentally conscious way of life and business practices (e.g. use of renewable energy sources, reorganization of waste management). It also affects areas such as social justice, equal opportunities, social welfare and environmental quality for the development of human civilization. The future of human civilization can only be secured if the social, economic and environmental aspects of life are in harmony.