Living Simple, by Karl Emil Winther Pedersen

Living Simple, By Karl Emil Winther Pedersen

According to text 1, simple living occurs on account of economic reasons. The deliberation is presented by Elizabeth Scott, and the motive of the text is mainly focused on the advantages of living simple. The text brings positives, proportional to the subject, and it really focuses on the personal pleasures that may include. Another of the most overall views in this first text, is that fact that the western lifestyle is stressful. The text alternates this stressful lifestyle with the simple lifestyle, and presents living simple as being stress relieving and generally better for your social character.

The next text tries to emphasize some of the points form the first text, but it’s also sort of different. First of all, it’s an interview from a magazine. Second of all this text is more practically minded, owing to the fact that, the person receiving the questions, Judith Levine, have tried living simple as an experiment. Hence, this text is most about both the positives of living simple as well.  The central view of this text is how simple living may affect the environment, and with all these environmental changes Judith also points out that consumption is like appetite, and us human-beings only wanting more. Judith Levine also argues on a more cultural related level than the previous text, for example she interprets humans as being trained to think in terms scarcity.

The last text is a complete contrast compared to the previous texts, despite dealing with the same subject. This text focus on the negative points of living simple. As the title may suggest, the text advises against changing your life style, and to support that claim the writer, Derrick Jensen, argues that political change is much more significant. He backs up his claims with scientifically proven stats. Derrick Jensen’s most central point is that personal change doesn’t equal social change. And this point is a pessimistic opinion in comparison to the other, but it is still a big issue, that needs some attention, because many people actually do a lot of effort in vain, apparently.