The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 23 February 2005
by Eric Brende
Eric Brende wants to know if the growth of technology in our lives has led to a loss of our humanity. He has a point. Ever since the tragic Luddite rebellion, technology has become an irrevocable part of society, and there have been people who question its place in our lives. How much labor does a "labor-saving device" really save? Studies have shown that with the proliferation of household appliances, the time spent on housework has actually increased. And what have we saved our time for, anyway? Television? Video games? Talking on our cell phones? These are all questions about our society and the way it relates to the world. These are questions Brende found himself trying to answer at MIT, and he took advantage of a chance encounter aboard a cross-country bus to explore the issue further. He, and his new wife, joined a community of people living with minimal technology, a loose federation of Mennonites and Amish folks, along with some "outsiders" like himself. He calls the people "Minimites", and he soon learns that the question isn't the abandonment of technology, but is rather about how we choose the technology we want to have around us, and the limitations we place on it, rather than the other way around. The community, in fact, adheres to a plan of technology even simpler than that for which the Amish are famous. Everything is either people- or horse- or water-powered. The land is tilled by hand and everyone lives by the fruit of his and her labors. Brende finds himself liberated in this environment and draws some surprising conclusions about the amount of "work" one needs to survive, and the amount of "free" time that results when work and culture are better integrated. That such a community can survive attests to strongly shared values. Here, the Minimites do share a form of the Anabaptist tradition, and Brende, a Catholic, at first feels quite out of place amongst them. Later, when he tries to form a smaller intentional community, he discovers the need for a strong coherent force among the participants. Brende's experiment lasts 18 months. He integrates much of what he learns in minimizing his own lifestyle back in the world, more closely interweaved with modern society. There are powerful lessons to be learned from the experiment. The book is straightforward and direct about its intentions. It has a varying pace, and yet imparts the need for conscientious living with and without technology.