"The villagers are pioneering a new lifestyle and are determined to prove it’s possible for people to live more simply."
You don’t have to build an eco-village in a National Park in Pembrokeshire to prove that. Just crack open a history book. We know very well that people can live lives of medieaval simplicity.
That’s not actually what we want to find out. It’s how can we live lives of 21st century sophistication and wealth which is the interesting question.
Power is generated on site, water is collected locally, and three-quarters of the villagers’ income comes from working the land and craft industries such as wood carving.
Not like that is the answer….there simply isn’t enough land to do that.
7 responses so far ↓
1 Tim Newman // Sep 17, 2008 at 8:20 am
You don’t have to build an eco-village in a National Park in Pembrokeshire to prove that. Just crack open a history book. We know very well that people can live lives of medieaval simplicity.
I don’t think you understand. I’m from Pembrokeshire. They live with medieval simplicity there already. Living more simply in Pembrokeshire means living in a cave waiting for the invention of fire.
2 Jim Winfield // Sep 17, 2008 at 9:59 am
The “simple life” villagers – will they also want the high quality medical care available when they fall sick? Full insurance cover for their simple machines? Do they pay full tax rates, for all these?
Opting out is not an option – read Orwell’s “Keep the aspidistra flying” for a brilliant take on it.
3 Mark Wadsworth // Sep 17, 2008 at 10:19 am
“Mediaeval”, actually. Or if you want to be really flash, “Mediæval”.
4 Cleanthes // Sep 17, 2008 at 10:51 am
“We know very well that people can live lives of medieaval simplicity.”
That’s precisely the problem. A life of mediaeval simplicity might be simple, but it’s not fun. Or very long either.
5 TDK // Sep 17, 2008 at 11:17 am
I wonder whether they sell those wooden carvings to tourists? You know if consumerism is the root of our present troubles, I wouldn’t like to think they are making anything that isn’t essential.
Not only that, there might be long term consequences. Trading might lead in a generation or two to something bad, like capitalism.
6 Little Black Sambo // Sep 17, 2008 at 12:54 pm
Nothing wrong with “medieval”; look it up.
7 Monty // Sep 17, 2008 at 11:21 pm
Why do they have to do this in Pembrokeshire, with toursist and journalists popping in?
Why aren’t they on some place like St Kilda? With no tourists, no communications, and no way back to the mainland when the going gets rough?
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