Gleanings: Losing liberty?

Laurie Michaelis writes about making lifestyle choices

And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

- John 8:32

A simple lifestyle freely chosen is a source of strength.

- Advices & queries 41

My lifestyle choices – especially cycling and being vegan – are partly an assertion of my freedom, self-sufficiency and individuality. It helps that they are also cheap and low-carbon. But for many people sustainable living suggests constraint. It challenges precious freedoms – to drive, fly, eat meat, run the central heating at full blast. It cuts against the spirit of our age, which values individual freedom ‘in the pursuit of happiness’. In the culture of consumerism, happiness is mostly pursued through buying stuff and through personal comfort and travel.

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