What Can You Live Without?

There's nothing bare about today's "necessities."

Think about it. It is Lent after all, isn’t it?

What can you live without? There are probably a few things that we can all probably agree on. You can’t live without food and water. No clothing or shelter would also be tough - but could you? As a American Jew (soft), I can safely say, no. It took me years to get comfortable with a gas stove.

We all have limits and they’re not all the same. And while I may be living in an alternate universe, there are people out there who could easily live naked off the land for weeks - long as they got their guns. Cause she-it, some of us CANNOT live without those. What are you a, commie?

Ok, so one man’s Glock 9mm is another man’s accessible public transit. TomAto, TO-mato.

Speaking of transit, could you live without your car? Not would you? But could you?

Certainly not if you’re in rural South Dakota. But what about the suburbs of Boston? Or Chicago or The Bay Area.

Maybe you need your car to earn a living (to live), but what if a car was simply not an option? I like to think that, like rats to septic tank, we all eventually find our way to a meal ticket.

Even computers. Or your phone. One could probably survive without, though it would be terribly inconvenient and we are inching ever-closer to a world where the phone is as essential as food and water to our personal survival — I’m not sure we’re there yet.

Here’s where I’m going.

The vast majority of us Westernized folk probably will never give up any of the above. That ship has sailed and we’ll quickly become addicted to something new and equally useless.

But suppose we the people were to organize. Boycott the goods and services whose businesses have brought real, negative impact on society? Might you consider giving some of those things up?

Oil and gas companies? All pretty bad.

Amazon?

Tesla?

Dare I say Apple? Meta? PayPal? Uber? And Lord knows how many others have either been duplicitous or downright predatory in their long-term ambitions?

Could you really NOT live without any of those things? That’s essentially what Scott Galloway has been asking us all of February in his moderately successful, Resist and Unsubscribe movement.

“Well,” you say, “that’s not fair. When you put it like that.” I mean, it’s not like we can compare media consumption to food and water. But maybe you can. We’re heading that way. And here’s how most of us would respond.

“I simply couldn’t get everything done in my life without my Prime membership.”

“I use Uber instead of owning a car - quit judging me dick!”

“Bro! Aren’t you writing this post on a MacBook Pro with an iPhone15 right next to you?”

Yes, I am. I’m a judgey hypocrite. I admit it.

Because these “things” are becoming harder and harder to live without. Like my Apple products, despite their corporate values swirling headfirst down the MAGA shit pipes. Unfortunately I’m just too deep into the Apple eco-system. It’ll take some seemingly righteous, Steve Jobs-like, visionary, and a one-touch transfer to lure me off this platform.

So, what exactly could I live without?

I gave up ordering things on Amazon. Anything. Didn’t need it. I’m not in that big of a hurry and personally, I’m fine paying a few extra bucks to a local smaller business. But that’s me.

I would gladly cancel Prime (as well as Hulu, Disney and Comcast), but my wife and kid are too addicted to their shows. So they can’t live without those. At least not now.

Unfortunately, I live two blocks from a Whole Foods, also a profit center under the almighty Bezos, and there’s very little I can do about that. It’s just too convenient for me to completely live without.

I took Facebook and Instagram off my phone which has pretty much evaporated my time on those platforms (and given me my life back) but I can’t even unsubscribe to those entirely — where else am I gonna promote this insightful, thought leadership content. And don’t even get me started on how dependent we’ve already gotten on Gemini, Chapt GPT, et al. How long did that take to get us all permanently attached to Sam Altman’s teet — 12 months?

So again, what CAN I live without?

I rarely drive a car but when I do, I promise it will never be a Tesla. I’ll use Lyft, not Uber (who knows what nonsense Lyft is up to). Venmo over PayPal. MS and Google are a wash at this point, and anyone with a desk job needs one of ‘em.

Maybe we are the problem. Not the corporate overlords who are milking us dry for their luxury yachts and spaceships. Us! Not being able to live without Amazon or Apple or Meta IS the problem.

There was time by the way, not all that long ago, when we all did just fine without. We couldn’t have the world delivered to our doorsteps in hours. There was no social media. There was just TV and magazines. I even remember a time when four UHF channels was all we got (can anyone tell me what the VHF was even for?). Pre-microwave, pre-personal computer people!

And we survived! Often times subsisting on nothing but Tom and Jerry reruns and maybe some Three’s Company. If it was a Tuesday night.

Life wasn’t necessarily better back then. It’s great to have all these modern conveniences. But at what cost?

What can you live without?