Muddling Toward Frugality

by Warren Johnson

Mr. Johnson’s thesis can be summarized without much difficulty: after generations of extravagant and reckless industrial expansion, we are clearly entering an age of economic scarcity. While human demands continue to rise, natural resources, especially the non-renewable kind, become harder to find and more expensive to extract, process, transport and distribute. This simple brute fact is the basic cause of inflation, despite the inability of most professional economists to see it. (The “dismal science” has never been more dismally obtuse than it is today.) The law of diminishing returns is coming into effect. Technological developments can delay the process but not halt or reverse it; nor can we rely on government or big business to save us. Planning for further growth delays the adjustments that must be made, makes a fair sharing of necessary sacrifices more troublesome, and if carried too far will make more severe and painful, because rapid, the inevitable decline of the international economic machine. The best way to deal with the end of affluence is to accept it—not fight it—and to begin, here and now, the unavoidable adaptations, on an individual, family, and community basis. Piecemeal, experimental, and muddling.

252 pages, Hardcover

First published October 12, 1979

Reviews

[Shayne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very thought-provoking, and I think the core idea of muddling as a viable way of progress is a good one. Shows a little bit of dating, but still surprisingly relevant (or maybe the peak oil movement just doesn't change much?).

[Ammi Emergency]

I found it in a free pile and was drawn in not by the worlds worst title but by the subtitle: "A Guide to Surviving the 80's." Bummer of a thesis. Written in 1978 and before, it didn't count on Reagonomics and the flight of the super right from the rest of us. But its super interesting, partly because I agree with some of it, partly because visions of the future/present from the past are incredibly instructive.

[Joel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Revised a couple times since originally published in the late 1970s, the book presents some basic facts and very valuable insights, though Paul Hawken and others have gathered more material and detailed strategies that are up-to-date on the biospheric predicament and "what to do?". But Muddling is valuable in discussing a realistic view of society’s stumbling, “muddling” way of changing and moving forward.

[Joshua]

Basically a combination of Sharon Astyk's, Michael Greer's, and Charles Hugh Smith's blogs, with a splash of theoildrum. But in book form. And written 31 years ago. Honestly, I thought the book would have been better as a series of blog posts, but maybe that's just because I've seen much of the material already. Even has the obligatory Hubberts curve figure, etc.

pp. 132-135 on Thomas Jefferson's vision.

Reading this book made me think: either this guy was way ahead of his time (and society ignored him, to its detriment), or else this is a cyclical thing and all of the sustainability/peak oil stuff will go the way of the Carter administration.

[Brian · Rating 2 out of 5]

A quirkly little book that lives up to its title. It reads like preaching to the converted. Simplifying our lives and reducing mindless consumerism will take a more concerted effort, particularly if the economy is to be restructured. I re-read this again after I first read it in the mid-1980s. It is a period piece that historians of the environmental movement might find of interest, but there remains little practical value in the prognostications and specific prescriptions Johnson offers.

[Richard Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

MUDDLING TOWARD FRUGALITY by Warren Johnson (1978)

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

This excellent book contains much wisdom, and bravely and soberly faces our future.