What dropping out means today
Posted on November 4, 2007
Filed Under Ideas & Philosophy |
I began writing this article with the aim of explaining what I mean by dropping out. In essence, I am talking about dropping out of the rat race, out of the nine-to-five wage slavery toil. But there’s much more to it than just giving up a high-flying city job in favour of a place in the country.
Dropping out often involves being brave and taking risks, resisting powerful social forces and the confining expectations of society. Sometimes it’s only when people drop out of the social norm that they discover who they really are.
I believe there’s never been a better time to drop out than right now!
The previous generation, the baby boomers that grew up in the sixties and seventies and are now reaching retirement age have done a lot of the hard work for us.
Some of them were kinda crazy, but they helped to shift society’s values away from the traditional pattern of getting a steady job in a large organisation, tied into a particular career path and servicing a large mortgage. They showed that it was important to be creative, have fun, care about social and environmental issues, travel and meet lots of different people. In fact, many of them still maintain this philosophy as they approach retirement and are gaining a reputation as SKIers (Spending the Kids’ Inheritance)!
But how have things have developed since the sixties? Is there anything we can learn from the previous generation of drop outs that helps us today?
Turn on, turn in, drop out
Although individuals have been dropping out of mainstream society and going off to live in the woods, become a wanderer or start a new religion since humans first had what we would call a “society”, it wasn’t until the 1960s when large-scale ‘dropping out’ became an end in itself.
Most people think of the counterculture movement of the 1960s as being about rejecting social norms, dropping out of school or work and taking lots of drugs. The phrase ‘turn on, tune in, drop out’ was coined in the late sixties by Timothy Leary – academic, counterculture hero, and experimenter with psychedelic drugs. He exorted people to ““Quit school. Quit your job. Don’t vote. Avoid all politics” (Start Your Own Religion, 1967)
Leary saw society as artificial, robotic, disharmonious. If you followed society’s rules, you couldn’t be yourself. The people who choose to drop out of the rat race today probably have more in common with Leary than they think. They are often looking for greater balance and harmony in their lives. They feel manipulated by the demands of city life or high-flying careers. They want to follow their own path and make their own rules rather than follow those of someone else.
And these days it’s easier to do this, without having to take psychedelic drugs and start your own religion. We have the sixties counterculture movement to thank for helping to open up that possibility.
Downshifting
Downshifting (also known as voluntary simplicity) is a voluntary choice to lead a simpler, more balanced life; to opt out of the career rat race and, usually, to earn less money but have more time to enjoy other aspects of your life.
Again, the notion is nothing new. But it is becoming much more popular in Australia and the United States and increasingly in the UK. The concept has been identified and given a name; it has become a social phenomenon.
Downshifting is an evolution of work/life balance and it has become more easily attainable in part because of advances in technology and lifestyles. For instance, people can work remotely or have their own businesses online; it is more acceptable to work flexible hours; travel times have reduced so people can live further away from urban centres and still be in touch when necessary.
Technology has also opened up new opportunities for making money online and has lowered the barriers to entry for many enterprises that would previously have required much more capital to set up, requiring bricks and mortar premises and so on. Who doesn’t know someone who has an ebay business on the side or is trying to make some extra income through blogging?
There has also been a shift in values among many people. Money and career are seen as less important, less all-encompassing than they used to be. People are willing to have their earnings significantly reduced in order to have a better quality of life or a more fulfilling job such as working for a non-profit organisation.
Evidence
In 2003, a researcher from an Australian think tank, Clive Hamilton, carried out a study on downshifting in the UK.
What he found is quite surprising:
- 25% of British adults aged 30-59 have voluntarily downshifted over the last ten years. These are people who have voluntarily made a long-term change in their lifestyle (other than planned retirement) which has resulted in them earning less money. This is a higher number than anyone expected.
- It is popularly believed that the downshifting phenomenon is confined to middle-aged wealthier individuals who, having accumulated substantial assets, can afford to take the risk. In fact downshifters are spread fairly evenly across age groups and social grades.
- In the UK, the top three methods of downshifting are: reducing work hours; stopping work altogether; and changing careers.
- The top reasons given for downshifting are more time with family, health and greater fulfilment.
A quarter of British adults have downshifted over the last decade. That is probably a lot more than most people would have imagined.
In the UK, the South West has always been a popular choice for people to escape the rat race. A study by Halifax bank shows that over the past ten years, some 1.4 million people have moved to the South West. And while in the past most of these would have been mature couples and retirees, recent years have seen an influx of 25-44 year olds, many with young children. This seems to back up the findings of the Australia Institute study.
The Australia Institute comments that “The downshifting phenomenon represents much more than the decisions of scattered individuals to change their life priorities. Because it requires downshifters to reject powerful social pressures, it is a social force with far-reaching political implications.”
On the other hand, because downshifting often means a significantly reduced income, many think that it will always be a minority pursuit.
Portfolio Life
One man who heralded this shift in values back in the late eighties is management guru and modern thinker Charles Handy, who described the notion of a ‘portfolio life’ in his 1989 book The Age of Unreason.
Building a portfolio life or portfolio career is one way of downshifting successfully, without too much of a shock to the system. Handy explains:
“If, rather than think of life as work and leisure, we think of it as a portfolio of activities - some of which we do for money, some for interest, some for pleasure, some for a cause - that way, we do not have to look for the occupation that miraculously combines job satisfaction, financial reward and pleasant friends all in one package. As with any portfolio we get different returns from different parts and if one fails the whole is not ruined.”
Society at large has taken a while to catch up with Handy’s ideas, but more and more people are opting for this kind of portfolio life.
It is true that having a portfolio life requires you to be quite organised and to be able actively to manage your time in accordance with your aims. But it can also be an exciting, creative and rewarding way to live.
Deferred Happiness Syndrome
This is almost the opposite of the portfolio life approach. This phenomenon, described by Clive Hamilton, the author of the study on downshifting in the UK, is the tendency to endure long hours in stressful jobs, be miserable at work and neglect family and friends in the hope that it will help to achieve a happy state at some point in the future.
People who downshift or opt for a portfolio life are rejecting this traditional notion. They are looking for happiness in the here and now.
Conclusion
Is the entire picture as rosy as this article might have people believe? At the macro level we need more social research to give us an idea of the consequences, but intuitively it seems to be a good thing that more and more people are giving up stress and ever higher earnings for better health, more time with family and a wider range of activities.
On an individual level, the answer is probably different for everyone. Some people might bite off more than they can chew, inspired by books or reality tv programmes, and get into financial difficulties. Others may jump on a popular trend – such as professional blogging or ebay retailing – wanting to make a living from it, without honestly assessing their chances of success.
But people who drop out of the rat race don’t lack ambition. On the contrary, they often have a very clear idea of what they want and it is usually quite challenging to achieve – whether it is building your own house, starting your own business or travelling the world.
That generation of sixties and seventies ‘drop outs’ taught us to follow our own rules and aim for a better balance in life. They showed it was okay to be creative, to experiment and to chase big ideas instead of locking into a career and letting other people decide your future.
Today there are many different ways to drop out and still lead a happy and successful life. It takes energy and creativity and a lot of hard work. But more and more people are realising that instead of pouring all their effort into someone else’s organisation for money, they can spend that energy directly on themselves.
Further reading
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Find out how to leave the rat race and get the life you want. Read my story and others, learn from our mistakes and be inspired by our successes!