Gordon Feller: Voluntary Simplicity

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PHOTO: MOTHER EARTH NEWS STAFF
Gordon Feller believes that the growing interest in self-reliance has far-reaching econominc implications, and even relates to the chances for a workable disarmament.

Can growing cabbage contribute to the quest for world peace?

Before you answer that question, consider that the head of a large stock-brokerage firm recently noted that the commonly publicized economic statistics ignore the fact that many individuals are swapping quantity for quality in their lives, and that such folks are often doing productive “private” work, including raising much of their own food.

“Many people,” he said, “have realized it’s cheaper to grow a head of cabbage in the back yard than it is to ship it in from California.” And he suggested that this sort of activity has contributed to public optimism and to the rising stock market.

Now that may surprise you, but Gordon Feller–who lives in New York City’s Harlem with his lifemate Mary and their infant daughter Jessie–has made even vaster connections. He would agree that the U.S. population’s growing interest in self-reliance has far-reaching economic implications, but he also feels that it could relate to the chances for a workable disarmament.

“In another era, I might have been a monk on a mountaintop,” Gordon admits. But in this life, an artistic mother and an engineer father brought him up to have an imagination with a practical bent, and he’s turned his energies toward helping to change the world. This might seem like a quixotic ambition, until you realize that–though Mr. Feller is only 23 years old–he has already received his master’s degree in international and public affairs from Columbia University, where he was the university’s first Wallach Fellow of World Order Studies.

  • Published on Sep 1, 1983
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