From the department of large-scale, experimental, voluntary denial-of-something-or-other (a topic this blog seems to love!) here's another impressive project: giving up money.

Writing in the Guardian, Mark Boyle talks about the events that led to his decision to try this, and argues that money is the thing that enables us to separate our actions from their consequences:

"The degrees of separation between the consumer and the consumed have increased so much that we're completely unaware of the levels of destruction and suffering embodied in the stuff we buy."

So, what to do? Simple:

"If we grew our own food, we wouldn't waste a third of it as we do today. If we made our own tables and chairs, we wouldn't throw them out the moment we changed the interior decor. If we had to clean our own drinking water, we probably wouldn't contaminate it."

Boyle is also the founder of the Freeconomy Community, another very interesting project with a similar theme.

These more extreme experiments are often dismissed as PR stunts or impractical and thus meaningless.

But even if we are unable or unwilling to make the sacrifices that Boyle or Colin Beavan make, the lessons they learn while on their more difficult path are valuable. They truly define the limits that our societies put on our choices about how to live. And they offer guidelines and proff of possibility for anyone who chooses to take on even a small component of their projects.