I had a boss once who went on at great length about the benefits of the paperless office. His office was indeed devoid of paper storage, his secretary's office however, had loads of filing cabinets stuffed full of papers.
Self-regarding parasites like this just offload all their support systems onto other people and then brag about how minimal and self sufficient they are.
...and TVs for him to watch, food for him to eat, coffee makers for him to use...
Years ago I was pretty minimalist. I didn't want to own anything that I couldn't walk away from. So in my apartment I had a bed, a computer, a small TV, a surfboard, and a couple of plastic deck chairs to sit on.
Today I have quite a few more things in my house but my attitude towards what I own is still the same. That I think is what is important.
Yeah. Blind, random luck. It's not like he spent years building relationships with people and becoming the kind of guy that people like to have as a house guest.
So, perhaps you are against self-regarding people and braggarts and not necessarily minimalism?
There's no such thing as being self-sufficient. But, having ditched 90% of my possessions over the years, I have to say that removing all that material burden has felt damn great. One of the best things I've ever done.
That's exactly it - many 'minimalists' I know live just like this, but never have any money, always need a place to stay or a ride, never want to chip in at the nice restaurants because of point #1, and make it extremely uncomfortable for the rest of us 'consumerists.'
I get it, having less can be good, but not at the cost of friendships and a healthy lifestyle. Oh, and did I mention that many of these clothing items, which get re-used often, get nasty fast.
Self-regarding parasites like this just offload all their support systems onto other people and then brag about how minimal and self sufficient they are.