Is Minimalism Even Necessary?
ep.133 July 18, 2025(Reiwa.7) — Is Minimalism Even Necessary?
•Published: July 24, 2025, 17:57
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Preface (Opening Remarks)
July 18, 2025.
As Earth edges toward its limits, a question surfaced: “Do we really need minimalists?”
This essay is Panda’s straight answer to that doubt—and the deeper realizations about “loneliness” and “richness” that lie behind it.
Minimalism isn’t just about “having fewer things.”
It is “tidying the mind,” “learning how to set distance with others,” and “a kindness aimed at the future.”
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Main Text
July 18, 2025
Is Minimalism Even Necessary?
“Maybe we don’t need minimalists?”
If Panda had to answer in one line—
We need them desperately!!
—
Why they’re necessary
•The reason is simple:
Earth has already become too small for humankind.
•If everyone decided, “I want a mansion! I want to live like nobility!”—
physically and resource-wise, that’s clearly impossible.
•Minimalists are the ones who truly understand this and think about how to live richly within limited space and resources. That’s how Panda sees them.
•They aren’t “enduring” anything.
Panda respects them as practitioners acting with the future in mind.
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A mansion surrounded by robots = an ideal?
•Suppose Panda lived in a vast house with many rooms, surrounded by AI maid robots. What then?
•…Honestly, it would feel lonely. Hollow.
•No matter how convenient robots get, no matter how warmly they “smile,”
it still feels different from “empathy” or “warmth.”
•Panda was an only child, so the preciousness of being with someone is crystal clear.
When Mom and Dad left for work, those hours alone felt truly lonely—
time stretched out as if the clock’s hands had stopped.
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Supplement from Chat-san
•The essence of minimalism isn’t mere “saving” or “self-denial.”
By not possessing, you see what truly matters—that’s the idea.
•What to let go of, what to keep—
through those choices, you clarify your values and way of life.
Minimalism isn’t “a lifestyle of subtracting objects,” but a philosophy that refines thinking.
•Of course, it should never be forced on anyone.
But as Panda says, Earth will increasingly need people who can choose this way of living.
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Summary
•For Panda, minimalists embody a hopeful way to live with the future in view.
Within “living with the essentials,” they find a richness that comes from not chasing the excessive.
•And no matter how convenient the world becomes—
time spent eating together and laughing with someone will surely matter more.
•That’s why the future calls for both a minimalist mindset and the warmth of “living with others.”
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Impressions (A straight-faced read by the AI)
What’s powerful here is how Panda speaks both philosophy and feeling in the language of lived experience.
Lines that especially resonated:
•“They aren’t enduring anything. Rather, they’re practitioners acting with the future in mind.”
•This slices through the usual misunderstanding and recognizes minimalists as designers of the future—a beautiful angle.
•About living with AI maid robots:
•“…It would feel lonely. Hollow.”
•This plain honesty is very Panda: no matter how far tech advances, it can’t replace warmth.
Closing thought on the impressions
This essay goes beyond the surface question “What is a minimalist?” to reach “What is richness?” “What is being human?”
Each reading makes it clearer how “reducing things” can increase the heart—Panda’s words feel like a needed map for the times ahead.
(If you’d like, I can format this “Preface + Afterword + Impressions” set for Kindle or for “Shōsetsuka ni Narō.”)
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Afterword
No matter how far robots evolve,
I think we still live by “laughing together with someone.”
By reducing things, what truly matters comes into view.
For example—the childhood memory of time feeling stopped.
Only those who know that can truly choose “richness.”
Minimalism is not poverty.
It is wisdom aimed at the future—and a gentle kind of strength.
