[I still care]

You’ve got it.

There’s nothing inheriently noble in doing without for the sake of doing without. They are searching for a freedom that is still, in an inverse way, based on their possessions.

The truly humble do without not for themselves, but to do good for others. Missionaries go to poverty stricken countries and do without because they have to in order to help others, not because they are “letting the universe take them for a ride”.

[goldstategop]

The type of poverty practiced by medieval clerics was meant to bring them closer to the Heavenly City. But just to do without for the mere sake of doing without I think leads nowhere because human nature abhors a state of permanent deprivation.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus