This principle is about recognizing the necessity of subtracting ourselves from the current political, cultural, & economic systems that we’re currently embedded within and dependent upon. Without subtracting--i.e. becoming independent of--we aren’t free to imagine living in new ways; we can’t dream up and build out new temporary utopias, because we’re still caught in the previous nightmare of the Western Enlightenment. As is famously said in the Japanese Zen tradition, “Today’s enlightenment is tomorrow’s mistake.” The principle of necessary subtraction is the means by which we collectively liberate ourselves from the shackles of our previous Enlightenment(s).