I’m enjoying learning about Ivan Illich (and all the other scholars you’ve studied). What you shared, above, about limits reminded me of E.F. Schumacher, writing about technology: “Any third-rate engineer or researcher can increase complexity; but it takes a certain flair of real insight to make things simple again. And this insight does not come easily to people who have allowed themselves to become alienated from real, productive work and from the self-balancing system of nature, which never fails to recognize measure and limitation. Any activity which fails to recognize self-limiting principles is of the devil.”
The resurgence of interest in everything from baking sourdough, gardening, canning and preserving is at least one bright spot in this pandemic as people rediscover the joys of a less frictionless existence. Conversely, the commodification of identity enabled by technology in the service of transhumanist aspirations is devastating. C.S. Lewis’s “That Hideous Strength” is one of my favourite books - the narrative form of “The Abolition of Man” may stand a better chance of reaching those who need to hear its thesis. At least I hope so!
The Convivial Society, No. 2
I’m enjoying learning about Ivan Illich (and all the other scholars you’ve studied). What you shared, above, about limits reminded me of E.F. Schumacher, writing about technology: “Any third-rate engineer or researcher can increase complexity; but it takes a certain flair of real insight to make things simple again. And this insight does not come easily to people who have allowed themselves to become alienated from real, productive work and from the self-balancing system of nature, which never fails to recognize measure and limitation. Any activity which fails to recognize self-limiting principles is of the devil.”
The resurgence of interest in everything from baking sourdough, gardening, canning and preserving is at least one bright spot in this pandemic as people rediscover the joys of a less frictionless existence. Conversely, the commodification of identity enabled by technology in the service of transhumanist aspirations is devastating. C.S. Lewis’s “That Hideous Strength” is one of my favourite books - the narrative form of “The Abolition of Man” may stand a better chance of reaching those who need to hear its thesis. At least I hope so!