Strange to say, under the influence of laboratory science many people today seem to use their freedom only for the purpose of denying its existence. Men and women of great gifts find their purest delight in magnifying every mechanism, every inevitability, everything where human freedom does not enter or does not appear to enter. A great shout of triumph goes up whenever anybody … [Read more...]
Weekly Wisdom: EF Schumacher on technology and leisure
The primary task of technology, it would seem, is to lighten the burden of work man has to carry in order to stay alive and develop his potential. It is easy enough to see that technology fulfils this purpose when we watch any particular piece of machinery at work - a computer, for instance, can do in seconds what it would take clerks or even mathematicians a very long time. if … [Read more...]
Weekly Wisdom: EF Schumacher on cities and gigantism
I raise the question of the proper size of cities both for its own sake but also because it is, to my mind, the most relevant point when we come to consider the size of nations. The idolatry of gigantism that I have talked about is possibly one of the causes and certainly one of the effects of modern technology, particularly in matters of transport and communications. A … [Read more...]
Weekly Wisdom: EF Schumacher on greed
If greed were not the master of modern man -- ably assisted by envy -- how could it be that the frenzy of economism does not abate as higher "standards of living" are attained, and that it is precisely the richest societies which pursue their economic advantage with the greatest ruthlessness? How could we explain the almost universal refusal on the part of the rulers of the … [Read more...]