I first read Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered in the 1970s, soon after its appearance. The message that we in the West were profligate with energy resonated in a world reeling from OPEC oil shock shortages. The book became a best seller.
As I recall, I read rather quickly, possibly skimming parts, to get at the thesis of the book: Western countries should try conserving dwindling energy resources by practicing an Intermediate Technology typified by the example of Burma. Schumacher calls the Burmese approach "Buddhist economics," reflecting Buddhist practices of mindful consumption and skillful use of shared resources. Schumacher adds he could have also called it "Christian economics," or "Muslim economics."
But rereading Small Is Beautiful now, I was amazed at how fifty years on, E. F. Schumacher remains a prophet for our time, arguing against our value-free acceptance and enslavement to technology. If we need a quick illustration for why Schumacher desired to harness technology, "as if people mattered," we need look no further than that post-industrial technological colossus of Facebook. Repeatedly, its head, Mark Zuckerberg, excuses Facebook's harm. Viz., Facebook is a platform, a technology with no inherent bias. Any call for Facebook to police billions of Facebook users is an impossible demand. What Zuckerberg doesn't plead is, Facebook has to make money, and Facebook will do anything for money ...
Facebook is one example. These concessions to technology are rampant. Schumacher would have predicted our pursuing fracking in oil exploration with zero public consensus. No, Smith's celebrated invisible hand led us blindly forward with the mantra: Profit good; more oil good.
One key section of Small Is Beautiful examines our greatest resource, Education, Schumacher laments the ascendancy of six intellectual ideas carried over from the 19th century, especially Positivism (aka Logical Positivism: Only the empirically proven is true). These ideas killed off Metaphysics, always the ground of mankind's convictions and values, and any semblance of a moral compass.
Schumacher asserts our age has gone adrift without bearings. Slave to technology, mere Know-How, we lack all conviction of shared values. It's probably too late for most, but existential threats on the horizon will "fire-test" generations to come. Perhaps Generation Z's apprehension of the metaphysics implicit in survival might lead mankind out of this technology-induced morass.
Image credit: sjjs.edu.vn
Read Charlie Dickinson's story collection The Cat at Light's End, as an ebook in these downloadable formats:
.mobi (Kindle)
.epub (most other readers)
.pdf (for PCs)
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