"Small is Beautiful"

In her recent blog, Caroline quotes Bonoeffer, identifying him as one of her heroes. I would not describe Fritz Schumacher as one of my heroes, in that I do not think he did anything particularly courageous, but he probably affected the way I have done development work more than anyone else. I first heard him speak in Botswana around 1971. At that time I thought what he was saying about technology was very appropriate to what we were doing in Botswana. I have only come to see its appropriateness to what we do in NA much much later, But I think he is profoundly correct. I came across this recently:

In 1976 the economist Fritz Schumacher spoke at Findhorn in Northern
Scotland in an address as relevant today as it was then. Historically, he
noted, we are at the end of three distinct eras -- first a Descartian
informed world view which valued what was known through the senses above
spiritual knowledge and encouraged an accumulation of things as a path to
happiness; second a sociological system shaped by the industrial
revolution's division of labor which led to the degradation of the human
being; and third an economic system driven by a belief in infinite resources
and quick technological fixes, resulting in a ravaged eco-system.


As these old eras draw to a close, bankrupt, he went on, we need to regain a
traditional understanding of what is good, true, and beautiful and so inform
our actions to build a new era that acknowledges the wholeness of life. It
is not a single-issue crisis that we face -- not just an energy crisis, not
just a nuclear crisis, not just an ecological crisis or sociological or
political or cultural -- our whole way of life is at stake and solutions
must be developed and implemented simultaneously at many levels. He calls
on the audience to first work to foster a new world view in themselves,
diagnose what can be done, see if others are already engaged in that
rebuilding work and support them, and then act themselves, if even in a
small way.


Exhibiting his characteristic charm and humor, an historic breadth of
thinking, the integrity of his own example, a belief in his audience and the
capacity of the human spirit to seek solutions and bring about change --
this Findhorn address shows Schumacher at his best. We have posted the
audio online at:

http://www.archive.org/details/TheWorldCrisisAndTheWholenessOfLife