"...A Balance Of Head, Heart, And Hand": The Philosophy Of Decentralization In The Works Of Ivan Illich, E. F. Schumacher, and John Todd

Abstract

For four thousand years of recorded history, society has believed that unlimited technological development was the route to progress. Advancement along these lines has always been highly valued. Present reality dictates that we reevaluate this belief in unlimited expansion. Why is it that only now the general populace has reassessed its attitude towards unrestrained growth? What has prompted this examination of perhaps the prime societal value? During the last two decades, the possibility of exhausting the resources that fueled this growth has become visibly apparent. What poets and prophets have proclaimed for centuries is beginning to be commonly accepted: the present reality finds the theory of unlimited technological growth detrimental to the relationship between the environment, the society, and the individual person. Our world now operates on such a grand scale that its total health including that of its individual inhabitants is endangered. Limits need to be established, limits that reflect our concern for the damage done to these relationships.