Good private property and bad private property

"As regards private property, the first and most basic distinction is between (a) property that is an aid to creative work and (b) property that is an alternative to it. There is something natural and healthy about the former - the private property of the working proprietor; and there is something unnatural and unhealthy about the latter - the private property of the passive owner who lives parasitically on the work of others."

E. F. Schumacher, Small is beautiful.

The future

I think this one is originally from somebody else, but I read it again in this book anyway:

"The future cannot be forecast, but it can be explored."

E. F. Schumacher, Small is beautiful.

See also this related and much more developed post from my friend François.

When stupidity becomes more intelligent than cleverness

I used to like and look for optimality when I was younger, but since then I have learned the following bit of wisdom:

"I think the stupid man who says "something is better than nothing" is much more intelligent than the clever chap who will not touch anything unless it is optimal."

E. F. Schumacher, Small is beautiful.

What is education for ?

"Is education to be a "passport to privilege" or is it something which people take upon themselves almost like a monastic vow, a sacred obligation to serve the people ?"

E. F. Schumacher, Small is beautiful.

Small is beautiful

"Man is small, and, therefore, small is beautiful."

E. F. Schumacher, Small is beautiful.

Simplicity again

"It is my experience that it is rather more difficult to recapture directness and simplicity than to advance in the direction of ever more sophistication and complexity. Any third-rate engineer or researcher can increase complexity; but it takes a certain flair of real insight to make things simple again."

E. F. Schumacher, Small is beautiful.

See also this post.

From a scientific perspective, I like this viewpoint, and I am always trying to understand what I observe with some explanatory mechanisms based on simple principles. But I am aware that it is also dangerous to go too far in this direction, and that the simple theoretical principles are most often valid only under strong assumptions that are never satisfied in reality, so that their explanatory power is questionable and the possibility that what I observed was the result of something else must at least remain open.

From a philosophical perspective, I dislike this viewpoint, which would lead to a meaningless world where everything is deterministic and we are just complex machines without souls. I prefer the holistic philosophies of people like Ram Dass and Eckhart Tolle.

The burden of proof

"The burden of proof is placed on those who take the "ecological viewpoint": unless they can produce evidence of marked injury to man, the change will proceed. Common sense, on the contrary, would suggest that the burden of proof should lie on the man who wants to introduce a change; he has to demonstrate that there cannot be any damaging consequences. [...]
All changes in a complex mechanism involve some risk and should be undertaken only after careful study of all the facts available. Changes should be made on a small scale first so as to provide a test before they are widely applied. When information is incomplete, changes should stay close to the natural processes which have in their favour the indisputable evidence of having supported life for a very long time."

Ralph and Mildred Buchsbaum, commentary in E.F. Schumacher Small is beautiful.

The main threat in nonsustainable development

"From a resource point of view, the main threat in nonsustainable development is not so much that we are running out of non-renewables (for instance fossil fuels or heavy metals). The main threat is that the productivity of our renewable resource base (vital ecosystems) is declining. The main problem is that waste molecules from the use of nonrenewables have negative effects on our renewable resource base through climate change, acid rain, eutrophy, toxic metals, etc."

Karl-Henrik Robèrt (founder of The Natural Step), commentary in E.F. Schumacher Small is beautiful.

Convergent and divergent problems

"[We must] recover the awareness that there are higher and lower levels of knowledge. The lower level deals with what [Schumacher] termed "convergent" problems, that are solvable through logic or scientific research. "Divergent" problems, on the other hand, are those that require accomodating irreconcilable things in ways that challenge our central convictions. They require us to know that what we believe can only be resolved by a higher level of reasoning grounded in "love, beauty, goodness, and truth"."

David Orr, commentary in E.F. Schumacher Small is beautiful.

I am a person who likes when a problem can be solved by logic (that's why I chose to become a researcher), and hates when it cannot, because then I don't know which of the many possible solutions to choose, and whether I will choose the best one. This is when you have to listen to our heart, and put your reason on the side.

The whole man

"Education can help us only if it produces "whole men". The truly educated man is not a man who knows a bit of everything, not even the man who knows all the details of all subjects (if such a thing were possible) : the "whole man", in fact, may have little detailed knowledge of facts and theories, he may treasure the Encyclopaedia Britannica because "she knows and he needn't", but he will be truly in touch with the centre. He will not be in doubt about his basic convictions, about his view on the meaning and purpose of his life. He may not be able to explain these matters in words, but the conduct of his life will show a certain sureness of touch which stems from his inner clarity."

E. F. Schumacher, Small is beautiful.

The meaning of knowledge

"Shall I teach you the meaning of knowledge ? When you know a thing to recognise that you know it, and when you do not, to know that you do not know - that is knowledge."

Confucius, quoted in Small is beautiful, E. F. Schumacher.

On education

"The task of education would be, first and foremost, the transmission of ideas of value, of what to do with our lives. There is no doubt also the need to transmit know-how but this must take second place, for it is obviously somewhat foolhardy to put great power into the hands of people without making sure that they have a reasonable idea of what to do with them. At present, there can be little doubt that the whole of mankind is in mortal danger, not because we are short of scientific and technological know-how, but because we tend to use it destructively, without wisdom. More education can help us only if it produces more wisdom."

E. F. Schumacher, Small is beautiful.

Economics and Buddhism

For my 100th post, I chose one of my favorite quotations, from E.F. Schumacher:

"Economics without Buddhism, i.e., without spiritual, human and ecological values, is like sex without love."

Quoted by Satish Kumar in a commentary note in Small is beautiful.

Some explanation is necessary, because some people may wonder what Buddhism has to do with Economics. Here is a good summary, taken from this web page:

"Early in Schumacher’s tenure at the Coal Board, the British government sent him to Burma to teach its citizens how to achieve progress based on the Western economic model. But he quickly determined the Burmese were better served drawing from their own tradition. He coined the term “Buddhist economics” to describe the opposite of the Western economic model, one that didn’t allow for unlimited growth and consumption and emphasized renewable resources."

The world is ruled from towns

"[The Western man] tends to count nothing as an expenditure, other than human effort; he does not seem to mind how much mineral matter he wastes and, far worse, how much living matter he destroys. He does not seem to realize at all that human life is a dependent part of an ecosystem of many different forms of life. As the world is ruled from towns where men are cut off from any form of life other than human, the feeling of belonging to an ecosystem is not revived. This results in a harsh and improvident treatment of things upon which we ultimately depend, such as water and trees."

Bertrand de Jouvenel, cited by E. F. Schumacher, in Small is beautiful.

The joy of work and the bliss of leisure

"To strive for leisure as an alternative to work would be considered a complete misunderstanding of one of the basic truths of human existence, namely that work and leisure are complementary parts of the same living process and cannot be separated without destroying the joy of work and the bliss of leisure."

E. F. Schumacher, in Small is beautiful.

Wisdom

"But what is wisdom ? Where can it be found ? Here we come to the crux of the matter: it can be read about in numerous publications but it can be found only inside oneself. To be able to find it, one has first to liberate oneself from such masters as greed and envy. The stillness following liberation - even if only momentary - produces the insights of wisdom which are obtainable in no other way."

E. F. Schumacher, in Small is beautiful.

Winds of change:

"What seemed so evident to early readers of Small is beautiful still seems painfully opaque to the world today. When the book was first published, many thought that change would come about through insight, logic, compassion, and reason. Increasingly, it seems that change will come about after we have exhausted every other theory of greed and gain, and the winds of change are no longer metaporical, but force five hurricanes destroying whole regions.
That the world should become so immune to its own losses seemed inconceivable 25 years ago. Now that we have re-learned how remarkably obtuse humankind can be when dazzled by monetary and material gain, we must shine the light all the brighter on the singularity and prescience of Schumacher's work and vision."

Paul Hawken, commenting Small is beautiful, by E. F. Schumacher, in the 2000 edition.

Although the link between hurricanes intensity and frequency and global warming is still controversial scientifically and the subject of active research, I find the parallel with the phrase "winds of change" quite appealing. And anyway there are many other threats posed by global warming that justify the above quote.

Living in a limited world

"An attitude to life which seeks fulfillment in the single-minded pursuit of wealth - in short, materialism - does not fit into this world, because it contains within itself no limiting principle, while the environment in which it is placed is strictly limited."

(E. F. Schumacher, Small is beautiful).

Need and greed

Ahhh, let's start to put quotations from a book I loved, Small is beautiful, by E. F. Schumacher.
But the first quotation is not from him, but from Mahatma Gandhi, according to Satish Kumar, commenting Schumacher's book in the 2000 edition:

"Mahatma Gandhi said there is enough in the world for everyone's need, but not enough for anyone's greed."

Beautiful !