Wendell Berry wrote an article for this months
Orion Magazine that was interesting.
He listed eight steps for improving the world
and discussed some of Schumackers ideas. here
is a summary:
Science can function as a religion only by
making the unscientific claims: that it will
eventually know everything, and that it will
eventually solve all the human problems.
-- Wendell Berry
Ideas to improve the world
--------------------------
1. Replace the economic hierarchy that is
developing with structures scaled to
fit human activities. Family, community,
stewardship, all scaled to fit individuals.
2. Modify language which calls life a machine.
Machines are to be used.
3. Accept that science can never build perfect humans
and we need to deal with chaos and imperfection.
4. Give up ideas of frontier and its quest for
greed, cunning, and violence. Our goal should
be homecoming not conquest.
5. Develop a way to evaluate technology and
recognize progress and oppose destructive
technology
6. Increase our intolerance for the increasing
ugliness in the world. Start to focus on
a positive future, not on endless spirals
of competition, greed, and violence.
7. Recognize and change the bias in language
which groups and categories in ways that
feed domination and inaccurate thinking.
Words like WILD, FREEDOM, RIGHTS, and
NATURE need to be inspected.
8. Value the familiar more and innovation less.
We are a culture in love with quick solutions
that breed bigger problems that need a quicker
solution.
