Ideas and Ideals

"It is no longer possible to believe that any political or economic reform, or scientific advance, or technological progress could solve the life-and-death problems of industrial society. They lie too deep in heart and soul of every one of us. It is there that the main work of reform has to be done—secretly, unobtrusively." —E. F. Schumacher

Yes, a lot of people in the 19th and early 20th centuries thought that "the Revolution" would solve all our problems; it's amazing to me how seriously thousands of people took what seems to me like utopian fantasy of the most bizarre sort. And that was silly. No matter how perfect the world, we will still struggle with our convoluted human souls. I would even say that our experience so far suggests that not having to struggle to survive is as much of a threat to happiness as a blessing, because we seem to need struggle so much that if we don't have it, we invent struggles inside ourselves.

But that doesn't mean that no political or social reform would do any good at all. We could make our world more just; we could moderate the harm we are doing to the planet. Those things might help many people find happiness; working toward them might help even more people find meaning. One thing you can learn by observing recent Russian history is that political cynicism on a massive scale is really, really bad for people.


John

The context in The Reinvention of Work is that we must do inside work before outside work can be effective, and I think that must be true. Also, all the technology and programs in the world can't solve fundamental problems like injustice and environmental degradation, that there are larger issues that must be addressed.

I can't prove this true, but I feel it . . .

I think he has some valid points, and it's interesting that most of them come from medieval mystics.