Small is Beautiful
Well, it’s clear that production hasn’t been getting my full attention recently but several things have been simmering away in the back ground. I detoured from my central theme with a rereading of E.F. Schumacher’s Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered. On reflection, this was a helpful thing to do, because, as Schumacher himself points out, knowledge and research are useless if not dangerous when they fail to reflect their connection to the center of things. To quote him: “It is often asserted that education is breaking down because of over specialization. But this is only a partial and misleading diagnosis … What is at fault is not specialization, but the lack of depth with which the subjects are usually presented, and the absence of metaphysical awareness.”(1) This is, I feel, a useful reminder to bear in mind the reasons WHY I am interested in this issue and not to get wrapped up in inanities. I’m not sure that he’ll find his way into the text of my thesis but I feel strongly that he should be in my thoughts at the moment.
(1) Schumacher 1973, 86