Like so many of my books, I must have given my copy of E. F. Schumacher’s Small is Beautiful away. I say so because I went looking for it last week and could not find it.
I had been turning through pages of old journals and come across an entry written soon after a first reading of Small is Beautiful and being excited by Schumacher’s Buddhist economics. I was lead to the work through an interview with Then California Governor Jerry Brown who was also a candidate for President. Brown was offering some new ideas, many which he credited Schumacher with having originated.
In rereading that 26-year old journal entry, I believe the time is right for a rereading of Schumacher. That’s why I went looking for my copy, but guess I’ll just have to buy a new one. Perhaps the nation’s rush to be green will have economists taking a fresh look at new routes and innovative solutions and recognize the value of economy of scale and appropriate technology, ideologies purported by Schumacher as a way toward a sustainable world.
And not only sustainable because of methods of production are matched to the means and needs of those who will benefit from the materials produced, but perhaps a waning of new colonialism. Sustainable economies could lead to a more peaceful world. Resources spent on the taking of another’s resources could be applied to their primary end and not just a means to an end.
Perhaps whoever received my copy has embraced Schumacher far beyond me and is on the front lines of change. Perhaps.
[From Buddhist Economicsby E. F. Schumacher]
Simplicity and non-violence are obviously closely related. The optimal pattern of consumption, producing a high degree of human satisfaction by means of a relatively low rate of consumption, allows people to live without great pressure and strain and to fulfill the primary injunction of Buddhist teaching: “Cease to do evil; try to do good.” As physical resources are everywhere limited, people satisfying their needs by means of a modest use of resources are obviously less likely to be at each other’s throats than people depending upon a high rate of use. Equally, people who live in highly self-sufficient local communities are less likely to get involved in large-scale violence than people whose existence depends on world-wide systems of trade.