This Day in History: 1926-09-04

Ivan Illich is born on this day in 1926. The Austrian philosopher and former Catholic priest was author of a dozen books, including his first prominent work, 1971  Deschooling Society, in which  Illich argued that we need convivial tools as opposed to machines.  Three years later, Illich wrote Energy and Equity, arguing that we were looking at the “energy crisis” through the wrong end of the human experience.  Rather than creating more and more energy, Illich argued for energy conservation and a ceiling on energy use. This is, he said, “the only strategy by which a political process can be used to set limits on the power of even the most motorized bureaucrat. Participatory democracy postulates low-energy technology. Only participatory democracy creates the conditions for rational technology.”  He also noted: “Past a certain threshold of energy consumption, the transportation industry dictates the configuration of social space.”