It’s just come to me that we could boil down Ivan Illich’s message to this one principle.
Nothing that requires people to sacrifice their capacities to live their own lives is worth the cost. There is no way to justify coercion for “the greater good” without forcing the continuation of violent hierarchy as we see in all of our current concepts and systems of “governance.”
The consequences are beyond sobering.
If we seek to respect this truth we can’t help but recognize that aside from the proverbial un-contacted tribe none of us can claim to live by this principle. What goes under the rubric of “the grid” is all based on forcing most people to participate in a system of generalized oppression.
Not only is it no wonder that there is no political “Will” for substantive changes; but few, if any of us, are willing to look at this at all closely. To do so is to call our own lives into question on so many levels and with such apparent totality that we almost instinctively recoil. No wonder that so many turn to The Big Lie….
The Enormity of our predicament goes so much deeper than we are willing to admit.
Illich had a profound effect on me at a young age. Not directly, but my alternative program teacher worked with him in translating his books. You could say Deschooling Society was the theme music for my deprogramming
Would love to hear more if you decide to expand on this essay.