5 ms·

Ill with Want

• rektide 5y ago
  There's a lot going on in this article. And a lot that I like. The part about "deskilling", which is brief but a well put wrapping up of a lot of my own feelings: > In Illich’s view, modern institutions—including, for example, education, transportation, and medicine—had the (possibly unintended) consequence of deskilling the person and generating dependence on professionalized services. “Deskilling” is my word. Illich talked about a loss of competence and autonomy (always, though, in the service of mutual inter-dependence). We must come to believe that there is, in fact, very little that we can do for ourselves. And, not to spoil it, but the concluding reflection is just wonderful, introducing a word I am so delighted to have, a word that I think enought be one of tech's fortes, but which we are very far from in the world, eutrapelia: > But even more importantly, the apparent severity, from the perspective of consumerist assumptions, was, in fact, a pathway to the experience of life-giving community, environmental health, meaningful work, social solidarity, and personal well-being. The austerity he championed (following Thomas Aquinas not 21st century technocrats) is a precondition for friendship and joyfulness, and its end is eutrapelia, or graceful playfulness.