Ivan Illich Forum

Ivan Illich

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Ivan Illich's 1970 "Deschooling Society."
You can read it on:
<http://philosophy.la.psu.edu/illich/deschool/intro.html>
This is not about schooling but about society. Society, according to Illich, is like schooling. We work under authoritarian hierarchies not for
present for satisfaction but for future gratification. All of life from
school to work it, for humans, a burden to lead to a pleasant future. This
is not the natural, nor the way most animals and other cultures live.

"Conviviality" is the word Illich uses. Conviviality is living in joyful
cooperation with what's all around us at all times. Schools should be
convivial, our technologies should be convivial, our life's work should be
convivial. If we joint enjoy what we are doing NOW, if we don't enjoy the
people we associate with NOW, we should change and do what we enjoy with
whom we enjoy. We should cooperate with Gaia (the Earth and all its life
forms) to create a convivial society.

Fortunately society at this moment in time is moving toward a convivial
society.

The EuroAmerican society is based on a long history of the developing
"Dominator Paradigm." It was inherent in the Adam and Eve Jewish creationg
myth that the Earth was created for the well-being of man (and I do mean
"man") Greek philosophy was centered on "man is the measure of all things."
The early Christian Church believed in the "chain of being." Man was made by
God and only a little below some celestial being. All else was a chaing obe
being. Women, children, other races, animals, plants, and earth were a
decending chain each lower link created to serve the one's above. This
"dominator paradigm" was spread by the sword (technology), the cross
(Christianity), and the flag (nationalism) to dominate the globe. Any
culture not accepting the dominator paradigm was wiped out. Moder society
in Adam Smith's theory of economics -- all decisions are made in each
individual's self-interest and lead by an "unseen hand" to the well being of
all. "The market" not is the arbiter of all that is good and holy.

Fortunately Chaos, Complexity and Gaian scientific theories are not showing
the falsity and evil of the "Dominator Paradigm." Science is showing us
that the world is not one of comnpeting atoms and individuals. It is one of
fields in cooperation. The cosmos is a holonistic unit. Each of us is a
holon (or system) composed of smaller holons (e.g. organs, cells, atoms),
embedded in larger holons (gaia, solar systems, stars, galaxies, cosmos).
The emerging "Gaian Paradigm" implies that we, all individual humans, are
one with Gaia (the earth and all its living parts). We are dependent on one
another. We "belong" to Gaia. "Belonging" means not only that we are parts
of Gaia but that we are responsible for Gaia. We are responsible for one
another. Gaia will continue to exist and support humans only through our
cooperation with the earth and with one another.

From out of the corporate/factory/industrial world based on the Dominator
Paradigm is emerging a cooperative/community/convivial world based on
knowledge and the Gaian Paradigm.

CoHousing, Local Exchange and Trading Systems (LETS), food co-ops, Community
Supported Agriculture (CSAs), Homeschool Support Groups, and many other
cooperative community social innovations are creating a new world. As
Ismael tells us this is only natural. It is a vision in which we can all
participate by creatig the social cells that will spontaneously
self-organize into a radically different social system.

>>By Bill Ellis (Saturday, 25 Jan 2003 19:20)

unfortunately i do not know a lot about him but i hope i will find out more

>>By iwnna (Saturday, 25 Jan 2003 19:20)

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