Customer Reviews

Energy & Equity (Open Forum S.)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Ivan Illich studied theology and philosophy in Rome, and earned a PhD in history in Salzburg. His career was one of political activism as a philosopher, writer, and a Catholic. He spent most of his life in the United States and Mexico, where he founded a center in Cuernavaca.

Like much of Illich's writing, Energy and Equity is startlingly radical, so much so that it can be difficult to absorb.

The book's central theme is that the real "energy crisis" consists of having too much, not too little, energy. He claims that both the United States and Mexico are "blinded to the fact that the threat of social breakdown is due neither to a shortage of fuel, nor to the wasteful, polluting and irrational use of available wattage, but to the attempt of industries to gorge society with energy quanta that inevitably degrade, deprive and frustrate most people."

The voluntary simplicity movement represents a similar point of view, but the stark intellectual language employed by Illich fills a different role--one of intense mental aggression. In that way, his writing is refreshing, and may please the reader who likes to be challenged.