My favorite living tech critic has a newsletter, The Convivial Society[1], based on the title of this book and Ellul’s The Technological Society. Highly recommend it for people who want serious philosophical context to current events.
An interesting coincidence, because right now I'm reading Anti-Oedipus, where Deleuze & Guattari argue against (nowadays ubiquitous) neurotic dependency on professionals, against capitalist society based on segregation with exclusion, and in favor of reversing the relationship between man and its machines -- they call this process of reversal "desiring-revolution" and IIRC explicitly mention Illich's concept of "deschooling" as one of the inspirations.
The book itself is hard as nails to read, and at times either reeks with militaristic tones (from Guattari) or derails into fart jokes over psychoanalysis, but, all in all, is a very, very worthwhile and inspiring read (esp. then authors peruse concepts from dynamic systems theory, cybernetics and biology). I hope to finish it ASAP and move on to Thousand Plateaus, which, according to some comments, is a more thought-out and balanced (i.e. pure 50/50 hybrid between Deleuze and Guattari, instead of Guattari interspersed with Deleuze) version of Anti-Oedipus.
Maybe some of you will find this reference useful.
Upvoted for Ivan Illich. He was on the cover of a 1993 issue of the Coevolution Quarterly and was a minor celebrity for a while. One of the deepest thinkers we've ever had.
Yes, it looks like the author had a follow up column to Illich's essay. That's very interesting. Thanks for sharing this.
I attended the Whole Earth 50th anniversary at Fort Mason a couple years ago, and noticed that Illich's name, and those of others like Ken Kesey and John Perry Barlow were mentioned on an 'In Memoriam' plaque for the event. It's interesting to think that he had an equally profound impact on this group of people, who have shaped so much of our culture. His work is always worth another look.
One essay of his that I come back to more than any other is 'To Hell With Good Intentions'. The great man delivered this speech to a group of wide eyed college students who were about to go to Mexico for an aid program and just took a big crap on them. I wish I had been there. I used to share it with friends before they went on vacation.
He was a chemist/crystallographer, and a deeply spiritual Catholic who advocated for the rights of nuns to kill themselves, and a very tactical anarchist. Rest In Peace!
