E. F. Schumacher, "SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL: Economics as if People Mattered"

"Man is small, and, therefore, small is beautiful."

"Small Is Beautiful" looks deeply into current economics and large-scale development, focusing on the deterioration and wholesale waste of human and ecological resources that it causes. According to Schumacher, developed countries are driven by a materialistic cycle of limitless greed and unquenchable envy. The inevitable result is alienation, urban decay, empty rural lands, stagnant masses of poor people, and ecological devastation. In order to address these modern problems, Schumacher seeks practical solutions via metaphysical, Buddhist, Christian, and Gandhian principles. He unfolds a qualitative and humane economic point of view that defies current quantitative economic theories based solely on mass production and consumption. His ideas and solutions are both inspiring and practical. Schumacher focuses on the real need to "reconstruct rural culture," promote education that envelopes metaphysics into its curriculum and seeks to clarify our "central convictions," sustain our natural resources, aid developing countries with intermediate technologies to increase local self reliance, and balance small scale freedom in organizations with large scale orderliness. Summarily speaking, this work is about shifting our current economic "emphasis from goods to people," making "peace and permanence" a realizable goal for the future.

Citation Information:
Schumacher, E. F. (1975). Small is beautiful: Economics as if people mattered. New York: Harper & Row.

Links:
E.F. Schumacher Foundation
Practical Action (formerly the Intermediate Technology Development Group)

See Also:
Schumacher, E. F. (1979). Good work. New York: Harper & Row.

Dorothy Day, "Loaves and Fishes"

"We were trying to overcome hatred with love, to understand the forces that made men what they are, to learn something of their backgrounds, their education to change them, if possible, from lions into lambs. It was a practice in loving, a learning to love, a paying of the cost of love."

"Loaves and Fishes" is Dorothy Day's account of the origins and growth of the Catholic Worker; a movement, a way of life, and a radical newspaper which she helped found along with Peter Maurin, whose ideologies, teachings, and livelihood she recounts as integral to the Workers' inspiration. The community, or rather the "slipshod group of individuals" as Day described the Workers to a future associate, came together for various individual reasons but stayed together to bring works of mercy to all of those in need. Some would stay for only a short period of time, while others would stay for the duration of their lives, all of whom were given the opportunity to commit their lives to a cause greater than themselves and be surrounded by a community full of faith and love. Day recounts myriad stories from hospitality houses and communal farms in New York, time spent prison for her public refusal to participate in mandatory air raid drills, and her day to day experiences with fellow Workers, patrons, poets, and priests. This work is a document, told in the most humble of voices, of voluntary poverty, pacifism, and endless love for her fellow man, founded in an unshakable faith.

Citation Information:
Day, D. (1997). Loaves and fishes. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books.

Links:
The Catholic Worker

See Also:
Day, D. (1981). The long loneliness: The autobiography of Dorothy Day. San Francisco: Harper & Row.

Day, D., & Sicius, F. J. (2004). Peter Maurin: Apostle to the world. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books.

Howard Zinn, "Howard Zinn on War"

"It seems that once an initial judgment has been made that a war is just, there is a tendency to stop thinking, to assume then that everything done on behalf of victory is morally acceptable."

Howard Zinn, an historian, WWII Veteran, and anti-war activist, compiles writings dealing with war and other humanitarian atrocities throughout our violent history. Through historical research and analysis with a personal perspective keen on uncovering the atrocities of war and violence, the audience is able to look back at history in a different light. One is able to see war without the propaganda and rhetorical justifications that allow us to accept the wholesale killing and destruction of peoples and lands for the greed and profit of those who seek or wish to maintain their power. Some of the more moving moments are when the reader is taken from the perspective of the aggressors into that of the victims, as is the case in his analysis of the bombing of Royan, a catastrophic incident in which Howard Zinn was a bombardier. After reading this brutally revealing collection of essays, one can't help but be moved, perhaps with anger, perhaps with sorrow, hopefully with an urgent sense that war is not a necessary means for all ends.

Citation Information:
Zinn, H. (2001). Howard Zinn on war. New York: Seven Stories Press.

Links:
HowardZinn.org

See Also:
Zinn, H. (1980). A people's history of the United States. New York: Harper & Row.

Zinn, H. (1997). The Zinn reader: Writings on disobedience and democracy. New York: Seven Stories Press.