There is no greater distance than that between a man in prayer and God Ivan Illich More Quotes by Ivan Illich More Quotes From Ivan Illich I was recently told, 'You're a liar!' when I said to somebody I walked down the spine of the Andes. Every Spaniard in the sixteenth, seventeenth century did that. The idea that somebody could just walk! He can jog perhaps in the morning, but he can't walk anywhere! The world has become inaccessible because we drive there. Ivan Illich liarsmorningideas In both rich and poor nations consumption is polarized while expectation is equalized. Ivan Illich poor-nationsrichexpectations The new experience that has replaced dignified suffering is artificially prolonged, opaque, depersonalized maintenance. Ivan Illich maintenancenew-experiencessuffering Exporting Church employees to Latin America masks a universal and unconscious fear of a new Church. North and South American authorities, differently motivated but equally fearful, become accomplices in maintaining a clerical and irrelevant Church. Sacralizing employees and property, this Church becomes progressively more blind to the possibilities of Sacralizing person and community. Ivan Illich communitylatinamerica A low-energy policy allows for a wide choice of life-styles and cultures. If, on the other hand, a society opts for high energy consumption, its social relations must be dictated by technocracy and will be equally degrading whether labeled capitalist or socialist. Ivan Illich stylechoiceshands To deschool means to abolish the power of one person to oblige another. Ivan Illich power-of-onepersonsmean Current nationalism is merely the affirmation of the right of colonial elites to repeat historyand follow the road travelled by the rich toward the universal consumption of internationally marketed packages, a road which can ultimately lead only to universal pollution and universal frustration. Ivan Illich affirmationrichfrustration To hell with the future. It's a man-eating idol. Ivan Illich hellidolsmen Societies in which most people depend for most of their goods and services on the personal whim, kindness, or skill of another are called underdeveloped, while those in which living has been transformed into a process of ordering from an all-encompassing store catalogue are called advanced. Ivan Illich skillskindnesspeople If you want to change society then you must tell an alternative story. Ivan Illich alternativeschangestories The most important thing you learn at school is that learning only happens by being taught. Ivan Illich taughtimportantschool Culture makes pain tolerable by interpreting it's necessity; only pain perceived as curable is intolerable. Ivan Illich painsufferingculture Together we have come to realize that for most men the right to learn is curtailed by the obligation to attend school. Ivan Illich historicalmenschool Modern medicine is a negation of health. It isn't organized to serve human health, but only itself, as an institution. It makes more people sick than it heals. Ivan Illich medicalsickhealthpeople So persuasive is the power of the institutions we have created that they shape not only our preferences but actually our sense of possibilities. Ivan Illich sensepossibilitiesonlypower Once the Third World has become a mass market for the goods, products, and processes which are designed by the rich for themselves, the discrepancy between demand for these Western artifacts and the supply will increase indefinitely. Ivan Illich becomewillrichworld We have become unable to think of better education except in terms of more complex schools and of teachers trained for ever longer periods. Ivan Illich teachersbetterthinkeducation Huge institutions producing costly services dominate the horizons of our inventiveness. Ivan Illich horizonsdominateourinstitutions Tools can rule men sooner than they expect; the plow makes man the lord of the garden but also the refugee from the dust bowl. Ivan Illich mangardentoolsmen The telephone lets anybody say what he wants to the person of his choice; he can conduct business, express love, or pick a quarrel. It is impossible for bureaucrats to define what people say to each other on the phone, even though they can interfere with - or protect - the privacy of their exchange. Ivan Illich businessimpossiblelovepeople
