TOOLS FOR CONVIVIALITY

by Ivan Illich ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 18, 1973

In this broad rehash of his previous writings, Illich says that what's wrong with the poor of the world is their envy of the rich, and what's wrong with the advanced sector could be cured if people would only travel at bicycle speed, practice birth control, die at home, and, in between, work with ""convivial"" hand tools, Illich frankly admits he chose the term ""conviviality"" for this neoprimitive mode of production because ""austerity"" would be resisted. Some readers may take the book as merely a Bauhausian prescription for individual artisanship by a cozy minority, but Illich makes it clear that he is talking about drastic cuts in goods and services for everyone, an end to ""the production-oriented society""; and even the most artsy-craftsy anti-industrialists will blink when he goes on about how the pyramids were built without the aid of advanced technology. Illich continues his Deschooling Society outbursts against compulsory education with a concern for the stigmatized dropout equalled only by his denial of the value of civilized self-realization for young people. The interesting thing about this latest book is its open affirmation of the heretofore discarded tradition of anti-capitalist reactionary thought, with a minimum of gestures toward the contemporary radicals whom Illich, an intimate of Cardinal Spellman, has attracted in the past through his rhetoric of anti-intellectualism and participatory politics. In the context of the economic depression and social breakdown Illich predicts that his brand of reaction can, of course, become truly radical -- as the Times Literary Supplement has pointed out, his perspective is quite compatible with fascism. Illich's concept of ""joyful renunciation"" presently lacks a mass movement to give it ""joy""; but though he writes unseductively, often muddily, and certainly not demagogically, he will doubtless continue to fertilize less aloof back-to-the-loom advocates.

Pub Date: April 18, 1973

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1973

Categories: NONFICTION