Labors of Love – The work of Ivan Illich can provide an antidote to fears about automation

«A cogent essay by Jackie Brown and Philippe Mesly, written out of a deep and thorough understanding of Illich’s work. It draws on Ivan Illich: An Intellectual Journey. The essay takes up scarcity, the vernacular and what Illich called “the right to useful unemployment” David Cayley: IVAN ILLICH – AN INTELLECTUAL JOURNEY, INTERVIEWS + REVIEWS

Excerpt:

«While Marxism stresses the redistribution of ownership of the means of production, Illich is critical of proposals that allow the market to retain its position of privilege in everyday life. Rather, he insists that “excessive forms of wealth and prolonged formal employment, no matter how well-distributed, destroy the social, cultural, and environmental conditions for equal productive freedom.” Recently, for example, the trial of a four-day work week in Iceland appeared to have positive outcomes, including increased family time. But in the major English-language report analyzing data from the trial, success is also framed in terms of economic gains, celebrating the fact that shorter working hours can lead to greater productivity. We still live in what Illich calls “an age of commodity-defined needs,” and our mentality around “leisure time” continues to be defined by consumption. On the other end of the political spectrum, while Illich’s emphasis on individual autonomy may appear to align with the libertarian opposition to regulation and central planning, there is a fundamental difference: Libertarians associate freedom with the free market; Illich insists that it does not lie in the market at all, but in domains of human activity that can be sustained outside the commodified realm of economic relations.

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While the concept of scarcity is predicated on the concept of limitlessness — endless wants interpreted as needs — Illich understood that freedom requires limits. It is only by curtailing runaway economic and technological development that the vernacular can survive.» https://reallifemag.com/syllab[...]rnet-labors-of-love/