The most transforming book to come across my desk the past months has been EF Shumacher’s Small is Beautiful. Whether you’ve heard of it or not you should drop $2.99 and get your hands on a used copy. Originally published in 1973 (during the emergency crisis and the early emergence of globalization) this series of essays helped spread Schumacher’s critique of western economic thought and practice. While reading it I couldn’t help but kick myself as he’s pretty much predicted the current zeitgeist. Some excerpts:
The most striking about modern industry is that it requires so much and accomplishes so little. Modern industry seems to be inefficient to a degree that surpasses one’s ordinary powers of imagination. Its inefficiency therefore remains unnoticed.
A Buddhist economist would consider this approach excessively irrational: since consumption is merely a means to human well-being, the aim should be to obtain the maximum of well-being with the minimum of consumption…. The less toil there is, the more time and strength is left for artistic creativity. Modern economics, on the other hand, considers consumption to be the sole end and purpose of all economic activity.
Wisdom demands a new orientation of science and technology towards the organic, the gentle, the non-violent, the elegant and beautiful.
Prior to Saturday’s Global-Local Waterfest we met with Scott Rumpsa (pictured above looking dapper) and his wife regarding Aqua Clara; a clean water organization set out to development impoverished regions in a non-crippling-kinda-way. With a focus on sustainability, appropriate technology, and local ownership I’ve gotta believe EF Shumacher would be grinning in his grave. They use indigenous tools, materials, labor and (most importantly) desire to build simple containers that filter (via layers of rock and sand) up to 40 liters of safe drinking water daily. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the whole unit costs around $8 US to construct on site. Brilliant and super accessible. We were honored to design and print some tees for them, and we’re also super excited about some things in the works. Until then, head over to their website and get your learn on.
Note: the top-right design above is a shout out to Experimental Jetset. Check out their site for some context.
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