Re: [ba-unrev-talk] virtual book club?
Ivan Illich and in particular 'Tools for Conviviality' was one of the major
streams of inspiration for the Community Memory project (1972-74), so it
has already had a karmic influence on the genesis of networked community
culture and learning. The ideas still seem fresh and apropos. (01)
At 09:30 AM 11/28/2001 -0800, Jack Park wrote:
[From Ivan Illich:]
>"Austerity," which says something about people, has also been degraded and
>has acquired a bitter taste, while for Aristotle or
>Aquinas it marked the foundation of friendship. In the Summa Theologica,
>II, II, in the 186th question, article 5, Thomas deals with disciplined
>and creative playfulness. In his third response he defines "austerity" as
>a virtue which does not exclude all enjoyments, but only those which are
>distracting from or destructive of personal relatedness. For Thomas
>"austerity" is a complementary part of a more embracing virtue, which he
>calls friendship or joyfulness. It is the fruit of an apprehension that
>things or tools could destroy rather than enhance eutrapelia (or graceful
>playfulness) in personal relations.* (02)
Wonderful! This points to a notion of personal discipline and culture that
would be well to cultivate as part of augmentation along a qualitative axis... (03)
There was a long interview with Ivan Illich on the Canadian CBC "Ideas"
program earlier this year. When he talks, every syllable is pregnant, with
enough space so you can feel the hermeneutics. (04)
Cheers,
Mark (05)