Dr. E. F. Schumacher: Author of the Book Small is Beautiful

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We have willfully disregarded the laws of the universe—or the "Tao", as the ancient Chinese would say—and nature herself is now warning us in physical terms. She's warning us in the only language which modern men have ears to hear . . . yet "hearing they hear not, neither do they understand".

PLOWBOY: And, of course, we find this same message in the traditional teachings of mankind . . . especially our moral and religious teachings.

SCHUMACHER: Of course. In fact, in the Christian tradition, the doctrines of the Four Cardinal Virtues provide a marvelously subtle and realistic insight which is completely relevant and appropriate to the modern predicament in which we now find ourselves.

The Latin names of the Four Cardinal Virtues —prudentia, justitia, fortitudo, and temperantia —denote rather higher orders of human excellence than their English derivatives . . . but we can see at once that those derivatives are prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance.

It also should be apparent that if we had the prudentia to silence our selfish greed and envy, enough love of justitia to put ourselves into our proper place in the universe, and the fortitudo to be temperantia . . . that we wouldn't be in the fix in which we now find ourselves. Instead of increasing anguish, despair, brutality, and ugliness, we'd find ourselves surrounded by health, beauty, gentleness, and happiness.

PLOWBOY: Is there any other single religious teaching which sums up, for you, what our society's outlook on life should be?

SCHUMACHER: The great Christian saint Thomas Aquinas laid down what he called The Foundation. And it says:

Man was created to praise, reverence, and serve God our lord, and by this means to save his soul.

And the other things on the face of the earth were created for man's sake, and in order to aid him in the prosecution of the end for which he was created.

The Foundation, in the most precise logic, then goes on to say:

From whence it follows that man ought to make use of them just so far as they help him to attain his end.

And that he ought to withdraw himself from them just so far as they hinder him.

PLOWBOY: That sounds a great deal like what you've said in your book about a Buddhist economist: A Buddhist economist would feel that, "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."

SCHUMACHER: Exactly. The logic is impeccable in both cases. We of the modern materialistic world, who pride ourselves on our self-proclaimed "logic", would be much wiser if we applied this kind of logic to our everyday affairs. If we did, we'd first try to clarify what we want to achieve. Then we'd study the means at our disposal for accomplishing the task. And, finally, we'd use those means just so far as they helped us to attain our objective. And whenever it appeared that we were overdoing things, we'd withdraw from those means just so far as they hindered us.

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