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

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Any intelligent fool can use large enough means to solve a problem after he has blundered into creating it in the first.place. But this approach to life has turned even our medicine—with its radiation treatments and chemical therapy and other "breakthroughs"—into a thing of violence.

A clever chap has asked, "If one of our ancestors visited us today, what would he find more astonishing: the skill of our dentists . . . or the rottenness of our teeth?" Instead of solving this very personal problem in the gentle way with proper diet and other good habits, you see, we choose to live with ever-more rotten teeth and the greater and greater skill of our dentists. We even pride ourselves on this decision.

But the world doesn't need for us to develop greater skill in the handling of problems that our heedlessness has created in the first place. The world would be much better off if we'd just develop the use of TLC—tender loving care—in everything we do.

PLOWBOY: Agreed. But let's be very practical for a moment. The changes you're talking about would—if implemented—completely stand our society on its head. Do you really think it worthwhile to do that?

SCHUMACHER: Well, first of all, I am not suggesting that we stand society on its head. That would be violent in itself. I'm talking about turning our thinking around gently, bit by bit, bit by bit . . . until one day we wake up and say, "Goodness. Look how satisfying and fulfilling life has become. How did we ever survive that period when we thought we needed so much?"

And yes, of course, I think that such a change is worthwhile. As I said a few minutes ago, we have now become so rich that we no longer seem able to afford to do any of the really humanly satisfying things in life. We're no longer even able to develop a meaningful culture. I'd like to see that change.

Think about it for a minute and you'll realize that what we now call "culture" is really no more permanent than the throwaway beer can. We simply do not build things like the Taj Mahal or the cathedrals of Europe anymore. We can't afford them.

I had the privilege of going to Florence recently, and there I saw a magnificent cathedral. And opposite this fantastic building was a statue of Arronulfo, the architect. And on the statue's pedestal was an inscription which said, "This is Arronulfo, who—instructed by the municipality of Florence to build a cathedral of such splendor that no human genius can ever surpass it—on account of the splendid endowment of his mind, proved equal to this gigantic task."

Now this was not the Medicis who instructed Arronulfo. This was the Republic of Florence, in a pre-industrial age, when the whole gross national product of Italy was only a tiny fraction of what it is now. This was also before electricity and steel and cement. This was before any of the commonly accepted resources of our modern world. Yet Arronulfo proved equal to the task.

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