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We Can Only Live The Changes We Wish To See: We Cannot Think Our Way To Humanity. Every One Of Us, Every Group, Must Become The Model Of That Which We Desire To Create. We Must Break The Obsolete Social And Economic Systems That Divide The World Between The Over-privileged And The Under-privileged. Each Of Us, Whether Government Leader Or Protester, Business Executive Or Worker, Professor Or Student, Share A Common Guilt.

-Ivan Illich

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We Can Only Live

Ivan Illich

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We Can Only Live The Changes We Wish To See: We Cannot Think Our Way To Humanity. Every One Of Us, Every Group, Must Become The Model Of That Which We Desire To Create. We Must Break The Obsolete Social And Economic Systems That Divide The World Between The Over-privileged And The Under-privileged. Each Of Us, Whether Government Leader Or Protester, Business Executive Or Worker, Professor Or Student, Share A Common Guilt.

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The Public School Has Become The Established Church Of Secular Society.

Secular Society

The New Experience That Has Replaced Dignified Suffering Is Artificially Prolonged, Opaque, Depersonalized Maintenance.

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If You Want To Change Society Then You Must Tell An Alternative Story.

The Usdhew Calculates That 7% Of All Patients Suffer Compensable Injuries While Hospitalized .....one Out Of Every Five Patients Admitted To A Typical Research Hospital Acquires An Iatrogenic (caused By The Treatment Process) Disease, One Case In Thirty Leading To Death. Half Of These Episodes Result From Complications Of Drug Therapy; Amazingly, One In Ten Come From Diagnostic Procedures.

In A Consumer Society There Are Inevitably Two Kinds Of Slaves: The Prisoners Of Addiction And The Prisoners Of Envy.

I Believe That If Something Like A Political Life Is To Remain For Us In This World Of Technology, Then It Begins With Friendship. Therefore My Task Is To Cultivate Disciplined, Self-denying, Careful, Tasteful Friendships.

School Is The Advertising Agency Which Makes You Believe That You Need The Society As It Is.

School Is An Institution Built On The Axiom That Learning Is The Result Of Teaching. And Institutional Wisdom Continues To Accept This Axiom, Despite Overwhelming Evidence To The Contrary.

In Both Rich And Poor Nations Consumption Is Polarized While Expectation Is Equalized.

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We Have Failed...through Our Lack Of Responsible Awareness...and Thus Added To Suffering Around The World. All Of Us Are Cripples-some Physically, Some Mentally, Some Emotionally. We Must, Therefore, Strive Cooperatively To Create A New World. There Is No Time Left For Destruction, For Hatred, For Anger. We Must Build, In Hope And Joy And Celebration.

Schools Are Designed On The Assumption That There Is A Secret To Everything In Life; That The Quality Of Life Depends Upon Knowing That Secret; That Secrets Can Only Be Known In Orderly Successions; And That Only Teachers Can Properly Reveal These Secrets. An Individual With A Schooled Mind Conceives Of The World As A Pyramid Of Classified Packages Accessible Only To Those Who Carry The Proper Tags.

People Need New Tools To Work With Rather Than New Tools That Work For Them.

Observations Of The Sickening Effect Of Programmed Environments Show That People In Them Become Indolent, Impotent, Narcissistic And Apolitical. The Political Process Breaks Down, Because People Cease To Be Able To Govern Themselves; They Demand To Be Managed.

Effective Health Care Depends On Self-care; This Fact Is Currently Heralded As If It Were A Discovery.

The Compulsion To Do Good Is An Innate American Trait. Only North Americans Seem To Believe That They Always Should, May, And Actually Can Choose Somebody With Whom To Share Their Blessings. Ultimately This Attitude Leads To Bombing People Into The Acceptance Of Gifts.

School Prepares For The Alienating Institutionalization Of Life By Teaching The Need To Be Taught.

To Be Ignorant Or Unconvinced Of One's Own Needs Has Become The Unforgivable Anti-social Act. The Good Citizen Is One Who Imputes Standardized Needs To Himself With Such Conviction That He Drowns Out Any Desire For Alternatives, Much Less The Renunciation Of Need.

Societies In Which Most People Depend For Most Of Their Goods And Services On The Personal Whim, Kindness, Or Skill Of Another Are Called Underdeveloped, While Those In Which Living Has Been Transformed Into A Process Of Ordering From An All-encompassing Store Catalogue Are Called Advanced.

Modern Medicine Is A Negation Of Health. It Isn't Organised To Serve Human Health, But Only Itself, As An Institution. It Makes More People Sick Than It Heals.

The Medicalization Of Early Diagnosis Not Only Hampers And Discourages Preventative Health-care But It Also Trains The Patient-to-be To Function In The Meantime As An Acolyte To His Doctor. He Learns To Depend On The Physician In Sickness And In Health. He Turns Into A Life-long Patient.

School Prepares For The Alienating Institutionalization Of Life By Teaching The Need To Be Taught. Once This Lesson Is Learned, People Lose Their Incentive To Grow In Independence; They No Longer Find Relatedness Attractive, And Close Themselves Off To The Surprises Which Life Offers When It Is Not Predetermined By Institutional Definition.

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The Myth Of Unending Consumption Has Taken The Place Of The Belief In Life Everlasting.

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There Is No Greater Distance Than That Between A Man In Prayer And God

We Can Only Live Changes: We Cannot Think Our Way To Humanity. Every One Of Us, Every Group, Must Become The Model Of That Which We Desire To Create.

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Leadership Does Not Depend On Being Right.

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Economic Inequality

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Difficult Times

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The Medical Establishment Has Become The Major Threat To Health.

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Schools Teach The Need To Be Taught.

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To Deschool Means To Abolish The Power Of One Person To Oblige Another.

The Pupil Is ... 'schooled' To Confuse Teaching With Learning, Grade Advancement With Education, A Diploma With Competence, And Fluency With The Ability To Say Something New.

We Cannot Go Beyond The Consumer Society Unless We First Understand That Obligatory Public Schools Inevitably Reproduce Such A Society, No Matter What Is Taught In Them.

Losses Of A Kind Of Satisfaction That Have No Market Equivalent Don't Show Up In The Calculations Of Economists.

Carry A Candle In The Dark, Be A Candle In The Dark, Know That You're A Flame In The Dark.

Traditional Society Was More Like A Set Of Concentric Circles Of Meaningful Structures, While Modern Man Must Learn How To Find Meaning In Many Structures To Which He Is Only Marginally Related. In The Village, Language And Architecture And Religion And Work And Family Customs Were Consistent With One Another, Mutually Explanatory And Reinforcing. To Grow Into One Implied A Growth Into Others.

The State Shall Make No Law With Respect To The Establishment Of Education.

We Can Only Live The Changes We Wish To See: We Cannot Think Our Way To Humanity. Every One Of Us, Every Group, Must Become The Model Of That Which We Desire To Create. We Must Break The Obsolete Social And Economic Systems That Divide The World Between The Over-privileged And The Under-privileged. Each Of Us, Whether Government Leader Or Protester, Business Executive Or Worker, Professor Or Student, Share A Common Guilt.

In Schools, Including Universities, Most Resources Are Spent To Purchase The Time And Motivation Of A Limited Number Of People To Take Up Predetermined Problems In A Ritually Defined Setting. The Most Radical Alternative To School Would Be A Network Or Service Which Gave Each Man The Same Opportunity To Share His Current Concern With Others Motivated By The Same Concern.

The Goals Of Development Are Always And Everywhere Stated In Terms Of Consumer Value Packages Standardized Around The North Atlantic-and Therefore Always And Everywhere Imply More Privileges For A Few... Underdevelopment Is The Result Of A State Of Mind Common To Both Socialist And Capitalist Countries. Present Development Goals Are Neither Desirable Nor Reasonable. Unfortunately Antiimperialism Is No Antidote.

I Intend To Discuss Some Perplexing Issues Which Are Raised Once We Embrace The Hypothesis That Society Can Be Deschooled; To Search For Criteria Which May Help Us Distinguish Institutions Which Merit Development Because They Support Learning In A Deschooled Milieu; And To Clarify Those Personal Goals Which Would Foster The Advent Of An Age Of Leisure (schole) As Opposed To An Economy Dominated By Service Industries.

The Pupil's Imagination Is 'schooled' To Accept Service In Place Of Value. Medical Treatment Is Mistaken For Health Care, Social Work For The Improvement Of Community Life, Police Protection For Safety, Military Poise For National Security, The Rat Race For Productive Work.

Productive Work

The Future Depends More Upon Our Choice Of Institutions Which Support A Life Of Action Than On Our Developing New Ideologies And Technologies.

School Has Become The World Religion Of A Modernized Proletariat, And Makes Futile Promises Of Salvation To The Poor Of The Technological Age.

World Religions

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