Faire autrement, voir autrement

Une citation trouvée ce matin sur le blogue de « Conference That Work » (merci à Chriss Corrigan pour le lien). Elle tirée d’un livre important pour mois. Probablement l’un de livre que j’ai relu le plus souvent…

E.F. Schumacher écrit dans  Small Is Beautiful: Economics As If People Mattered (1973) :

When comparing Buddhist economics with modern economics, Schumacher writes “The former, in short, tries to maximize human satisfactions by the optimal pattern of consumption, while the latter tries to maximize consumption by the optimal pattern of productive effort.”

Pour moi, ces écrits prennent de plus en plus de sens. Lorsque je les ai découverts en 1994, ils me paraissaient actuels.  Je les relis en 2010 est c’est encore plus vrai…  ;-)

Quelques autres citations (tirée de sa page sur Wikipedia) pour vous livrer l’essence de sa pensée :

• Man is small, and, therefore, small is beautiful.

• 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.

• It is clear, therefore, that Buddhist economics must be very different from the economics of modern materialism, since the Buddhist sees the essence of civilisation not in a multiplication of wants but in the purification of human character. Character, at the same time, is formed primarily by a man’s work. And work, properly conducted in conditions of human dignity and freedom, blesses those who do it and equally their products.

• 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.

• Wisdom demands a new orientation of science and technology towards the organic, the gentle, the non-violent, the elegant and beautiful.

• The way in which we experience and interpret the world obviously depends very much indeed on the kind of ideas that fill our minds. If they are mainly small, weak, superficial, and incoherent, life will appear insipid, uninteresting, petty, and chaotic.

À mettre sur votre liste de lecture pour 2010!

Voilà.  Bon début d’année!

p.

Related posts:

1. Philosopher l’organisation : Peter Koestenbaum
2. Optimism
3. Quelques notes et 12 principes
4. Un modèle d’affaires qui arrive au bout de sa course