Human Scale Revisited: A New Look at th... A source page for quotes linked to Kirkpatrick Sale. 0 quotes
“The concerns and methods vary, but there is to it all, at bottom, a message that is unmistakably Luddistic: beware the technological juggernaut, reckon the terrible costs, understand the worlds being lost in the world being gained, reflect on the price of the machine and its systems on your life, pay attention to the natural world and its increasing destruction, resist the seductive catastrophe of industrialism.” HistoryEconomics PhilosophyHistory Repeating ItselfIndustrialism Author:Kirkpatrick Sale
“That is the onslaught. It has been going on a long time, I argue, but in the 20th century humans have certainly perfected it, extending domination to every single corner of the earth and our Homo sapiens population to more than 6 billion - until no place is untouched by despoliation.” HumansLongHas BeensEarthCenturyLong TimePopulationCornersArguingBillions20th CenturyDominationHomo SapiensExtending Author:Kirkpatrick Sale
“That is certainly the point: when the human species was born, on the African savanna, life was pretty good; we could live in harmony with the rest of nature, and that's what I've been calling Eden. The only technologies that humans devised for some 2 million years were fire and the hand ax. That's all. Eden didn't need anything more” NeedsYearsHumansHandsBornMillionsTechnologyFireCallingHarmonySpeciesEdenHuman SpeciesSavanna Author:Kirkpatrick Sale
“And it was only when we invented the spear and began roaming the planet that technologies got complex and central to human survival.” HumansTechnologyPlanetsSurvivalComplexesSpearsRoaming Author:Kirkpatrick Sale
“My analysis, especially of the computer revolution, always comes back to capitalism. It's that economic system that has led to Western civilization's willingness to enslave ourselves to machines - because some people benefit enormously from it, while the costs are borne by other people and the planet.” PeopleEconomicPlanetsRevolutionCivilizationCostBenefitsComputerCapitalismMachinesWesternAnalysisWillingnessWestern CivilizationEconomic Systems Author:Kirkpatrick Sale
“Governments, existing primarily to protect and enhance capitalism, maintain their power through the use of technologies that control the populace - by bread or circuses, by war or schooling, by armies and police, all of which are enabled and empowered by technology. That is what we might call the stick part of capitalism, while the riches-for-the-few is the carrot.” WarUseGovernmentMightTechnologyProtectCapitalismArmyPoliceSticksRichesBreadEmpoweredCircusSchoolingCarrotsUse Of Technology Author:Kirkpatrick Sale
“I'm convinced that the catastrophes of the next two decades will be so vast as to bring about a world where life, if it survives, will be far simpler - and the technologies, too. Then we will have come full circle to something like life on the savanna.” IfsWorldTwoNextTechnologyConvincedDecadesCirclesCatastropheFull CircleSavanna Author:Kirkpatrick Sale
“It's from love and knowledge of nature that any sensible understanding must come. Technology is essentially antagonistic to nature - that in fact is why it's created, to do something to or with nature that wasn't there before, that wasn't natural.” FactsUnderstandingNaturalTechnologySensible Author:Kirkpatrick Sale
“So the technology that does the least alteration of nature, the least harm to other species and systems, and provides the greatest intimacy of human with nature, is the best. We could make a scale with that in mind, and judge any technology by its place on that scale: speech and eyeglasses, say, would rank low; nuclear bombs and coal plants, high.” MindHumansDoeTechnologyJudgingSpeechLowsPlantSpeciesHarmNuclearScalesIntimacyBombsCoalAlterationsNuclear BombEyeglasses Author:Kirkpatrick Sale
“When I speak of knowledge of nature, I do not mean industrial science, which argues that nature is inert and can be understood only to enable humans to manipulate it. I mean that sense of nature that Aldo Leopold had in mind when he said, "A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community, wrong when it tends otherwise.” MindHumansMeanSaidSpeakCommunityIntegrityUnderstoodArguingPreservesStabilityManipulate Author:Kirkpatrick Sale
“Everyone is shy - it is the inborn modesty that makes us able to live in harmony with other creatures and our fellows. Achievement comes not by denying shyness but, occasionally, by setting it aside and letting pride and perspiration come first.” InspirationalFirstsInspirationMotivationalAbleMotivationPrideCreaturesAchievementHarmonyFellowsSettingSettingsShyModestyShynessPerspiration Author:Kirkpatrick Sale
“The virtue of small government is that the mistakes are small as well...If you want to leave a nation you think is corrupt, inefficient, militaristic, oppressive, repressive, but you don't want to move to Canada or France, what do you do? Well, the way is through secession, where you could stay home and be where you want to be.” IfsThinkingWayWantWellsHomeGovernmentMovingNationsMistakeVirtueFranceCanadaSecessionSmall Government Author:Kirkpatrick Sale
“Economic and social misery increases in direct proportion to the size and power of the central government of a nation or state.” StatesGovernmentNationsSocialEconomicDirectIncreaseMiserySizeProportionCentral Government Book:Human Scale Revisited: A New Look at the Classic Case for a Decentralist Future Source: Human Scale Revisited: A New Look at the Classic Case for a Decentralist Future
