“Capitalism has brought about the emancipation of collective humanity with respect to nature. But this collective humanity has itself taken on with respect to the individual the oppressive function formerly exercised by nature.” HumanityIndividualTakenCapitalismFunctionCollectivesEmancipation Book:Gravity and Grace Source: Gravity and Grace
“In the name of economy a thousand wasteful devices would be invented; and in the name of efficiency new forms of mechanical time-wasting would be devised: both processes gained speed through the nineteenth century and have come close to the limit of extravagant futility in our own time. But labor-saving devices could only achieve their end-that of freeing mankind for higher functions-if the standard of living remained stable. The dogma of increasing wants nullified every real economy and set the community in a collective squirrel-cage.” IfsWantRealEndsWould BeFormNamesProcessCommunityEconomyAchieveMankindCenturyHigherThousandLimitsStandardsLaborFunctionSpeedSavingCollectivesDevicesWasting TimeStableDogmaEfficiencyConsumerismCagesNineteenth CenturyFutilityOverconsumptionExtravagantStandards Of LivingSquirrels Author:Lewis Mumford
“I think our collective psychosis is hilarious. With the world moving as fast as it is, if we weren't dysfunctional, we couldn't function.” IfsThinkingWorldMovingFunctionCollectivesPsychosis Author:Christopher Titus
“The ideal of a perfectly functioning democracy is one person, one vote; the ideal of a perfectly functioning market is one dollar, one vote.It's a hoary superstition that democratically elected governments invariably function as instruments of the collective will.A society in which consumption has to be artificially stimulated in order to keep production going is a society founded on trash and waste.” PersonsGovernmentOrderDemocracyWasteCapitalismIdealsVoteFunctionInstrumentsDollarsProductionsCollectivesSuperstitionsConsumptionTrash Author:Dorothy L. Sayers
“We seem to have lost contact with the earlier, more profound functions of art, which have always had to do with personal and collective empowerment, personal growth, communion with this world, and the search for what lies beneath and above this world.” WorldArtSeemsLyingLostGrowthBeautyDesignThis WorldEmpowermentFunctionPersonal GrowthProfoundContactCollectivesCommunion Book:No More Secondhand Art Source: No More Secondhand Art