| Ivan Illich,
writing here on the elusive concept of needs, says the post-second world
war generation witnessed "a change of state in human nature from common
to needy man". Interpreting the concept of needs as an instrument of control
by people who define them, Illich argues that in traditional societies
"life is predicated on the recognition of limits that could not be transgressed,
and each culture was the historical expression of a unique celebration
of life within an art of suffering that made
it possible to celebrate necessities."
Guardian Weekly, July 26 1992, p.29 |