| 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 |