File spoon-archives/anarchy-list.archive/anarchy-list_2000/anarchy-list.0002, message 184


Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2000 11:11:42 +1000
From: "Jeremy Dixon" <jeremydixon-AT-eudoramail.com>
Subject: Re: Ivan Illich?





On Wed, 09 Feb 2000 03:51:53   Sandi & Scott Spaeth wrote:
>Anybody ever heard of this guy?  

Yeah, met him briefly when he came to Melbourne in late 70s, did public meeting at local Uni and stayed till 3am odd arguing with people and kicking over ideas.

Which was good for me because I'd always found his prose boring and impenetrable but as a speaker and debater he was lucid & funny.

His main thing that night was the medical profession which he was pretty much against.

It seemed to me that his anti-technology stuff was overblown; I hate to think what he says about the Net if he's still alive. He didn't want to use a microphone for the large audience section of the public meeting, he reckoned that the hard of hearing ought to sit in front. The existence of the microphone pressured him to use it and thus reduced his freedom.

He was big on limits, trying to violate natural limits tended to defeat its purpose. For example trying to abolish pain and death past a certain point made life unworth living. Or, trying to travel too fast frustrated the ends of travel. Outside of a circus, he reckoned, there was no place for a vehicle travelling more than ten miles per hour. (The exact level of the limit is less important than the calim that there should be a limit).

And so on.

An interesting fellow; to be taken, of course, with a grain of salt like everyone. The revolutionaries in the audience tired to draw him on means, but he steadfstly refused to bite on that one.

-Jeremy






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