Small Is Still Beautiful (A Fresh Look At Small Is Beautiful)
Joseph Pearce, Harper Collins, £15.99 (UK)
A quarter of a century ago EF Schumacher warned that rampant consumerism would cause the end of the world. Schumacher, an economist and adviser to third-world governments, broke ranks with his peers to predict calamity if consumerism and expansionism were not reined in by human and environmental considerations.
Were these the wise words of a prophet or the rantings of a crank unable to deal with reality?
Joseph Pearce revisits Schumacher's book to make the point that his message is more timely than ever - if structures become too big they become unresponsive to human needs.
Schumacher told an anecdote about meeting an economist from an Iron Curtain state during the Cold War who said "the West is like an express train hurtling ever faster towards the abyss ... But we shall overtake them"!
Pearce argues that economics has attained almost pseudo-religious status, with conformity essential and heresy shunned - an interesting point in an all-capitalist world with globalisation accelerating.
Pearce points to the success of the micro-breweries doing battle with multinational titans as evidence of a new economic model. He says the benefits of organic farming are without question and highlights the work of the National Federation of City Farms in Britain.
Pearce stresses that small is beautiful in politics too. His railing against the expansion of the EU serves to remind us that not all British suspicion about Europe comes from the wilder shores of the Conservative Party.
He refers to Soviet dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn's admiration of the canton system in Switzerland as an example of real democracy in practice. This is in opposition to the macro-democracy envisaged by EU president Romano Prodi.
The enlarged union of 30 states will have a population of half a billion, twice as many as the US, governed in practice by an unelected Commission with even greater powers. Many opponents of the Nice Treaty would undoubtedly agree with Pearce's euro-scepticism.
The book raises many questions about our economic order. Its relevance is borne out by the strength of feeling demonstrated against G8 summits such as Genoa and, equally, the determination of President Bush to press ahead with growth at the expense of the environment.
Pearce's commentary is unusual for looking at the big picture and for daring to suggest that we ask ourselves where we are going. If it raises more questions than it answers it is still an elegant contribution to the anti-globalisation argument, often dominated by extremists and sidetracked by violence. Small Is Still Beautiful ends with the words of Schumacher: "modern human beings are now far too clever to be able to survive without wisdom".
jmulqueen@irish-times.ie
