E. F Harvey Small Is Beautiful

In his piece Small is Beautiful, E.F. Schumacher argues that modern technology is alienating humanity from its environment and worsening the energy crisis. As such Schumacher sees the solution to be a system of small communities created by not only creating a population cap on cities, and also by recognizing that modern technology has altered the environmental world, hurting humanity and nature alike. He prescribed the elimination of modern transportation as a means to deter the efficiency of urbanization. Although a drastic, and highly impractical, remedy to relieve harm on the environment, removing modern transportation from the equation would seem to benefit the environment. Admittedly, Schumacher’s argument is, to say the least, extreme. Although his position on reducing mobility for the sake of the environment is viable, his argument is not without faults. Schumacher imagined a world where the population

As technology continues to advance, the world becomes smaller. The problem, as least for Schumacher, is that growing technology leads to growing cities. Transportation is easy and fast, and modern technology and modern transportation will only continue to grow. This, for Schumacher, feeds into the idolatry of gigantism. Humanity essentially worships that which is large and is drawn towards it.

Schumacher, however, found irony in humanity’s need for growth and scale. He recognized a pattern in that, despite a desperation towards bigness, humanity naturally creates smaller communities within a larger federation (Schumacher 60). This pattern, this trend for mankind to find a smaller community within a larger one indicated to Schumacher that humanity can revolt against the inhuman technological, organizational, and political patterns. Thus, the elimination of modern transport would not only reaffirm mankind’s innate desire to form smaller communities, but incentivize its