Farasha, I enjoy reading your chapters very much. Great, great passion.
A few disconnected remarks, off the top of my head. I'm currently writing about E. F. Schumacher, who shared some influences with you. Guénon, Schuon and Coomaraswamy were very important to him. On the technology question, he couldn't go with them completely, but his 'intermediate technology' idea was an attempted compromise between their idealistic position and the pressing need to improve the conditions of traditional communities under siege from modern development. If you're interested, on the metaphysical front, you'll find a good synopsis of Sch's position in the epilogue to his A Guide for the Perplexed.
You write about establishing communities in retreat from the modern world. Gandhi's ashram provided a model of this kind, no? Gandhi, via Coomaraswamy, Joseph Kumarappa and Richard Gregg, was important for Schumacher.
Finally, reading you on modern medicine, I'm reminded of the great Illich, whom you've surely read. Also, Jacques Ellul's The Technological Society presents the workings of 'la technique' in great detail, in a way that appears to me to complement Lawrence's account of the 'machine'. Elsewhere in his work, Ellul's response was, like that of several of those mentioned above, a religious/metaphysical one: prayer, fasting, contemplation and great scepticism when it came to embracing, not just technology, but the modern mindset.
I could go on, but that's enough for the moment. Thanks to you, I'm reading Sherrard. Keep up your good work.
Farasha, I enjoy reading your chapters very much. Great, great passion.
A few disconnected remarks, off the top of my head. I'm currently writing about E. F. Schumacher, who shared some influences with you. Guénon, Schuon and Coomaraswamy were very important to him. On the technology question, he couldn't go with them completely, but his 'intermediate technology' idea was an attempted compromise between their idealistic position and the pressing need to improve the conditions of traditional communities under siege from modern development. If you're interested, on the metaphysical front, you'll find a good synopsis of Sch's position in the epilogue to his A Guide for the Perplexed.
You write about establishing communities in retreat from the modern world. Gandhi's ashram provided a model of this kind, no? Gandhi, via Coomaraswamy, Joseph Kumarappa and Richard Gregg, was important for Schumacher.
Finally, reading you on modern medicine, I'm reminded of the great Illich, whom you've surely read. Also, Jacques Ellul's The Technological Society presents the workings of 'la technique' in great detail, in a way that appears to me to complement Lawrence's account of the 'machine'. Elsewhere in his work, Ellul's response was, like that of several of those mentioned above, a religious/metaphysical one: prayer, fasting, contemplation and great scepticism when it came to embracing, not just technology, but the modern mindset.
I could go on, but that's enough for the moment. Thanks to you, I'm reading Sherrard. Keep up your good work.