EF Schumacher on the megapolis

NO FUTURE FOR MEGAPOLIS
by E.F. Schumacher

Fortunately someone else has already made this text available on-line, so I don't have to transcribe it from the compilation, This I Believe, and Other Essays. However I think I may eventually have to transcribe one of his other essays, as the book is unfortunately out of print. His Small is Beautiful remains in print, and so is A Guide for the Perplexed.

The concern with scale and size of a political community is not new--Aristotle addresses it in his Politics. A updated account answering contemporary objections needs to be written, with attention given to the development of the modern nation-state, including economic shifts--the decay of the guilds, and changes in production and agriculture, as well as the introduction of a new land-owning class separate from the 'traditional' nobility, and the rise of merchants and the modern corporation. (And of course, the risk of banks and central banking...)

Once the beginnings are understood, then the transition from an agriculture-dominant economy to an industrialized economy can be better understood; an analysis of the causes of migration to the cities, and the growth of cities and their economic development, can follow.

Shikshantar appears to be an organization that I would be sympathetic with, to a point. Where I would raise doubts would be in the area of morals/religion/spirituality. Still, if the people there are of good will, cooperating and exchanging information with them might be a good idea.

Now it may be the case that for individuals and families the private benefits of living in a megapolis outweight the private disadvantages.(What is the opposite of benefit? Malefit? I suppose "evil" is the standard word.) Nonetheless, it is virtually impossible that they participate in a true political community and co-order [coordinate] their activities accordingly. (A parish or something similar is a separate community in itself, but even it must be rooted in the larger political community in a certain respect, even if its common good transcends that of the political community.)

Perhaps for most the best that can be achieved is to exercise charity to those who are near them, and rediscover the meaning of neighbor, and to foster whatever associations they can make with other members of the community.

E. F. Schumacher Society