But this does not mean that the transition from our present to a convivial mode of production can be accomplished without serious threats to the surv… - Ivan Illich

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But this does not mean that the transition from our present to a convivial mode of production can be accomplished without
serious threats to the survival of many people. At present the relationship between people and their tools is suicidally
distorted. The survival of Pakistanis depends on Canadian grain, and the survival of New Yorkers on world-wide exploitation
of natural resources. The birth pangs of a convivial world society will inevitably be violently painful for hungry Indians and
for helpless New Yorkers. I will later argue that the transition from the present mode of production, which is
Overwhelmingly industrial, toward conviviality may start suddenly. But for the sake of the survival of many people it will be
Tools for Conviviality
Page 7 Document developed using Purpledesirable that the transition does not happen all at once. I argue that survival in justice is possible only at the cost of those
sacrifices implicit in the adoption of a convivial mode of production and the universal renunciation of unlimited progeny,
affluence, and power on the part of both individuals and groups. This price cannot be extorted by some despotic Leviathan,
nor elicited by social engineering. People will rediscover the value of joyful sobriety and liberating austerity only if they
relearn to depend on each other rather than on energy slaves. The price for a convivial society will be paid only as the result
of a political process which reflects and promotes the society-wide inversion of present industrial consciousness. This
political process will find its concrete expression not in some taboo, but in a series of temporary agreements on one or the
other concrete limitation of means, constantly adjusted under the pressure of conflicting insights and interests.