My Five Favorite Thinkers Of The 20th Century

Caribou,

Ivan Illich (not to be confused with the main character in Leo Tolstoy's "The Death of Ivan Illich") --- keeps company with Gilbert Keith "G.K." Chesterton, Wendell Berry, Thomas Merton and Neil Postman as the brightest beacons of the 20th century. (Berry is the only member of this group who is still alive: he writes and farms - with horse-drawn plows - in rural Kentucky.)

Reflecting on our recent discussion of gender -- and how easily people are offended when implicit (or explicit) gender boundaries are transgressed -- I am moved to send the following link to Illich's "Gender," the only book every one of his friends told him NOT to publish. 

"Gender" is, by far, Illich's least-liked book, although I think people dislike it because he violates recently-created taboos concerning gender, not necessarily because his views are mistaken.  (I disagree with much that Illich says in "Gender," but overall I consider it a very insightful, thought-provoking book.)

"Gender," Ivan Illich

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/12/gender-by-ivan-illich.html

Here are more links to these five intellectual titans.

Gender And Division Of Labor

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/12/gender-and-division-of-labor.html

Ivan Illich Compendium

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/09/ivan-illich-compendium.html

"The People's Priest," An Ivan Illich "Obituary" From "The American Conservative"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-peoples-priest-ivan-illich.html

Compendium Of Wendell Berry Pax Posts

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/01/compendium-of-wendell-berry-pax-posts.html

More Merton Quotes

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/04/merton-best-imposed-as-norm-becomes.html

Pope Francis Recommends Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/09/pope-francis-recommends-abraham-lincoln.html

My 25 Favorite Books

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/09/my-25-favorite-books.html

"Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business," Neil Postman

"Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology," Neil Postman

G.K. Chesterton: "The Anarchy of The Rich"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/10/gk-chesterton-anarchy-of-rich.html

G.K. Chesterton and Warren Buffett's Class War

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/01/gk-chesterton-and-warren-buffetts-class.html

G.K. Chesterton On Charity, Hope And Universal Salvation

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/10/chesterton-on-charity-and-universal.html

"To get all that money you must be dull enough to want it."
G.K. Chesterton

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/09/chesterton-to-get-all-that-money-you.html

Chesterton Advocates Violent Revolution To Prevent A Girl's Hair Being Cut

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/12/chesterton-advocates-violent-revolution.html

Chesterton: Page-by-Page Books

http://www.pagebypagebooks.com/Gilbert_K_Chesterton/

Chesterton: The Meaning Of Love

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/02/chesterton-meaning-of-love.html

G.K. Chesterton Quotations... And More

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/12/chesterton-quotations.html

Pax On Both Houses: Compendium Of G.K. Chesterton Posts

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/10/pax-on-both-houses-gk-chesterton-posts.html

GK Chesterton's Universalism

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/02/gk-chestertons-universalism-by-edward-t.html

The Rich Are The Real Anarchists And Sully The World With Their Scum

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/02/chesterton-considered-rich-real.html

Chesterton Considered The Rich "Oppressive" "Scum" And "Failures"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/09/chesterton-considered-rich-oppressive.html

Chesterton: Many Books Denouce Lust But What Of Those That Encourage Greed?

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/02/chesterton-plenty-of-books-denounce.html

Chesterton Calls For A New Kind Of Priesthood

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/02/chestertons-call-for-new-kind-of.html

Why Fairy Tales Are More Than True

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/02/chesterton-why-fairy-tales-are-more.html

Chesterton: Distributism Posits Need To Distribute Private Property Until Everyone Has Enough

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/02/chesterton-family-is-test-of-freedom.html

"The terrible thing about our time is precisely the ease with which theories can be put into practice.  The more perfect, the more idealistic the theories, the more dreadful is their realization.  We are at last beginning to rediscover what perhaps men knew better in very ancient times, in primitive times before utopias were thought of: that liberty is bound up with imperfection, and that limitations, imperfections, errors are not only unavoidable but also salutary. The best is not the ideal.  Where what is theoretically best is imposed on everyone as the norm, then there is no longer any room even to be good.  The best, imposed as a norm, becomes evil.”  

"Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander,” by Trappist monk, Father Thomas Merton

Yuvoo,

Dman

PS The one time I met Illich (in company of Mary W who knew him previously), he reprimanded me. Remind me to tell you the story.