Small Is Beautiful Continued-

I completed and enjoyed the book Small is Beautiful. I agreed with the idea of returning to the simple, that more is not always better. I also enjoyed the chapter that talks about the unemployment problem in India. In this he talks about the fact that getting an education is a privilege that those who have an opportunity to receive should be grateful for.

“Is education a ‘passport to privilege’ or is it something which people take upon themselves almost like a monastic vow, a sacred obligation to serve other people?

The first road takes the educated young person to the need for fashion, and popularity among his peers where a lot of other highly educated people have already gone and where he can join a mutual admiration society, a “trade union of the privileged,” to see that his privileges are not eroded by the great masses of his contemporaries who have not been educated. This is one way. The other way would be embarked upon in a different sprit and would lead to a different destination. It would take him back to the people who after all, directly or indirectly, had paid for his education by the fruits of their work, he would feel honor bound to return something to them. Education should be something that makes us more able to serve others instead of a group of people who are quite prepared to receive but not prepared to give. “