Halftime in the fight against Mammon
by Michael Breisky
Published 2015 by Epubli in German („Halbzeit im Kampf gegen den Mammon“), the book hinges on a quote by Leopold Kohr, rediscoverer of the Human Scale: “like medicine, all great ideas are poison – it all depends on the dose”.
And so Enlightenment forgot to set limits to linear reason by the Human Scale. Consequently, many “great ideas” have been pushed into severe excess. “Mammon” is to be seen as the greed-driven bundling of these abuses, now ruling over much of politics and finance in a system of Neo-feudalism. „Mammon“ hides behind complexity, but this armor must and can be broken by a new worldview based on comprehensibility, resilience and the co-operation of the civil society – a view reflecting also the views in particular of Leopold Kohr, Ernst Friedrich Schumacher, Martin A. Nowak and Charles Eisenstein.
A simple three-step method developed by the author shows the practical limits to every great idea, i.e the dividing line between Human Scale and excess. With the help of strict regionalism and a new understanding of money and interest it should be possible to pave the way from today’s frustrating „there is no alternative“ to the „good life“. This is a quiet revolution taking place „down below“ at the grassroots, still unnoticed by the mainstream-media, but well advanced and expecting soon the breakthrough, thanks to many successful pilot projects (mostly in depressed areas) and the rising discontent with Mammon’s reign. Now, it just takes some courage to succeed – yours, mine
and our neighbour’s.
A substantially up-dated version of the book was published in early 2018 as an E-book, again by Epubli and in German, under the title
Menschliches Maß gegen Gier und Hass – Small is beautiful im 21. Jahrhundert
(„Human Scale against Greed and Hate – Small is beautiful in the 21st Century“)
In the wake of Brexit, Trump and the crisis of migration, the up-date covers in particular the issues of populism, the importance of common-sense and the new challenges for Europe