Ivan Illich Quotes

“Our market-intensive societies measure material progress by the increase in the volume and variety of commodities produced. And taking our cue from this sector, we measure social progress by the distribution of access to these commodities. Economics has been developed as propaganda for the takeover by large-scale commodity producers.”

“Knowledge is the most prized commodity in the entire universe, and it is infinite in its commodity.”

“Apparently the rarest commodities on earth are truth and honesty.”

“It is not in the power of governments to increase the supply of one commodity without a corresponding restriction in the supply of other commodities more urgently demanded by consumers. The authority may reduce the price of one commodity only by raising the prices of others.”

“Common sense is one of the most unused commodities available to man.”

“Truth is commodity in political consumption.”

“I'm sad to say that stardom is a commodity in our culture.”

“Mystery is a commodity for society that willing to buy it.”

“The government desires to purchase; it desires to use the market, not to disorganize it. But the officially-fixed price does disorganize the market in which commodities and services are bought and sold for money. Commerce, so far as it is able, seeks relief in other ways. It re-develops a system of direct exchange, in which commodities and services are exchanged without the instrumentality of money. Those who are forced to dispose of commodities and services at the fixed prices do not dispose of them to everybody, but merely to those to whom they wish to do a favour. Would-be purchasers wait in long queues in order to snap up what they can get before it is too late; they race breathlessly from shop to shop, hoping to find one that is not yet sold out.”

“You are what you consume, and as an organism and consciousness, you in fact become a commodity and predator yourself.”