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II
Modern Era
Ivan Illich
1926–2002 · Radical decentralization
Beyond a certain scale, every institution turns into its opposite.
Illich argued in Deschooling Society and Medical Nemesis that compulsory schooling and professionalized medicine, whatever their intentions, convert people into clients and disable the competence they once had. His Tools for Conviviality proposed limits on the scale and power of institutions so that people could build and maintain their own goods. He was a critic of the state from the left and the right at once.
Why it matters for freedom
He argued that a tool becomes a master when only the institution is allowed to use it.
Who they stood against
the institutional monopolies that claim a monopoly on help