“School has become the world religion of a modernized proletariat, and makes futile promises of salvation to the poor of the technological age.”

—  Ivan Illich , book Deschooling Society

Source: Deschooling Society

Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "School has become the world religion of a modernized proletariat, and makes futile promises of salvation to the poor of…" by Ivan Illich?
Ivan Illich photo
Ivan Illich 66
austrian philosopher and theologist 1926–2002

Related quotes

Jacques Ellul photo

“This is the very heart of modern religion, the religion of the established fact, the religion on which depend the lesser religions of the dollar, race, or the proletariat, which are only expressions of the great modern divinity, the Moloch of fact.”

Jacques Ellul (1912–1994) French sociologist, technology critic, and Christian anarchist

Source: The Presence of the Kingdom (1948), p. 37
Context: People think that they have no right to judge a fact — all they have to do is to accept it. Thus from the moment that technics, the State, or production, are facts, we must worship them as facts, and we must try to adapt ourselves to them. This is the very heart of modern religion, the religion of the established fact, the religion on which depend the lesser religions of the dollar, race, or the proletariat, which are only expressions of the great modern divinity, the Moloch of fact.

Thomas Szasz photo

“For Jews, the Messiah has never come; for Christians, He has come but once; for modern man, He appears and disappears with increasing rapidity. The saviors of modern man, the "scientists" who promise salvation through the "discoveries" of ethology and sociology, psychology and psychiatry, and all the other bogus religions, issue forth periodically, as if selected by some Messiah-of-the-Month Club.”

Thomas Szasz (1920–2012) Hungarian psychiatrist

"Science and Scientism", p. 116.
The Second Sin (1973)

Bernie Sanders photo

“We are living in a world where greed has become for the wealthiest people their own religion, and they make no apologies for it.”

Bernie Sanders (1941) American politician, senator for Vermont

Bernie Sanders as interviewed by Thomas Rosica April 15, 2016 http://www.facebook.com/senatorsanders/videos/10154732963477908/?fref=nf
2010s, 2016

Ivan Illich photo

“Inevitably modern technology has polarized society. It has polluted the environment.”

Ivan Illich (1926–2002) austrian philosopher and theologist

We the People interview (1996)
Context: Inevitably modern technology has polarized society. It has polluted the environment. It has disabled very simple native abilities and made people dependent on objects... Like an automobile which makes the world inaccessible, when actually in Latin "automobile" means "using your feet to get somewhere." The automobile makes it unthinkable. I was recently told, "You're a liar!" when I said to somebody I walked down the spine of the Andes. Every Spaniard in the sixteenth, seventeenth century did that. The idea that somebody could just walk! He can jog perhaps in the morning, but he can't walk anywhere! The world has become inaccessible because we drive there.

Sigmund Freud photo

“In mourning it is the world which has become poor and empty; in melancholia it is the ego itself.”

Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) Austrian neurologist known as the founding father of psychoanalysis

Source: On Freud's "Mourning and Melancholia"

Kevin Kelly photo

“Technology has become our culture, our culture technology.”

Kevin Kelly (1952) American author and editor

Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems and the Economic World (1995), New Rules for the New Economy: 10 Radical Strategies for a Connected World (1999)

“Anne Arundel County has become the world’s epicenter of military intelligence and defense-related information technology.”

John R. Leopold (1943) politician

Hometown Annapolis - County Executive Leopold's FY08 Budget Address http://www.hometownannapolis.com/cgi-bin/read/2007/05_02-02/TOP

Vera Stanley Alder photo

“We can assume that a perfect world IS the ultimate goal for mankind and the purpose of God, for this has been promised to us in all religions.”

Vera Stanley Alder (1898–1984) British artist

Source: Humanity Comes of Age, A study of Individual and World Fulfillment (1950), Chapter II Planning a Model World

Chetan Bhagat photo

“God gives talent so that the ordinary person can become extraordinary. Talent is the only way the poor can become rich. Otherwise, in this world the rich would remain rich and the poor would remain poor. This unfair talent actually creates a balance, helps to make the world fair.”

Chetan Bhagat book The 3 Mistakes of My Life

Source: The 3 Mistakes of My Life (2008), P. 61

Related topics