Ivan Illich and the bicycle to the cyclist
and Ivan Illich cycling
of Giulio Canziani
is not the first time (and it will not be the last) that we deal with this, the transport center in any plan for a healthier society and free, eco-friendly and ... libertarian.
N el 1973, when Ivan Illich writes "In Praise of the bicycle" the American type dedicates each year to the car in 1600 hours of his time. The calculation includes the amount of time spent in the car "is sitting there, parked and running in the park, going to take it" and time spent self in which "you earn the money needed for the down payment on the purchase price and monthly payments, working to pay for gasoline, highway tolls, insurance, road tax, fines. Each day passes four of his sixteen hours of sleep or on the road or busy to put together means that the car requires. "Four hours a day to travel 12,000 km per year, the result is an average speed of 7.5 km / h. Struck by these calculations, a little 'mania for statistics, a little' to reassure my conscience began to numeracy: So, my utility cost is X, will last at least 10 years and then every year I will pay with X hours of work, then insurance, gasoline, do not take penalties, but the letters still to be paid, sometimes the highway, adding that the car I use to go to work so we step X hours a month, X time for shopping and other errands, then to Milan on average once a week, a few trips in the spring ... hand calculator to elaborate the whole: I dedicate the car two hours of my time each day to go to my 12,000 km per year at an average speed of 16 km / h. Comforting if I compare the results with data from the American type of '73, disarming if I ask the question: why build cars that reach speeds of up to 200 km / h?
Illich defines "trafficking as a movement of people from one place to another" and intends to transit those movements that use the human metabolic energy and transport those who opt for other sources of energy. While transit is an innate human capacity based on a labor-intensive of the single, independent because there is necessarily an exchange value, the transport industry is a product based on the use of capital intensive and as a commodity is closely linked to two agents: one who produces and who consumes it. All traffic that moves with the carriage is securely attached to industry, its energy production, in a ratio of blind like a drug addiction that negates the autonomy of the individual because "no society can have a population that is chained to a growing number of energy slaves and at the same time is made up of individuals independently active. " The industry "has started to establish a monopoly radical reordering society in the interests of those who consume larger quantities, so it requires forcing everyone to consume at least the minimum dose in which the property in question is produced." A monopoly that the industry requires, "thanks to its ability to create and shape that has a need that it is only able to meet. "
Illich insists strongly on the concept of "maximum speed" means any increase in speed, any acceleration requires more energy and "beyond a certain point, more energy means less fairness." Inequality becomes the concept of value of time in China (70s) of the revolution, to support and spread the Thought of Mao throughout the vast country requires two classes, one belonging to the geography of the masses and the other in one of the pictures because "man's time that you take to the water buffalo has a value other than the man who is transported to jet." While "those che vanno a piedi sono più o meno uguali” perché comunque tutti dipendono da due gambe, da un comune stimolo a spostarsi in una direzione piuttosto che in un’altra, da una velocità media non molto differente gli uni dagli altri, “oltre una certa velocità i veicoli a motore creano distanze che soltanto loro possono ridurre. Creano distanze per tutti, poi le riducono soltanto per pochi”. Tutti pagano il prezzo di questa corsa insensata: con le tasse necessarie a costruire e regolare le infrastrutture, con il consumo di una pur minima parte di quell’energia che viene prodotta in quanto strumentale alla produzione di altra energia in quantità sempre maggiori in un interminabile ciclo di produzione industriale. Un prezzo che include la distruzione dell’ambiente fisico come conseguenza più visibile ma meno deleteria: “i risultati di gran lunga più amari sono le frustrazioni psichiche che si moltiplicano le disutilità crescenti generate dall’incessante produzione e l’iniquo trasferimento di potere che si deve subire; fenomeni che manifestano tutti una relazione distorta tra tempo e spazio”.
Una presa di coscienza
Chi si può permettere di andare più veloce incrementerà la distanza verso chi non ha queste possibilità, “i poveri lavorano e pagano per restare indietro”: senza porre un limite alla velocità, non si elimina exploitation of this growing inequality. The view that more speed equals time savings is the result of a clear distortion of space-time relationship, the speed reduces the time available. If in fact a motorized transport that does not go over 40 km / h is an auxiliary transit, "every society which imposes the obligation of crushing speed transit to the benefit of transport.
"Beyond a certain threshold of speed the transport arrives to obstruct traffic in three ways that you said, saturating the atmosphere blocks the mobility of vehicles and roads, the area transforms into a pyramid of circuits mutually inaccessible according to levels of acceleration, the time expropriation in the name of speed. " It is clear that a road in a road traffic is intended to fill: Bombay in '73 that car had a few people and granting them the luxury of using only a morning to go once a week in the province, a route that until Two generations ago it was possible to travel by spending a week at most once a year. "Now they spend a greater amount of time for more trips. But those same few people messing with their cars to the traffic flow of thousands of bicycles and pedal-taxi [...] Above a critical speed none può risparmiare tempo senza costringere altri a perderlo”.
Non voglio far perdere tempo ad altri, io: decido quindi di inforcare la bicicletta anche per i quotidiani spostamenti verso il luogo di lavoro, tanto più che l’ho appena restaurata in tutti i suoi componenti verniciandola di un fiammante rosso vivo. Guarda caso la strada che percorro solitamente in automobile è un po’ troppo rischiosa per l’incolumità di un ciclista, così penso ad un percorso alternativo: devo passare dalle campagne allungando un pochino ma alla fine 8 chilometri sono una distanza assolutamente accettabile.
Ritornare alla bicicletta è per me una presa di coscienza che mi spinge subito ad un confronto con le mie esperienze Past: 8 km are only one third of the 25 that I had promised myself to make a dozen years ago to get my first job, say official in good standing. A commitment
cycling that I have carried on for more than a week: the reason why I would support and that is keeping me in shape, was not strong enough to hide a paradox, and giant monster that has voraciously devoured my initial thrust.
What is the point to keep in shape and get rid consciousness using the transit and transportation for their daily shifts at 8 am if you have to put a suit beginning to breathe dirty chemical adhesives bases to produce ammonia within 8 hours imitation leather that is processed polymers (as well as tons of toxic waste per month)?
That's quick to postpone an examination of conscience and for fitness there are, at best, the pool or the gym when you are not too tired after a day at the factory.
Years later I pedaled happily and without interruption to achieve a high office that I saw the conditions: a healthier and more particularly the use of living in Amsterdam allowed me to put the bike in a harmonious environment for real progress in civil aviation. I live everyday journeys of nostalgia along the canals and bridges of brick but then in the Netherlands, the cyclist is the true master of strada, l’automobilista ad esempio ha un’abitudine anzi un dovere sconosciuto alla maggior parte dei suoi simili che abitano altre parti del mondo: ad ogni svolta a destra guarda con attenzione che non provenga un ciclista sulla pista ciclabile che immancabilmente fiancheggia ogni strada olandese.
Da Amsterdam a Bologna
Forte di questa esperienza decido di includere la bicicletta nel successivo trasloco a Bologna dove mi ritrovo a pedalare ogni mattina per raggiungere il centro meccanizzato delle Poste e lì a fare i conti con un’altra contraddizione: dopo aver messo in ordine la corrispondenza, per andare a distribuirla nel centro della città, vorrei usare la bicicletta, non il motorino. Colleagues I explain that since I am a postman in a temporary replacement, should I change every day and the area is already difficult time running out in all the workload did not know the streets and utilities, let alone carry out this cycle, half that in addition to being slower (Illich dear Let them know you ...) does not allow me to carry the same amount of correspondence and I make many more points of support and short technical things that then and there but I do not understand why I am succumbing to the temptation of the engine combustion.
Back to basics and get my first permanent contract with a company that is located a few hundred meters from the Sesto Marelli subway line 1.
Dalla stazione Cadorna, dove il treno mi scarica dalla provincia sarà dura arrivare a Sesto Marelli in versione ciclista, bisogna essere molto accorti per resistere a lungo senza essere messi sotto da un qualsiasi mezzo di trasporto a motore di cui Milano offre largo campionario: ho grande stima dei molti (bicchiere mezzo pieno) che lo fanno. Comunque, anche volendo assumermi i rischi, i treni delle Nord sono sempre in ritardo, per arrivare in orario dovrei partire ancora prima delle 6,57: no, non sono abbastanza motivato. Passando 140 minuti al giorno sul treno e altri 40 minuti sulla metropolitana posso dire che raramente ho avuto spunti di riflessione sulla solitudine come quelli offerti dalla folla di pendolari. Capisco quindi perché i suicide often choose the underground trains which are linked by the same load of loneliness and I understand the cynicism of the average commuter who complain of discomfort and the delay - could not throw a mid-morning? So I was in time to arrive at the office ... -
The commuter is defined as a habitual passenger Illich, the product of the transport industry, "all the more exasperated by the growing inequality, lack of time and the helplessness he feels more personal [...] slower and poorer than someone else and thought angrily to a privileged few who can take shortcuts. "
should rather ask if there is reason to slow down a bit given the fragile balance of which can be upset by the desperate act of a single human being.
often not born radicals, especially in the province.
Assuming that during adolescence are unable to resist the temptation of a moped, while maintaining their loyalty to the "childish" bicycle, almost all succumb to the charm of the "overtaking" the freedom to walk miles to kilometers. If Bruno Cortona / Gassman admit - I'm not in the car as good as anywhere - it is true that the apparent failure of his race did not deter those who feel free and alive in travel 1000 kilometers in one day.
In two friends, getting into a car, choose a direction and begin to stroll up to the time when a goal is not invented, which is essential, from there you continue wandering until he reached: There must be a return path necessarily different from the first leg. It is the desire to travel many miles to get away as much as possible, a wandering very similar to that of the psychotic to deal with their discomfort strives to never be here but always somewhere else. Feature of psychosis is the lack of choice or the extreme difficulty in making it a: what can help to pacify the psychotic and secondly to choose is the presence of a cadence, a regular rhythm. Every day the sun shall rise and set, there must be a breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner, as well as the rhythm of the horse trotting nell'ippoterapia, one or two left / right pedaling marks the time of the cyclist placing it in a position to think supported by the strength of a stable equilibrium. The same discipline that we find in music: jazz improvisation is a kind of free and uncontrolled flow of well-known think settled in the foundations of the structure are modal or pentatonic scales and time signatures that you have the absolute freedom to be respected. The more you know in-depth study or natural genius, the grammar of music so you can better express their ideas with originality and precision. Within this well-disciplined fabric choices of the individual may be very different, you can choose to improvise on the notes as essential dizzying speed as Davis or Coltrane, but in any case the choice is within well-defined parameters.
Cycling / childhood (and adolescence) because of limited natural resources, the car the young man (or rather post-adolescent) chasing illusory freedom and the new bike as a sign of maturity of the man who can and knows choose.
The choice is what makes the difference: You can choose different paths and you can choose to live in a different way the same path. Click door to change, to highlight its uniqueness and is known empirically the differences, collecting and concentrating within himself making unlike many nuances that we can not ensure approval. Choose not mean to exclude. If your car to transport an object is already full of pitfalls, the car intended as a status symbol that exudes undoubtedly denotes exclusion. Just look at the advertising attractions or take a few bars with a subject of discussion by the industry that we find mythology still relevant today in the words of Bruno Cortona – Nel ‘56 ho avuto un’annataccia, sa, è dura a 36 anni andare in giro in filobus – Il pedone e il ciclista sono definiti da una mancanza e la differenza assume quindi una pericolosa accezione negativa che se acquisita a livello istituzionale provoca sconvolgenti distorsioni di significato: “in America Latina le scarpe sono rare e molti non le portano mai [...] in alcuni paesi latino-americani la gente è stata costretta a portarle da quando chi va a piedi nudi non è ammesso a scuola, al lavoro e nei servizi pubblici: per gli insegnanti e per i funzionari di partito non portare scarpe equivale a mostrare indifferenza per il progresso”.
Il progresso è un’altra cosa e sta più in the shared values \u200b\u200band in that of footwear. Choose
must take on the significance of differentiation from the differences of others and leads the effort to get involved, "choose an economy with minimum content of energy forces the poor to give to the rich and great expectations in their own vested interests to recognize a liability tremendous ".
Pedal, ear headphones I connected the player to mp3 music: What do you think Illich? This luxury
(miracoloso!) that I allow myself to be inserted in an industrial process that does not exceed the quantum limit of energy that allows fair social relations or beyond?
go back?
Illich si assume con onestà il compito di parlare con toni che scuotano una società alle radici; critica, giudica e propone con la sicurezza di chi ha fatto un pieno esame di coscienza riconoscendo gli errori e valutando anche le strade più impervie e faticose.
Ecco quindi il profondo significato educativo della sua opera: non diamo alcunché per scontato, sono i nostri comportamenti e le nostre scelte che portano a progredire piuttosto che a soccombere.
Un richiamo alla figura dell’educatore lo propone poi in modo molto chiaro: “l’aumento della ricchezza impone un più accentuato controllo sociale [...] che diventa la principale attività istituzionale all’interno di un’economia. Therapy administered by educators, psychiatrists and social workers can not converge towards the same goals of planners, managers and sellers and become complementary to the services of security agencies, armed forces and police. [...] It is inevitable that the legal guarantees of personal initiative will be driven by education and practical to abstract goals of a bureaucracy. "
A negative figure in view of the educator that implicitly reveals a positive. The
lived (and I would say the living) of the trainer is transmitted to education: not just a theoretical knowledge but also needs to practice il più possibile aderente all’alternativa, a ciò che Illich chiama controricerca.
Ogni idea potrebbe divenire gesto inconsapevole, il più minuscolo, il più scontato: se sono un educatore votato alla teledipendenza mi risulterà difficile richiamare un ragazzo ad un uso moderato della TV e nel momento in cui lo farò risulterò sicuramente poco credibile. È oltremodo scomodo dover affrontare, mettere in pratica la controricerca ma risulterà impossibile farlo se non la si è prima assimilata facendo a se stessi discorsi convincenti.
Sono ormai convinto dell’importanza dell’energia metabolica umana contro quella del motore divoratore di tempo, equità, ossigeno, ma non posso non Michelino rejoice with me that welcomes the beginning of my shift and told me flickering over the top for happiness - the bus has arrived! - Cries - now we can finally get out of the community together! We take trips, always, all together! -
primary starting point is to recognize that radical change is the result of a process of gradual transformation, with small goals, to catch nuances, details of which are leaves of a tree that will one day be visible and well rooted.
And this would also correspond to those who speak of "theories too radical" and argues that it is impossible and impractical to go "back", as if aspiring to better promote the well-being was regression. Is not been a radical change today go 100 kilometers per hour when 150 years ago it was done in two days? Why should it not be possible to reverse the process? Moreover, as Frank says in the afterword to The Cecla "Praise to the bicycle," "People have believed for centuries that corsets were essential, that it hurt to eat fruit, which wash away the good mood and that the best way to educate children were taking them to slap: then he stopped. "
Illich has taught us that Western history is a story of renunciation propria autonomia: gli individui sono da sempre alla ricerca di una guida cui affidare la propria anima, alla chiesa ad esempio, o il proprio corpo, allo stato e al mercato. “Il passeggero abituale, drogato dal trasporto non ha più coscienza dei poteri fisici, psichici e sociali che i piedi di un uomo posseggono [...] Incontrarsi significa per lui essere collegati dai veicoli. Giunge a credere che il potere politico discenda dalla portata di un sistema di trasporto o, in sua assenza, sia il risultato dell’accesso allo schermo televisivo [...] Non ha più fede nel potere politico delle gambe e della lingua. Di conseguenza non vuole essere maggiormente libero come cittadino, ma essere meglio servito come cliente. Non tiene alla propria freedom to move and speak to people, but his right to be loaded and to be informed by the media. She wants a better product, do not want to get rid dall'asservimento products. It is therefore essential that he be able to understand that the acceleration he coveted is frustrating and can only lead to a further decline of equity, leisure, and autonomy. "
The triumph of the delegation
So today is the triumph of the delegation: the calculator which accounts for brains, the dishwasher that does the work of our hands, the car that does what our legs, we increasingly dependent on "Energy slaves." Yet the human being is born independent, "the man without the help of any instrument, is able to move with full efficiency [...] the man on a bicycle can go three or four times quicker than the pedestrian [.. .] The bicycle is the perfect translator for the grant metabolic energy to the impedance of human locomotion. "
Education must help to rediscover the autonomy which is characteristic of human nature, we must train to ride to be independent because pedaling to become masters of their own movements without blocking those of their fellows. "
The bike then, just able as an educator, "creates only the questions that we can meet. [...] The use of the bike itself has its limits. "
limits that are children of gettatezza the condition that a human being thrown into the world is discovered: it has a particular DNA, is the child of those parents, live in a certain city without choosing any of this. The moment you accept this condition because it assumes a positive slope, however, all that will come after the choice of either route depends on us and we can motivate gettatezza more strongly on the research until the discovery of ' more. Freedom which becomes the recognition of otherness and its extraordinary wealth. Educate each other to become his singular difference that is equally proper to the subject and as such all the center of the world. This is what Illich proposes the same as the way out "from where we are, there are two ways to reach the technological maturity: a pass for the liberation opulence, the other for the liberation of the shortage. Both have the same goal, that is, a restructuring of social space that continually makes you feel at all that the center of the world is right there where he stands, walks and lives. " The liberation that characterizes both the proposed roads to be found by entering a one-way street but take the wrong direction, from banning them.
As it is now clear, hiking and cycling are not taken into account by those designing, legislating, manufactures, advertises, sells, governs. But who ends up paying the higher price-to-eat less often does not see the option for "faith in the efficacy of power prevents more extraordinary to see the effectiveness that can be achieved should not use it." It is the way of controricerca, the one that tells us what is "necessary to identify the thresholds beyond which the energy and produces failure to do so through a political process involving the whole community in the search for these limits. "
Educating the counterculture
controricerca equivalent to educate individuals to form view to enter into this political process, autonomous human beings who do not provide anything for granted: freedom is no doubt, a chance to look behind and below, is to look in the most hidden testimony, evidence or refutation that leads to investigate, to request a demonstration, "that the traffic is better than faster, but it says you have not ever shown." The curiosity of discovery, explaining that deploys a multitude of paths are all equally viable, the possibility of undertaking one of these roads with the critical sense acquired through that hard time, wonderful and inexorable choice.
The invention of the ball bearing being central to both the bicycle for the car, "he opened a real crisis, a genuine political choice: he created the possibility to choose between greater freedom and greater speed in equity." It is always a matter of choice, whether a cognitive tool, a means to define its difference or a stage to reach a decision independently, "the environmental impact of how much social power packed industry tends to cause degradation, logorio e asservimento, e questi effetti entrano in gioco prima ancora di quelli che minacciano di inquinare l’ambiente fisico e di estinguere la specie. Il punto cruciale nel quale si possono invertire questi effetti non è, però, oggetto di deduzione ma di decisione”.
La più importante, trionfale rivoluzione è quella che ognuno realizza dentro di sé.
L’utopia è la linfa vitale di quella rivoluzione, il nutrimento necessario da cui trarre l’energia per credere che il cambiamento sia possibile. Educare all’utopia è convincere che il cambiamento sia possibile grazie all’apporto di ciascuno e attraverso la sua partecipazione.“Proporre una controricerca non è solo uno [...] scandal but also a threat through a political process that we can find a natural size, unavoidable and that marks a limit, is an idea that is outside the world of the truth of the passenger if the secular [...] actively engaged in a political process could determine the order of magnitude as the optimal speed for vehicular traffic, would then shook the foundations on which rests the structure of any industrial society. Submit this research is politically subversive. "Educate a controricerca means to take the risk of continuing counter but anticipating the moment you arrive where" there is no place for a world of maturity [...] a technological world where every place is accessible to every person according to his talent and speed, without haste and without fear, in vehicles that cover the distance without doing violence to the earth that man has trodden for hundreds of thousands of years. "
Julie Canziani
