He
was sometimes called a big nut, but he never
minded such insults. Leopold Kohr, the founder
of the "Small is beautiful" movement who died in
1994, was not only happy to accept criticism of
himself and his ideas, he always took it as an
occasion for further reflection: "A spinner
turns a spinning wheel. It is a cheap tool that
requires little capital. It has a modest scope,
is bloodless, and makes revolutions." These
short sentences already reflect a lot of that
real-life modesty that always played such an
important role in Kohr's thoughts and actions.
In 1957 he presented his central theses in
detail for the first time in his main work "The
Breakdown of Nations". To this day, they have
not lost any of their former charisma. They are
based on a central thought: Everything that has
grown too big cannot survive in the long run. As
proof, Leopold Kohr took world history itself as
his witness: From the life path of a
power-obsessed individual to the career of even
the greatest empires and nations - at some point
the time came for everyone to not only fail due
to the burden of their own overstretching, but
inevitably had to fail.
If we look around today, it seems as if the
Salzburg philosopher, who was born in the
tranquil Oberndorf, was completely wrong: The
"big ones" are playing their power game as ever,
dividing the world among themselves, and their
influence extends further and further until into
the finest ramifications of our private life.
The consequences of such a globalized economy,
in which not all of us together, but only the
economically stronger one to a large extent
already determine our daily existence, we feel a
little more year after year. A wild bunch of
unleashed giants draws a trail of devastation
over our entire planet, with the unworthy result
that meanwhile every single square kilometer of
our earth bears the stamp of its exploiters. It
is these "big ones" who, day after day, for the
sole purpose of blind "increasing efficiency",
that press people in the fields, in the sewing shops, in
the mines, in the meat factories and in many
other places in the world for wages that are
barely enough to live on into the mill of a
modern slave existence. It is these "big ones"
who use tax tricks, secret agreements and
aggressive price dumping to throw their smaller
competitors out of the field with a cold
routine, gladly supported by an army of
expensive lawyers and often flanked by corrupt
politicians and corrupt judges. And last but not
least, it is these "greats" who, when asked or
unsolicited, invade the private sphere of
millions of consumers with ever greater
indolence, in order to drag their innermost
desires and longings into the public and to
sacrifice them on the cheap altar of
advertising.
However!
Even after more than half a century, Leopold
Kohr's ideas have not collected a bit of dust,
they seem fresher and more convincing than ever.
There is still no doubt that the "return to
human proportions", as Kohr put it, is the only
feasible way to save ourselves from exploitation
by others and our planet from the great
collapse.
Because the time to save our own lives is
becoming increasingly scarce, we understand this
appeal in all its urgency as a guide for our own
actions. Just hoping that the greats will
eventually collapse under the weight of their
own weight is no longer enough at this point in
history. In a sick world, nobody can stay
healthy in the long run. Because health is our
central concern, we have therefore created the "VALUES"
section: For us, this place is a counter-place
to what Kohr calls "cancerous growth of
oversize". What and whom we want to introduce
here are people, companies and organizations who
have the courage and perseverance to stand up to
the "big ones" from trade and industry, despite
and precisely because of their different way of
dealing with people and the world.
What
is often still possible on small scales is
increasingly lost in the concert of the giants.
Our honest respect is all the more due to those
who care more about a "humane world" (Kohr) than
fast, maximum profit. We want to name just a few
of these "small dimensions of the human being",
of course there are many more: Good leadership;
fair payment; socially responsible behavior;
thinking in cycles and careful use of natural
resources; open error culture; highest standards
of reliability and quality.
Many of the products that we carry in our
pharmacy reflect a considerable part of these
properties, and make those who stand behind them
those honorable "nuts" in the
true and most creative sense of the word. We are
all the more pleased to be able to present you a
small selection of these "revolutionaries" from
now on a regular basis!
