CONCEPT
Threshold (Illich)
Illich's operational concept for the scale-point at which a tool or institution transitions from serving human purposes to subverting them—identifiable, measurable, and, given political will, enforceable.
Every analytical concept Illich deployed pointed toward the same operational question: Where is the line? At what scale does a tool transition from serving human purposes to subverting them? How much of a good thing becomes a destructive thing? The line was not metaphorical. Illich believed it was identifiable, measurable, and—if the political will existed—enforceable. He called it the threshold. The threshold for transportation was the speed beyond which the car began to cost more time (in hours worked to afford it, maintain it, and navigate its infrastructure) than it saved. Illich calculated that the American male devoted over 1,600 hours per year to his automobile for 7,500 miles of travel—an effective speed of less than five miles per hour, barely faster than walking. The threshold for medicine was the scale of professional intervention beyond which the system generated more illness than it cured. The threshold for education was the duration of mandatory schooling beyond which the institution produced more intellectual dependency than capability.
