Assesment of Professional Dominance by Illich

2453 Words10 Pages
Going with the paces of the hustle and bustle of life, especially in America, we may get lost in all of its complexities. When we get lost in something as complex as a super society embedded in centuries of culture, we don’t tend to ask very many questions. We are alive and seemingly well in our health, wealth, and intellect, so there usually isn’t anything worth questioning. But what if we could be doing better? Much better in fact. That it was a fact that we we’re duped into a system that robbed us of our personal sovereignty as citizens and degraded us into consumers/clients where we walked around with dollar signs tattooed to our foreheads. What if you found out that you weren’t participating in society at all really, and if you were in any small way, there were plans to take that away from you too? In Professional Dominance by Ivan Illich, Illich seems to think so, and goes on quite a bit explaining why he thinks this to be true. In this essay I will examine these claims and detail the strong points succinctly to convey to my best ability, the nature and direction of professionalism that Illich believes to be true. After detailing these points, I will put my own spin on his arguments, giving a fresh though possibly less qualified perspective. His claims are fringe, his words are sharp and his evidence lacks. But in ways you will see, it still adds up to a believable theory. Illich first uses a series of metaphors to compare the legitimized professional world to the many undesirable organizations of our present and past. He first compares it to a sort of cartel in the way that like, for instance a drug cartel creates a need, puts themselves in the position of supplier and then makes money off the people. In his writing he says “Specialist…dominate the creation, adjudication and satisfaction of needs.” For example, it is true that we don’t actually need a lawyer

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