c272.

There is ambiguity as to whether it is only the market economy that has the power to override community in this way. Perhaps a large and highly authoritarian society can do so. Paul Gottfried argues that Classical Rome progressed some way in this direction but stalled before it became a modern political movement because it lacked mass production, mass consumption and the mass market which is the foundation for individual autonomy and separateness: the sense that individuals can, and should, speak only for themselves. Paul Edward Gottfried (1999), After Liberalism: Mass Democracy in the Managerial State, pp 32–35. For brevity, Lean Logic discusses only the market economy in this context, but the question is not trivial, for some other models, such as a very powerful totalitarian society (see Unlean), might be able to go some way, for a time, in maintaining society without community.

David Fleming
Dr David Fleming (2 January 1940 – 29 November 2010) was a cultural historian and economist, based in London, England. He was among the first to reveal the possibility of peak oil's approach and invented the influential TEQs scheme, designed to address this and climate change. He was also a pioneer of post-growth economics, and a significant figure in the development of the UK Green Party, the Transition Towns movement and the New Economics Foundation, as well as a Chairman of the Soil Association. His wide-ranging independent analysis culminated in two critically acclaimed books, 'Lean Logic' and 'Surviving the Future', published posthumously in 2016. These in turn inspired the 2020 launches of both BAFTA-winning director Peter Armstrong's feature film about Fleming's perspective and legacy - 'The Sequel: What Will Follow Our Troubled Civilisation?' - and Sterling College's unique 'Surviving the Future: Conversations for Our Time' online courses. For more information on all of the above, including Lean Logic, click the little globe below!

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