I'm reading "Small is Beautiful", a book published in 1973. Largely forgotten, though Influential then, and much quoted, it fell off the charts about the time when the technology bubble, and the growing affluence of a few third world nations gave us that first flush of a giddy feeling again that big was not only possible, but righteous, and downright American. Many failed to see the looming shadow, or pondered the fleeting question if a such a spiraling growth rate was sustainable.

The near collapse of Wall Street, a year ago, with it's ironic moniker "too big to fail," brought me back to E.F. Schumacher's pages. I had never read "Small is Beautiful", and suddenly, he seemed germane.

Of course, so many of his ideas have circulated so thoroughly in the culture, by now, to read the book is almost redundant, and yet, dipping into the source, there's a surprising freshness.

Shumacher is an economist. He ought to be the Maynard Keynes of our generation, if the world ever wakes up. His book is subtitled Economics As if People Mattered. He was first to point out that the problem with measuring our success using the GNP is that it values economic activity regardless of whether it actually has human benefits, so, for example, if your population, hooked on corn syrup soft drinks and super sized portions, requires ever more drastic medical intervention and expensive drugs, or, if coffins have to be made bigger and people have to pay more for them, this is all growth, in an economic sense.

One of his many pithy arguments that strikes me freshly today, is when he points out that we have harnessed greed as an engine of economic achievement. In the long run, greed is, and can only be, ultimately corrosive to society. Part of the free market giddiness that has so overtaken our democratic institutions is that, yes, we can turn our swine's ears to purses. Reagan's jovial optimism still appeals to many--if you just unfetter it, the market will make us all rich. Unfortunately, what's happened is that it's made us all poorer, but the country appears to take that as just a slight set back. This kind of thinking, Reagan's laissez faire capitalism, has completely dominated any other economic philosophy over the last few decades. Now the bubble has burst, and the public is deeply sickened about "Wall Street socialism", with the spectacle of government fed banker's doling out ever bigger bonuses and profit, while our personal retirement accounts shrink, it's one of his many themes that seems prophetic.

Greed, while it carries us to dizzying heights of affluence, as a social engine, he argues, will ultimately rend the delicate fabric of relationships, of checks and balances, that society depends on. And looking around, that's what we have, a country in which "rouge" attitudes are championed, a government is evil if it attempts to curb anyone's "freedom", solutions to serious problems are either ignored or viciously rejected, and anxiety and anger rule our public life.

While his arguments are ever more perspicacious, some may consider his solutions too fuzzy. Would Americans, the ultimate Dreamers, ever settle for thinking small?

Hollywood, the Grand Canyon, Beyonce, the Whopper, J. Gatsby; those are our talismans.

I've still got half the book ahead of me, but instinctively, at this point in our history, the possibility and beauty of small actions, the butterfly wing that fans a revolution, is comforting. Buy local, create community in your neighborhood, tutor a child. In the face of overwhelming obstacles to our commonwealth, with media trumpeting nastiness that masquerades as news, and climate deniers still holding half the population in sway, with lobbyists assuming the roles of Congressional staffers, insurance companies squandering profits on ads to derail any real health reform, his advice encourages us not to be overwhelmed. Small actions matter.

I only wish he had used Christianity instead of Buddhism as his example of an alternative economy. Clearly he's deeply influence by Buddhist thought, and Buddhism does give some fairly straightforward prescriptions for happiness, the good that economics fails to consider. If you substituted Christianity for Buddhism every time it's used in Small is Beautiful, I think a lot more people would be taking him seriously in this country today.

Thirty years later we've seen vast societal changes via grassroots efforts; the pollution he is so concerned about almost, in this country anyway, barely an issue. Now we have a growing whole food movement, green consciousness, multiculturalism, micro-finance, and the empowerment of women, all these movements all started small.

Plant a tree, he would say. See where that takes you.

Somehow we need to convince the majority Americans that an Army of One is not an answer to our postmodern anxiety. I believe Schumacher is right, that our society's security really depends on doing more with less, in growing confidence, in a world of sufficient affluence, that every human being's basic needs can be met.

Given that, it's interesting to note that the Sarah Palin's of the right reserve most of their hatred for those who eat granola, drink lattes and drive Volvo's-- educated middle class Americans. Particularly, those who, this seems to be the crux of the matter, are able to make enlightened choices about what they consume.

There is an addictive quality to the race after money, status and celebrity that so much of mainstream America is driven to pursue. Maybe that's why the opposition is so desperate and ruthless.

Maybe we can't save the world by small actions, but we can save our individual lives. We can bring down the anxieties by being thankful for what we have, and saying to ourselves, every once in a while "Enough."