Homo economicus was surreptitiously taken as the emblem and analogue for all living beings. A mechanistic anthropomorphism has gained currency. Bacteria are imagined to mimic "economic" behavior and to engage in internecine competition for the scarce oxygen available in their environment. A cosmic struggle among ever more complex forms of life has become the anthropic foundational myth of the scientific age.

" In 1956 at the age of 30 he was appointed as the vice rector of the Catholic University of Puerto Rico "a position he managed to keep for several years before getting thrown out—Illich was just a little too loud in his criticism of the Vatican’s pronouncements on birth control and comparatively demure silence about the bomb. 1951. 1982.

Ivan Illich (pron. : /ɪˈvɑːn ˈɪlɪtʃ/; 4 September 1926 – 2 December 2002) was an Austrian philosopher Roman Catholic priest and "maverick social critic" of the institutions of contemporary Western culture and their effects on the provenance and practice of education medicine work energy use transportation and economic development.