Alasdair Macintyre (176) defines internal goods as those things which are beneficial to all individuals, while external goods are defined as those goods which are beneficial primarily to those individuals who possess them. This concept of good correlates exactly with the reality of pre-1970 Ladakh, a society that was very much communitarian in nature (Norberg-Hodge 3). The people in pre-1970 Ladakh were sustained by the produce of local agriculture, with no dependence for sustenance on imports from afar. The community was holistic to the point that a problem for one was, in effect, a problem for all. The result was that community resources were applied to the solution of individual problems. Thus, in pre-1970 Ladakh, external goods were few, but internal goods were many.
Macintyre asserted that, to the extent possible, uncertainty and unpredictability must be eliminated from the political aspect of society through the introduction of consistency and coherency. Consistency is to be obtained through the recognition and adherence to an enduring set of values, or virtues. Pre-1970 Ladakh adhered to the enduring values and virtues of Buddhism. Coherency, thus, according to Macintyre is to be obtained through a "coherent and complex form of socially established cooperative human activity through which goods internal to that form of activity are realized" (175). This type of society is exactly the type of society that prevailed in pre-1970 Ladakh. It was truly a communitarian society that was wholly oriented toward local resources.
With respect to providing the means by which individuals may achieve personal identity, John Friedmann holds that the role of the individual must be inseparable from the role of the community as a whole. This sort of empowerment enables individuals to gain some degree of control over what happens in their own lives (Friedmann 92). The society of pre-1970 Ladakh was one within which each member of ...