I wonder why say anything more.  Much has been said already, a storehouse of hard earned wisdom, the deposit of ancestors from their trials and errors.  Little attention is paid, especially if at first what has been written is arcane, somewhat opaque, less than transparent.  Complaints are voiced, and we move on to an amusing youtube with spoken dialog that relieves us the work of thinking.  We watch and “we are thought” by the edited and produced video message…..

I struggle to avoid the pit of cynicism.  My instinct tells me that someone has to write for my time and for this generation.  What others have written is not enough; our fight for just a bit more humanization demands that I do my part, such as it is.  The destination is over the horizon.  It is a long march.

This morning I will share some quotations from Wendell Berry’s book, Life Is A Miracle.  Berry is an essayist, short story writer, poet, contestant for the preservation of Nature and humanity, –who lives in Port Royal Kentucky.

I will interpolate my comments with the quotations.

To trust progress
or our putative “genius”
to solve
all the problems that we cause
is worse than bad science;
it is bad religion.

The faith in progress, the unquestioned conviction that democracy/capitalism is making things better and better, everyday in every way is nearly universal among Americans.  We have little to no memory of our peoples past struggles.  We are children of post WWII prosperity, and of the iphone revolution.  Bad religion indeed, no different than the irrational conviction that “Jesus is coming again.”

The standards of our behavior
must be derived,
not from the capability of technology,
but from the nature of places and communities.
The priority must shift
from production
to local adaptation,
from innovation
to familiarity,
from power
to elegance,
from costliness
to thrift.

This is a counter-cultural, revolutionary statement.

Propriety: the fact that we are not alone.

We are being measured
by a standard
that we did not make
and cannot destroy.

Propriety
is the denial
that the individuals wish
is the ultimate measure
of the world.

Where are we?
Who are we?
What is our condition?
What are our abilities?
What appropriately may we do
in our own interest here?

These ideas presuppose that we desire a society that is not a Darwinian survival of the strongest, quickest, and most ruthless.  Have we thought about that?  What do we want?  If I believe that my desire is the “measure of all things” it is a cinch that my neighbor believes the same of him/her self, and so on…..

Materialism assumes:
1. The world is just an object to be used
2. Cause and effect determinism is
     inscribed in our methods and language
3. Mystery is discounted, rejected
4. Force, imperialistic and tyrannical
     is the way forward
5. Everything is reduced
     to the average or a type
6. The machine is the model
     for reality
7. Originality is the prime value
8. Progress is inevitable
     and without cost or loss

We live in a ethos of materialism; we are born into a society with agreed upon rules, and norms of materialism.  These statements are a counter argument, a proposal for a better construction of the world.  Is anything just an object, a raw material for our use/profit; what about the tadpoles swimming in the creek; the moist earth of my garden?  What about the mystery that cannot be quantified, monetized?  What price would you put on Denali National Park in Alaska?

There is much more to be said about each of these points.  Think about them for yourself.  Add your own commentary.  You and I are building a future.

---

I was told this is a long post.  Yes it is.  When everything is on the line, and it is high time to pull the trigger,  —one might as well empty the clip.  My friend, we are in a fight for our lives and that of future generations.