When Wendell Berry claims that Americans have become limitless animals, I had to agree. The national problem of Earlthy good has surfaced in upmost importance in an attempt to salvage some of the damage that has already been done, and Berry uses specific examples to reinstate his conclusions about wastefullness in the US. In his article Faustian Economics, Berry can not help but tell the down and dirty truth about American culture of consumption, although he alludes to religous themes that are culturally relevant in his argument.
Where did it all begin? How did America go from Native American appreciation of the land to slashing down forests without the blink of an eye? The Industrialization period, according to Berry, is responsible because we suddenly obtained exploitable resources. In the begininng there was no thought as to when the source would run out or just how much it could possibly impact society in the future. Over exertion of these precious valuables has led to an irreversable travesty, one that is surely leading humans off the path of rightoesness according to Barry.
It is necessary to include Berrys allusions to biblical refrences such as Paradise Lost as examples of the ways humans have come to be the ravenous creatures that we are. Immortality seems to be on the tip of his toungue, as if humans have forgotten their responsibility to the Earth, therefore jeopordizing their futures because of the harm being done on the environment.
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I really enjoy the title of this post becuase it shows how no matter how many warning signs we face, each and everyone of us is still out there driving all over everyday getting from place to place as though nothing is happening around us. The truth of the matter is that something is happening and we must all take a step back from the way that we consume if we are going to fix this climate problem. The problem with our solutions as pointed out by Berry is that most of our solutions still involve the same practices that we do today, but on a lesser scale. The time for those types of solutions has passed and if we really want to have an effect against the global climate problem then we must take new initiatives and change he ways that we do everything.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this as well. But I'm not sure if I agree that we obtained exploitable resources, we've always had them... because they are resources. Instead, we've found a reason for them. Which wouldn't be a huge deal, but we have exploited the way in which we use them and therefore have exploited the resources.
ReplyDeletehannah i agree especially with the it being a necessity for Berry to tie in religious elements. Our culture of greed, waste and overconsumption really does have moral roots, whether they be ill- or well-intentioned. The basic problem is the focus on us. On our needs, our lifestyles and a blantant disregard for the tneeds of those around us be they other countries, other communities or even the environment.
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