Our Fundamental Problem

Wisdom from the Agrarians

Photo by Patrick Hendry on Unsplash

“Our fundamental problem is world-destruction caused by an irreconcilable contradiction between the natural world and the engineered world of industrialism.”

- Wendell Berry, The Future of Agriculture.

Fundamental. You don’t get much more important than that. Fundamental: at the core, the bedrock, the most vital thing. Whenever someone says “This is fundamental” we should sit up and listen. They are expounding upon something which they firmly believe is of great importance, something which gets to the heart of the matter — and which concerns us all. Fundamental. It’s a bold statement of fact. You don’t say fundamental if you just mean “In my opinion”…

So, what does Wendell Berry, that old agrarian sage, state is the fundamental problem affecting mankind today? World destruction. Forget economic crises, crises of identity, or rumours of wars. As important as they all are, they pale in comparison to this fundamental problem.¹ These other crisis are then merely symptoms of the great disease that is the industrial destruction of our world, and we have no hope of solving them if we neglect to treat the underlying — fundamental — disease.

World destruction warrants the title “fundamental problem” because this world is our home. Our only home. It is the God-given place that provides us with all of our food, water, and shelter; a place full to the brim of beauty and wonder; a place designed for us, given to us, and entrusted to us. If we destroy our only home where else can we go? Certainly not Mars.

Only a madman destroys his own home. It is to our great disadvantage then, that many of our rulers and leaders have been such madmen, leading us down the path of world destruction in return for short term economic and political gain. But we mustn’t let our own selves off the hook. We have all been complicit to one degree or another in this destruction of our home. Wendell Berry included.²

How then can we get ourselves out of the giant mess we have made for ourselves and this planet which we live upon? How can we begin to avert this most existential of issues affecting us wherever we are? Thankfully, Wendell Berry gives us some answers we would do well to heed…

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Is Wendell Berry right that this is the fundamental issue facing us all today in the modern world?³ And is he right that the underlying cause of this is the conflict between the natural world and the engineered world of industrialism?

These questions are some of the things we will be discussing on the next Wendell Berry Reading Group happening on Zoom next Thursday at 8.30PM UK time (link at the bottom of this piece) AND on the Wendell Berry chat group over the next two weeks. Both groups are open to all paid subscribers and for the next one week only, I am running a 25% off for one year offer.

Now on to consider this fundamental question further…

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