Was Wendell Berry Right Not To Buy a Computer?
Discussing Mr. Berry's most famous essay
What is perhaps1 Wendell Berry’s most famous essay isn’t about farming. Or the land for that matter. It is about computers. More accurately, why Wendell Berry, all the way back in 1987, committed to never buying a computer. It is a stance I believe he has kept to this day.
Since 1987, the digital revolution has been astonishing. From personal desktops to personal computers-in-your-pocket, the scale of the technological developments and the rapid pace of new advances has altered our lives in the most fundamental of ways and has left many of us disorientated, addicted, or dissatisfied with our relationship with screens. Many of us may be asking somewhat ruefully, “should we have listened to Mr. Berry all those years ago?” Though it is probably too late for most of us to disengage from the screen, the wisdom contained within this essay may help us navigate a more convivial path through the techno-age we live in.
My most recent essay
Others, however, may be asking, “Was Wendell Berry right?” in a somewhat critical tone. I half agree with them. This certainly is a controversial essay, and I am still not sure what I make of it (especially as I type these worlds on a laptop — without which I could never have been the writer I am today). Though it has been the vocational relationship between Wendell and his wife Tanya as described in the essay which has attracted the most vehement (and in my view unfounded) criticism, others have expressed trouble with Mr. Berry framing computer use as a moral issue and others have questioned the practicality of Mr. Berry’s stance.
These criticisms, as well as affirmations of Mr. Berry’s thought, are all up for discussion in the next Wendell Berry Online Reading Group.2 I hope that despite the diverse opinions we may have on this essay, a fruitful discussion will be had as we seek to understand, critique/approve, and apply Mr. Berry’s thought to our own use of technology.
I hope you will be able to join me on Saturday 22nd February, 8 PM UK time as we discuss this essay, the letters it provoked, and Wendell Berry’s response to these letters.
Zoom codes will be sent out nearer the time. And if this time does not work for you, I am planning on holding a second session looking at this essay later in the year, the times for which will be decided by a poll. Of course, you can attend both sessions if you wish.
The Wendell Berry Reading Group is for paid Subscribers and patrons of Over the Field. This means that the group sizes are small which is conducive to rich discussion. If you wish to join the group, please consider becoming a paid subscriber to Over the Field. A paid subscription will also give you full access to my extensive paywalled essay archive and all forthcoming paid subscriber-exclusive nature writing. I have deliberately kept the price of a paid subscription low and have recently reduced the price from £26 to £22 ($28). However, if that is too much for you, I always offer 20% off for those who need it:
A series on Transhumanism
As an example of some of the essays in my paywall archive for paid subscribers, here is a series on the emerging issue of transhumanism: a serious threat to the goodness of human limitations. Wendell Berry once said “the next great division of the world will be between people who wish to live as creatures and those who wish to live as machines.”3 and he is being proved right about this as we speak.
Others would argue The Unsettling of America is Mr. Berry’s most famous essay.
I am well aware of the apparent cognitive dissonance of discussing this essay online!
Wendell Berry, Life is a Miracle. Counterpoint.
Hi Hadden
I look forward to a later opportunity on this one
As you might work out, I’m otherwise engaged at 8pm GMT on a Saturday evening :)
A brief comment re your laptop “without which I could never have been the writer I am today” Begs a question - if you hadn’t opened that door, what might have come to pass? How might your writing have been different? It’s said that Nietzsche solved his terrible headaches by making an early typewriter - but those who knew him heard a different tone in his writing after he put down his pen . . . :)
Kindest
E
Of course Mr. Berry was right! Just look at us, we are a mess, and he is calmly reading his newspaper. I currently can not think of a technology that the human species has rejected. We don't know we have the freedom and power to say no to the billionaires and their plutocratic ways. As Mr. Berry has told us, the Amish have it figured out!