Thursday, August 18, 2011

Response To Faustian Economics: Hell Hath No Limits.

Berry, Wendell. "Faustian Economics: Hell Hath No Limits." Harper's Magazine. The Harper's Magazine Foundation, May 2008. Web. 18 August 2011.

Read this article


Wendell Berry expresses his views toward the issue of destroying our resources and our blind idea of being limitless. Berry states, "In keeping with our unrestrained consumptiveness, the commonly accepted basis of our economy is the supposed possibility of limitless growth, limitless wants, limitless wealth, limitless natural resources, limitless energy, and limitless debt." He also states that the human race considers themselves "higher animals", which then, somehow, gives us the right to be limitless in the idea of using every resource we can receive and wasting it. Also, the 'law of return' that Berry refers to is him saying that there is no returning after consuming so much of what the earth has to offer. Berry also writes of the ideas of an artist and how work of theirs always has a limit and we should think of the world in terms of the way they think of their canvas to paint on. The idea of being limitless has become assumed due to the embarrassment of a solution that does not involve higher technology or a big machine. Wendell Berry expresses his belief of having limits, because without them we may not exist.

Throughout the article that Wendell Berry writes, he states that our world is becoming a tragic place due to the copious amounts of "freedom" in the human race. This article is significant because of the modern day use of higher technology and how it effects the world because of the amount of resources that are being wasted. Berry also states that in order to cure this disease of the idea of being higher animals and limitless, we must start over and recover by accepting the fact that we are not "higher animals", we still are creatures of limited intelligence. According to Berry, it is important to recognize the amount of harm we are doing to the future of earth and step back and realize we are not limitless.

Practice Post

I have already had a blog for about a year now. I enjoy using Blogger and I feel that this will help with responses to articles.