On the philosophy of Wendell Berry

Jeroen

I came across this very interesting author, poet and activist named Wendell Berry on YouTube, who died on the 31st of August, 2026. He was in favour of agricultural communities and small farms, and against industrial agriculture, which he saw as an outflow of the World War 2 industrial and chemical business. He was a prolific writer, Berry wrote at least twenty-five books (or chapbooks) of poems, twenty-four volumes of essays, and fifteen novels and short story collections.

People called him a poet and a prophet, and although he called himself a Christian “of a kind” he had a broad appeal, in his appreciation for the Earth, nature and mankind’s place within it. Some of the things he wrote were rather zennish. From Wikipedia…

According to Berry, the good life includes sustainable agriculture, appropriate technologies, healthy rural communities, connection to place, the pleasures of good food, animal husbandry, good work, local economics, the miracle of life, consistent life ethic, fidelity, frugality, reverence, and the interconnectedness of life. The threats Berry finds to this good simple life include: industrial farming and the industrialization of life, ignorance, hubris, greed, violence against others and against the natural world, the eroding topsoil in the United States, global economics, and environmental destruction.

“People use drugs, legal and illegal, because their lives are intolerably painful or dull. They hate their work and find no rest in their leisure. They are estranged from their families and their neighbors. It should tell us something that in healthy societies drug use is celebrative, convivial, and occasional, whereas among us it is lonely, shameful, and addictive. We need drugs, apparently, because we have lost each other.”
― Wendell Berry

“Thus, although we are not slaves in name, and cannot be carried to market and sold as somebody else's legal chattels, we are free only within narrow limits. For all our talk about liberation and personal autonomy, there are few choices that we are free to make. What would be the point, for example, if a majority of our people decided to be self-employed?
The great enemy of freedom is the alignment of political power with wealth. This alignment destroys the commonwealth - that is, the natural wealth of localities and the local economies of household, neighborhood, and community - and so destroys democracy, of which the commonwealth is the foundation and practical means.”
― Wendell Berry

“Rats and roaches live by competition under the laws of supply and demand; it is the privilege of human beings to live under the laws of justice and mercy.”
― Wendell Berry

“So, friends, every day do something that won't compute...Give your approval to all you cannot understand...Ask the questions that have no answers. Put your faith in two inches of humus that will build under the trees every thousand years...Laugh. Be joyful though you have considered all the facts...Practice resurrection.”
― Wendell Berry

lobster

Thanks #Jeroen

People like this are like gold. And I believe there are a lot of them. I also know many good people here and on the internet who are sharing the knowledge and lives of such people.
Sometimes their wake up calls are intense but always it seems obvious and true and empowering.

Who else has such recommends?

person

I'd say we've lost a lot that's important in the modern age. But I wouldn't want to go back to the conditions of a pre industrial agrarian economy or the social conformity pressures of village life. We've also gained some things over the years. We ought to be able to find those lost things again as I know plenty of people who still have them, gardens, connection, and good work in life away from the city.