He reflected, too, on the course of his career. When he began writing, he noted, he was widely ridiculed. However, now even his "enemies" - various industrial farming organizations - are now inviting him to give lectures, invitations that he finds hard to decline. He noted that something is now happening - "incrementally" - in the gradual and almost imperceptible accumulation of realizations that seems to be rising to consciousness of an ever-greater number of people. He compared it to attending meetings: "I've never been to a meeting where anything worthwhile ever seems to have been said" (I replied that it sounded like academic committee meetings), but still, over time, something has happened. More people - but still too few - are becoming aware of the unsustainability of our way of life, of the isolation resulting from the way we've organized our living space, of the loss of patrimony and the disruption of cultural transmission that used to be part of the obligations of one generation to the next. He seemed hopeful, and it was hard not to agree with him, sitting with him on his front porch, orioles flitting in and out of view above the river, on that beautiful day.
A treasured afternoon
Thursday May 3, 2007
Gary Seaton forwards this blog post from Prof. Patrick Deneen of Georgetown, who recently spent the afternoon on Wendell Berry's front porch, talking with the great man. Excerpt:
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Rod Dreher is an editorial columnist for the Dallas Morning News, and author of "Crunchy Cons" (Crown Forum), a nonfiction book about conservatives, most of them religious, whose faith and political convictions sometimes put them at odds with mainstream conservatives. The views expressed in this blog are his own.
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I am saying, Max, that if you choose to see the 10 million murders of the Holocaust as the results of a plan to make a little "living room" in Europe, then I have no hope for your credulity.
You may wish to reread, as I did, the exchange between M_David and Giittv. You will see that "living room" is at best a superficial view of the points they are discussing.>
Yes - let's be sure here. I am in no way talking about abortion as a means of population control.
Every "pro-life" person I've spoken to has always spoken of the ideal first, and the reality second. The reality of abortion is that there are people in this country and world who are not capable of caring for children. They shouldn't have gotten pregnant in the first place, to be sure, but what difference does that make when they find themselves in the circumstance where they *are* pregnant?
If every time an oopsie happened, it resulted in a birth, we'd be in a dilly of a pickle as a nation, for sure - but we'd be in no kind of trouble conpared to the trouble inflicted upon those who have no means - financially, emotionally, or spiritually - to raise a child.
Not every one of those children would be adopted. Not every one would be cared for and loved. Many would be unbelievable burdens on already stretched families. So many talk about "the innocent life that is lost" without thinking the innocent lives that would be ruined by injecting another mouth to feed in the mix.
Not every person in this country has the luxury of sitting in a clean office, schoolroom or home and writing idealistic missives on their vastly expensive piece of technology. Not every person in this nation has a family support system that would welcome another child or grandchild. Not every person in this world has the bright and shiny future moralists like to believe these "little miracles' would be denied.
Should they have the "right" to find out for themselves? Idealistically? Yes. Realistically? How?>
David White said:
"Well, I suspect that there is the feeling that with regards to in-vitro fertilization, the horse has left the barn. You have to pick your battles."
I understand your point, David, however, I feel your statement is open to different interpretations.
Another possible interpretation of that statement is that it is more 'convenient' to pick the anti-embryonic stem cell research battle because it is not in conflict with the desires of parents who are having trouble conceiving to get pregnant, and who want to use in-vitro fertilization to accomplish this goal.
If we argue that pregnant women shouldn't choose to abort unwanted fetuses out of "convenience" then we can't very well say that those who choose to use in-vitro fertilization have the right to ignore the ethical issues surrounding creating fertilized embryos that will later be discarded because it is "inconvenient" or as you put it, "the horse has left the barn.">
Franklin,
Forgive my late response here.
I'll be more than happy to review European history as a potential corrective to my worldview on the slaughter of innocents.
Perhaps in exchange, you can hold off picking the fly shit out of the pepper of my posts until you've reviewed a few books on rhetoric. Please pay special attention to any passages dealing with hyperbole and analogy.
Best to you...>
"... the disruption of cultural transmission..." wish I knew the context of that... on the one hand, there is wisdom that is of value to pass on from one generation to the next... on the other hand, there are Myths that one generation tries to pass on to the next... but the Myths are being rejected as mismatches with Reality... and some of the wisdom that rides along with the Myths is being lost... faith hope love joy peace to all...
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