And have recently read (or re-read):
God's Last Offer
by Ed Ayres
Blood and Oil
by Michael T. Klare
Paynehollow: Life on the Fringe of Society
by Harlan Hubbard
The Best Democracy Money can Buy
by Greg Palast
Moby Dick: Or, the Whale
by Herman Melville
Collected Short Stories
by Mark Twain
Home Economics
by Wendell Berry
Hannah Coulter
by Wendell Berry
and heartily recommend them all!
And, in that literary spirit, I offer a few quotes from St. Wendell of Berry:
Communists and capitalists alike, "liberal" and "conservative" capitalists alike, have needed to replace religion with some form of determinism, so that they can say to their victims, "I am doing this because I can't do otherwise. It is not my fault. It is inevitable." The wonder is how often organized religion has gone along with this lie.
The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings.
The aim and result of war necessarily is not peace but victory, and any victory won by violence necessarily justifies the violence that won it and leads to further violence.
An economy based on waste is inherently and hopelessly violent, and war is its inevitable by-product. We need a peaceable economy.
A corporation, essentially, is a pile of money to which a number of persons have sold their moral allegiance.
There are not enough rich and powerful people to consume the whole world; for that, the rich and powerful need the help of countless ordinary people.
I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief... For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
========
May we all rest in the grace of this old world.
2 comments:
Dan,
That is a fine list and I appreciate the quotes from Wendell Berry. I have read three of his books, and was particularly impressed by Hannah Coulter. I reviewed it as the first entry on my new blog. It is nce to find some like mind in this crazy world.
ricklibrarian
I'm 3/4 of the way through Hannah Coulter, so don't give away the ending! Berry's fiction is so perfect. I love the idea of all these series of stories that deals with a community - not an individual - like most serials do.
And to think that I initially only read Berry's essays and wasn't particularly interested in the fiction or poetry!
Post a Comment