Ep. 41 - The Mentality of Exploitation

"Now, as then - we see the abstract values of an industrial economy, preying upon the native productivity of land and people.  

The fur trade was only the first establishment on this continent of a mentality of whose triumph is it's catastrophe.  

My purposes in beginning with this survey of history are:

1. To show how deeply rooted in our past is the mentality of exploitation.
2. To show how fundamentally revolutionary it is.
3. To show how crucial to our history, hence to our own minds, is the question of how we will relate to our land.

This question, now that the corporate revolution has so determinedly invaded the farmland returns us to our oldest crisis. "

• Wendell Berry - The Unsettling of America
• What the quote means
• Why the quote is relevant
• Horticulture vs Agriculture
• Polyculture vs Monoculture
• Abundance, Diversity, and Health

Quote from "The Unsettling of America: Culture & Agriculture" - Wendell Berry

• Since its publication in 1977, The Unsettling of America has been recognized as a classic of American letters. In it, Wendell Berry argues that good farming is a cultural and spiritual discipline. Today’s agribusiness, however, takes farming out of its cultural context and away from families. As a result, we as a nation are more estranged from the land―from the intimate knowledge, love, and care of it.
• Sadly, his arguments and observations are more relevant than ever. Although “this book has not had the happy fate of being proved wrong,” Berry writes, there are people working “to make something comely and enduring of our life on this earth.” Wendell Berry is one of those people, writing and working, as ever, with passion, eloquence, and conviction.

This book is as old as I am, yet the arguments and observations are more relevant than ever.

• What does this mean?
• Why is this relevant?

Because it's important to understand history.

While history doesn't rhyme, it sure does sound familiar at times.

The show began with a quote by Wendell Berry written over 40 years ago

1. "To show how deeply rooted in our past is the mentality of exploitation."
2. "To show how fundamentally revolutionary it is."
3. "To show how crucial to our history, hence to our own minds, is the question of how we will relate to our land."

• Horticulture vs Agriculture

The mentality of exploitation appears to be a "newer" thought - a western thought.

 A thought developed in a culture that rose from the roots of an agricultural society, perhaps.

• Polyculture vs Monoculture

Monoculture of land becomes representative in the thought process of the people.

 Monoculture of the mind.

 People change.

• Abundance, Diversity, and Health

Permaculture is the solution.

 How do we lead a Permaculture based life?

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