The World-Ending Fire by Wendell Berry [Reading]

I loved reading this book. Wendell Berry puts words to many of the opinions that I’ve held for a long time but have often struggled to articulate: the importance of local community and the issues with scale; the ugliness of an economy based on competition; the silliness of expecting the free market to fix our society’s ills; the questionable value of supposed technological progress; the appeal of a home economy; the necessity of living one’s own values. Berry’s view of the world is solidly grounded in his experience as a small-town, small-scale farmer. I think just about every essay in the book mentions soil erosion or some other harm humanity has inflicted on the earth. I can see how that might become tiresome, but it didn’t bother me. I see it as the real, practical lens through which Berry views these topics. I’m impressed by Berry’s ability to accept his own part in the issues he writes about. He argues that we should all be living differently, living better, in more harmony with…