Megan Nisbet: Berry-The Unsettling of America #2

From the chapter titled Living in the Future: The "Modern" Agricultural Ideal: "And the modern household's direct destruction of the world bears a profound relation--as cause or effect of both--to the fundamental moral disconnections for which it also stands. It divorces us from the sources of or bodily life; as a people, we no longer know the earth we come from, have no respect for it, keep no responsibilities to it. And few who are acquainted with the young can doubt that the schools are failing under the burden of that deeper failure." And reflection on further into the chapter as well.

Berry writes about the same thing that he did in the chapter that I wrote about before from this book--pollution vs. an easy life. Berry seems to dislike everything about this world we live in now, and still does not look at the positive effects these inventions have given us. He talks about the "automated kitchen, in a gleaming, odorless bathroom, in year-round air conditioning...." while he sits in his chair at his desk with his computer on which he is typing his book. I would honestly like to see this man without any of the luxuries machines and technology have brought us. I laugh at the thought of him trying to make his own tools from stones and hunt with them, while wearing clothes he made himself from the skin of other animals he had killed in the past. I would like to see him in the hut he fashioned himself without the tools we have now that make our lives easier, and try to make a fire just by using sticks. It is impossible for humans to live like this because of the way we have progressed. With the way our bodies have adapted over time, we wouldn't survive without the clothing and other things that technology has given us to help us survive--look at Chris McCandless that tried to live on his own in the wilderness--it just doesn't work. It's just not possible anymore to survive without technology. This goes back to my discussion earlier about the "acceptable" level of pollution. There has to be some sacrifice in order for our lives to be easier. Humans are realizing the effects pollution is having on our environment now, and are doing things to reduce it as much as they can. If Berry wishes to get rid of all pollution, we will have to get rid of all luxuries that have been created by machines, which will bring us back to making our own everything, as I said earlier. I don't think he's ready to leave behind all of his luxuries, and I'm sure 90% of humans that have these luxuries are either.