Wendell Berry on Faustian Economics, via:
That human limitlessness is a fantasy means, obviously, that its life expectancy is limited. There is now a growing perception, and not just among a few experts, that we are entering a time of inescapable limits. We are not likely to be granted another world to plunder in compensation for our pillage of this one. Nor are we likely to believe much longer in our ability to outsmart, by means of science and technology, our economic stupidity. The hope that we can cure the ills of industrialism by the homeopathy of more technology seems at last to be losing status. We are, in short, coming under pressure to understand ourselves as limited creatures in a limited world.
When we find the limits, who will we blame? Who must pay for the dashing of our delusions? That is fine work for the Think Tanks. Could be Mexicans, Blacks, or Terriorists. Could the Liberals, the Seculars, or the Nay-Sayers. Who will we blame when the food runs short?
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