Wendel Berry's Standards For Technological Adoption

Wendel Berry at work... without a computer.

"The sustainable guys there talked about low-tech solutions. Sometimes you're looking back in time for solutions."

 

- Stephen Gist

In 1987 Wendel Berry explained that he did not wish to buy a computer with which to do his writing. 

He never did relent, preferring the low tech and less flashy pencil and paper combo.

His goal was always, "to make myself as plain as I can". 

Towards this goal he shared his standards for technological adoption.

They are as follows:

1. The new item should be cheaper than what it replaces.

2. It should be at least as small in scale.

3. It should do work that is clearly and demonstrably better than what it replaces.

4. It should use less energy than what it replaces.

5. If possible, it should use some form of renewable energy, such as solar or that produced by the body.

6. It should be repairable by a person of ordinary intelligence, provided that he or she has the necessary tools.

7. It should be purchasable and repairable as near to home as possible.

8. It should come from a small, privately owned shop or store that would take it back for maintenance and repair.

9. It should not replace or disrupt anything good that already exists, and this includes family and community relationships.

Using such standards would mean that much of the technology we use now would no longer be produced or consumed.

How much of modern technology advances the human condition, rather than advancing surveillance, control, and profit-making?

Maybe we need less technology, not more, or perhaps the answers we need can only be addressed by low tech rather than high.

But talk that way and most people will think you are insane. We have accepted high tech unconditionally as a good that always makes life better.

Berry says, 

"The Luddites asserted the precedence of community needs over technological innovation and monetary profit.

The victory of industrialism over Luddism was overwhelming and unconditional. It was undoubtedly the most complete, significant, and lasting victory of modern times.

To this day, if you say you would be willing to forbid, restrict, or reduce the use of technological devices in order to protect the community, or to protect the good health of nature on which the community depends, you will be called a Luddite, and it will not be a compliment.

Technological determinism has triumphed."

In an insane world, the sane will be seen as the ones who have lost their minds. 

Some would say that Wendel Berry was not thinking straight to consider that using a pencil for writing, and editing on paper with his wife, could not be improved upon by the purchase and use of a computer. 

And yet, he still resisted. 

"The individual", Friederich Nietzsche said, "has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe."

He thought that if you tried it, you would often be lonely, and sometimes frightened. 

But, he thought, "no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself". 

You could say that Berry was off his rocker for not being an enthusiastic cheerleader for high tech. But you couldn't say that he didn't own himself.

We would do well to consider his standards for technological adoption, and seriously question all new innovations before we choose to adopt them in our own lives.

Contrary to what the tribe believes, new technologies are not always improvements that benefit humanity.

Still Waters

I walked to fast flowing water in the woods. It's energy and exuberance were inspiring, but too much for me in my mentally drained state.

I turned to the slow water channel for some relief, and approached it with the spirit of Wendell Berry. I sat and absorbed the quiet nothingness, thinking of his words.

"When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds." 

"I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief." 

"I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light." 

"For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free."

I return home feeling refreshed and revitalized, ready to forge ahead and meet the challenges of the day.

The still waters do it again, and I am grateful. For the moment, I feel free.

The Environment Is In You

I came across these amazing mushrooms on a recent walk in the woods behind my home.

When I go for hikes in the woods I melt right into my surroundings. I meld with everything around me. I cease to exist in my individual, solitary state and merge with everything else. I am in my place and at peace. I am at home.

Modern life separates us from this place of peace. So-called civilized people are "above nature", have "transcended the natural world". We have stopped being participants in a cooperative venture and have taken a competitive ownership over all lower life forms.

Our natural humility has been replaced with an ugly hubristic pride. We are the most important organism on the planet, and everything else is here to serve us. There is us, and there is the environment. We do not want to be associated with that messy, chaotic system.

Wendell Berry challenges us to find "where the line can be drawn between an organism and its environment." "The environment, he says, "is in you."

"It's passing through you. You're breathing it in and out. You and every other creature."

Whatever we do to the environment we do to ourselves, because we are an inextricable part of the whole. No more or less important than anything else.

We are the environment and the environment is us. Just go for a quiet walk in nature and you can get a glimpse of the connection between you and everything else. You are home.

Think Little

Writer/farmer Wendell Berry is a sensible dude that is doing things right. It makes me wonder why we don't have people like him running our governments. Perhaps it is because they are too busy getting things done.

Berry writes about things that may be considered 'quaint' in today's fast-paced, slick modern age that offers all things shiny and new.

"According to him, the good life includes sustainable agriculture, appropriate technologies, healthy rural communities, connection to place, the pleasures of good food, husbandry, good work, local economics, the miracle of life, fidelity, frugality, reverence, and the interconnectedness of life." - Wikipedia

I like Berry because he gives hope to individuals and small groups in society that are making changes, and progress. He recognizes the value, the power, and the potential in the people. He knows how to think little.

"While the government is 'studying' and funding and organizing its Big Thought, nothing is being done. But the citizen who is willing to Think Little, and, accepting the discipline of that, to go ahead on his own, is already solving the problem.

A man who is trying to live as a neighbor to his neighbors will have a lively and practical understanding of the work of peace and brotherhood, and let there be no mistake about it - he is doing that work...

A man who is willing to undertake the discipline and the difficulty of mending his own ways is worth more to the conservation movement than a hundred who are insisting merely that the government and the industries mend their ways."  

- Wendell Berry, The Art of The Commonplace

Individuals and groups committed to making progress, that are starting by thinking little, then working their way up, are changing the world. Never doubt that this is the case. 

Your efforts and changes, regardless of how little, matter.

YOU have the power to make the world a better place.

No Greed, No Waste Monday

"The most alarming sign of the state of our society now is that our leaders have the courage to sacrifice the lives of young people in war, but have not the courage to tell us that we must be less greedy, and less wasteful." 

- Wendell Berry