Reading over Wendell Berry's Jeffersonian lecture, I have the same experience I've had time and again with his work.He possesses a profound passion for and comprehensive philosophy about the earth--devoid of a trace of clichéd language or reasoning.
His economic views are, by contrast, littered with false dilemmas and a desire to broadly criticize capitalism in moral judgments that often simply don't apply.
In some ways, he appears cantankerous for the sake of being cantankerous. He seems to think his stubbornness in the face of technological advancement requires no justification; it has merit simply because it stands as a counterbalance to others' thoughtless embrace of technology.
Above all else, my repeated experience with Wendell Berry's writing is the realization that it is simply astonishing. Astonishing. Every word manifests his craftsmanship. For my money, nobody breathing today who is writing essays in English composes more forceful, economical, and electric prose.
Surely, he is not simply writing beautiful sentences; he as, as Mark Bittman said in his recent interview, "an inspiration" to leaders and the person considering our relationship to the world in ways far more complex than are commonly discussed.
But, even if you are diametrically opposed to his argument, you cannot help but admit it is offered so fearlessly and so brilliantly that you must appreciate the mind that created something so remarkable.
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