Wendell Berry and Human Blindness

Dear Fred,

Thanks again for your commentary and encouragement.

With few (if any) exceptions, blindness is built into the human condition. 

Who would dare the journey if newborns saw pain in the round and the solace of sex and solid food still meant nothing in the mind of The Child?

In a partisan way, George Lakoff drills deep: "In the conservative moral system, the highest value is protecting and extending the moral system itself. When conservative icons or ideas themselves are threatened, it is not uncommon for conservative politicians to lie in their defense (Reagan never raised taxes; there’s no evidence for global warming; “government takeover”). Voters tolerate lies they see as serving a moral purpose…" http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/01/22/why-politicians-get-away-with-lying/why-conservatives-lie-about-iraq-and-global-warming

Wendell Berry nails The Human Condition: 

“There is also the Territory of historical self-righteousness: if we had lived south of Ohio in 1830, we would not have owned slaves; if wehad lived on the frontier, we would have killed no Indians, violated no treaties, stolen no land.  The probability is overwhelming that if we had belonged to the generation we deplore, we too would have behaved deplorably.  The probability is overwhelming that we belong to a generation that will be found by its successors to have behaved deplorably.  Not to know that is, again, to be in error and to neglect essential work, and some of this work, as before, is work of the imagination.  How can we imagine our situation or our history if we think we are superior to it?” http://davidswanson.wordpress.com/tag/wendell-berry/

Pax on both houses,

Alan

On Tue, Jul 23, 2013 at 2:29 PM, Fred Owens <froghospital911@gmail.com> wrote:

Alan,

The Atlantic story was like a discussion of liver cancer, discovering that a larger percentage of men were suffering from this illness --- knowing this may be useful information in combating the disease, but otherwise it is of no consequence and hardly cause for a declaration of progress.

The left consistently, if indirectly, praises single parenthood.

I diabetic might need a leg amputation. In which case we would say that the amputation was a good thing, and happy that we have so many good prosthetic legs these days.

But better to have two legs.

I could go on ...... and I will

thank you for your good work --- pax is a good place to go

Fred