I just watched a Bill Moyer's piece on Wendel Berry and found myself taken in by his profound sensitivity and understanding. One can not help but step back and re-look a what we have, what we have changed and the value that is out there in the form of nature.
But I was also struck and reminded of a statement I have heard years ago that said some thing to the affect that Thoreau was the most quoted of Amur'kan writer whose advise and wisdom no one follows. In other words, he was able to reflect on the life of man, on his politics, his polices, his behaviors all in great language but no one really paid any attention to it even if they knew he was dead on.
Oh sure there are individuals that pay attention and may adjust their ways but most of us are like Al Gore, talk and talk about changes to be made to save the earth and then live in a 25 room home and fly around in a personal jet. It seems that words, are just words, are just words and while they may be assembled in great form, peoples actions are not really much influenced by them. We all just plod on doing what "The System" wants, and manipulates us through mind bombardments of another sort--all of it covered in material wealth.
In the presentation all the followers, admirers, and worshipers nod in agreement all starry-eyed as if a reborn Jesus freaks, and all, visibly shaken. But what really gets done? He seems to be gentle a man. Yes, he does fight using civil disobedience but the words are always kind, maybe too kind. Are the believers just too few?
I can not help but think of others that have passed through our lives such a Gandhi and Martin L King both most articulate and committed, who have done and said great things. Still our lives move almost unaltered in a direction that is very much in question. Here are two quotes by the above icons of my life.
"God forbid that India should ever take to industrialism after the manner of the West...if an entire nation of 300 million took to a similar economic exploitation, it would strip the world bare like locusts." Gandhi 1928
"Unlike the plagues of the dark ages or contemporary diseases, which we do not understand, the modern plague of overpopulation is soluble by means we have discovered and with resources we possess. What is lacking is not sufficient knowledge of the solution, but universal consciousness of the gravity of the problem and the education of billions of people who are its victims." ML King
What does it take to make things happen in this rapidly changing world. Clearly there is some higher power out there that is getting in our way. Wendel Berry is a great man but it may be the Tunisian Shop Keeper who set himself on fire, who did more to change things than all the fancy words.
"Do not speak softly now for the hour is getting late". Dylan
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