Wendell Berry: Genius or Madman

Berry, Wendell. “Faustian Economics: Hell Hath No Limits.” Harper’s Magazine. The Harper's Magazine Foundation, May 2008. Web. 31 Dec. 2009.

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Wendell Berry’s reasoning for writing, “Faustian Economics: Hell Hath No Limits,” was to tell everyone how he felt about the way our country uses our natural resources. Wendell’s point of view was very easy to pick up on because of his use of repetition within all the sentences and paragraphs. He continuously repeats the word, ‘limitless’, ‘limitless animals’ and numerous other phrases and doing this, he gives a very strong argument and keeps the reader wanting to know more about what is going on inside his head. He supports his idea with the concepts of politics, art, science, religion and insanity. Politicians provide America with this sense of limitless by campaigning that coal will be around for another 100 years but Wendell says, “Well, what after that?” Berry says that art has its’ limits because one piece of art cannot really be compared to another, but in science, things are limitless because it is always advancing. Religion is also limitless but not everyone has the same point of view. To sum every word Wendell Berry says in this article is that Americans think our natural resources are limitless and we will deplete our earth sooner than later if we keep going at the rate we are now, hence the words ‘limitless animals.’

Berry’s point of view is very blunt one and a scary one at that. His point of view is very significant to today’s culture because it’s about our future. Berry talks about our depletion of the Earth’s natural resources and the rate at which they are depleting. He calls Americans limitless animals for a reason; that reason is because we use our natural resources like they are limitless. The Earth has its own timeline at which things grow or regrow; humans do not see it like that and continuously overuse our resources provided for us by nature. A whole forest that was cut down will take years and years to grow back, but, humans do not wait for those years; we just keep on destroying, taking what is not ours, and do not wait for things to ‘rebuild.’ Wendell Berry’s article is trying to inform parents and everyone for that matter about their future and their children’s future. Americans need a new mind set on how much to take and how much is necessary for survival. More, more, more, and the thought of everything as limitless will only hurt in the long run. His words are for informing the poor souls who think this Earth is limitless and will never run out of resources because one day, it will and he can look back and say, “I told you so!”