Bad effects of bad work (Berry)
April 8th, 2008 | Published in Consumerism, Culture, Ecology, Morality, Quotes, Work | 2 Comments
Everywhere, every day, local life is being discomforted, disrupted, endangered, or destroyed by powerful people who live, or who are privileged to think they live, beyond the bad effects of their bad work.
A powerful class of itinerant professional vandals is now pillaging the country and laying it waste. Their vandalism is not called by that name because of its enormous profitability (to some) and the grandeur of its scale. If one wrecks a private home, that is vandalism, but if, to build a nuclear power plant, one destroys good farmland, disrupts a local community, and jeopardizes lives, home, and properties within an area of several thousand square mile, that is industrial progress.
—Wendell Berry, “Higher Education and Home Defense” in Home Economics (1986), p. 50.
April 9th, 2008 at 6:12 am (#)
I agree with the sentiment here, if not the example cited. I’m not so sure that building a nuclear power plant is any more destructive (esp. with regard to overall environmental impact) than other forms of industrial power generation.
Either way, good thought provoking quote.
April 9th, 2008 at 7:34 am (#)
You are right, nuclear power usually isn’t usually as dirty as coal or oil, but it is much dirtier if something goes wrong.
I’m not sure I agree with Berry completely, but it does make one think.