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The Camden Philosophical Society on March 18 will continue along the path laid out in our February reading from Robin Wall Kimmerer, in this case with a reading by agrarian thinker Wendell Berry, taken from his famed 1970s work The Unsettling of America. Both sessions form part of a series of discussions by the society on capitalism and alternatives to this mode of organizing and living in human society.
The March 18 session will, as usual, be a hybrid gathering from 3:30-5:30 pm EDT on the third Tuesday of the month. All are welcome to participate, in-person at the Picker Room of the Camden Public Library or by Zoom. That goes for visitors, as well as year-rounders in Maine, and friends of the society wherever you may be.
If you wish to participate via Zoom, please email sarahmiller@usa.net. You will receive a Zoom invitation on the morning of the meeting. Click on the “Join Zoom Meeting” link in that invitation at the time of the event.
As highlighted in our February discussion, Kimmerer in Braiding Sweetgrass postulates that the ways in which we relate to the Earth affect how we relate to one another. According to Kimmerer, we need to enter consciously into a relationship of love — the earth loves us and we love the earth. Such is the basis of the Indigenous “gift” economy, which stands in such sharp contrast to a profit-oriented capitalist economy.
Like Kimmerer, Berry believes that how we relate to the land affects how we relate to one another. He looks at our culture’s relationship to land — exploitive, destructive, and indifferent — and reveals the cost we are paying ecologically, individually, and culturally. He calls it a disease. Being a farmer and Jeffersonian, Berry provides a unique view into our culture. One that heavily influenced the ideals and actions of many of the “back-to-the-landers” who flocked to Maine in the 1970s, around the time The Unsettling of America was first published.
The discussion will be introduced by back-to-the-lander, farmer, and artisan in wood Mike Beaudry. As readings, Mike selected the first four essays from The Unsettling of America. These are “The Unsettling of America,” “The Ecological Crisis as a Crisis of Character,” ”The Ecological Crisis as a Crisis of Agriculture,” and “The Agricultural Crisis as a Crisis of Culture.”
A PDF of the book can be found at https://kyl.neocities.org/books/%5BSOC%20BER%5D%20the%20unsettling%20of%20america.pdf