Discipline and Hope by Wendell Berry

1: INTRODUCTORY NOTE

I BEGIN WITH what I believe is a safe premise, at least in the sense that most of the various sides of the current public argument would agree, though for different reasons: that we have been for some time in a state of general cultural disorder, and that this disorder has now become critical. My interest here has been to examine to what extent this disorder is a failure of discipline-specifically, a failure of those disciplines, both private and public, by which desired ends might be reached, or by which the proper means to a desired end might be determined, or by which it might be perceived that one apparently desirable end may contradict or forestall another more desirable. Thus we have not asked how the "quality of life," as we phrase it, may be fostered by social and technological means that are sensitive only to quantitative measures; we have not really questioned the universal premise of power politics that peace (among the living) is the natural result of war; we have hardly begun to deal with the fact that an economy of waste is not compatible with a healthy environment.