Wendell Berry: Farmer, Ecologist and Author

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But anyway, in this novel I've tried to keep the modern world in mind, and tried to gauge what we've inherited that can stand against it. I finally realized that in Old Jack a rather formidable intelligence comes through, and a kind of tragic experience. He understands that there is such a thing as a modern ignorance that consists of arrogance and the assumption that we can outsmart our nature. His conclusion is that man can't help being ignorant, but he can help being a fool.

PLOWBOY: In other words, for you, Old Jack is another means of expressing the dignity of a farming heritage and the important rituals that each farmer is a part of.

BERRY: That's right. If you come from farming stock you know, for instance, when you plant a row in the garden each spring that thousands upon thousands of your own people have done it every spring, and that you're participating in an act that has had to take place every year since agriculture began.

PLOWBOY: It's that kind of awareness that's drawing thousands of people back to the land each year.

BERRY: Well, I'd be the first to say that there are a lot of people who oughtn't to come to the country, and I devoutly hope they won't come. That solution isn't feasible for everybody. We need people to stay in the cities and make them decent and livable again in order to have a healthy nation. But the city has all the advocates and praisers and critics it needs. The country is pretty well understaffed with advocates at present and I feel like it's an obligation as well as a privilege to speak from this point of view.

We do need more people who can try and undertake the daily labor of working out a different kind of life. But making a place and holding on to it is not something you can put a guarantee on. Our life here has been lucky and there's no way we can get around that. We've tried to do the work our good fortune has brought us and that, of course, is the crux of the matter.

If you're willing to do the work every day, then as far as you know you're probably worthy of your luck. If you're not doing the work, then you ought to worry that you're betraying your good fortune — and anybody who has a piece of land right now is supremely fortunate.

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