Wendell Berry’s work, “Two Minds”, distinguish between the rational and sympathetic minds that people have and Reece relates it to coal mining. When Mr. Berry is talking about a rational mind, he is talking about the objective, analytical, and empirical, ways of thinking. To me this means that he is saying this is the way the coal mining companies think. In the third part of the book, Reece talks about how coal companies believe that since the locals pollute the areas with trash anyways, that they should be able to mine the mountains and just add to the pollution. He thinks that since the area is already polluted, why not add just a little more pollution and be able to get this black gold from the mountains. The sympathetic way of thinking is more organic, the intuitive, and thinking about the wild. To me this is related to the coal miners and the people who live in these counties. The way the coal miners think is that the coal companies strip the land of all of its resources and leave it a wasteland when they are done, which is true to some extent given the interviews and the primary sources that Reece uses in the book. He also talks about how if the coal companies never came the forests could grow various foods such as herbs and mushrooms, and be used for hunting.
“It has been well documented by psychiatrist Peter C. Whybrow that Americans are four times more affluent than during the ‘60’s, we have shown no measurable gains in happiness. In fact the opposite is true: We are more depressed, more medicated, more frazzled than at any other time in our short history. The more we are anesthetized by material wealth, the farther we stray from our biophilic selves. We move from house to garage to car to work to mall to gym to house again with little regard to our ancestral homeland.”(Page 241) I think that this quote is pretty accurate when it comes to people trying to keep up with their everyday lives and them potentially losing sight of what their true values are. Everyone these days are too busy trying to make more money than the next guy, they don’t take the time to realize what put us here and what keeps us alive. Personally, I do not blame them. I hate to say it but in order for our lives to go round, we must make money. That is a value that people hate to admit but if you didn’t make money then you would not be able to eat. Everything is tied together. In order for us to make money, we must work, in order to work we must have a way to get there, in order for us to get to work we need money for gas. Everything is circular allowing no time to stray too far from the tree, but in this case it is our house behind a white picket fence.
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That quote from the conclusion of Lost Mountain struck me, as well. We do need money, and it is a vicious cycle, but that is exactly what is wrong. We are so wrapped up in the cycle that we cannot stop and change it. It is what we've grown up on and for the most part all that we know. The only way for it to end is for the next generation of children to be raised thinking differently, and this might need to happen. If we can all raise our children to be more environmentally aware, then perhaps eventually they will live in a more environmentally conscious society and the monetary cycle of life will end.
ReplyDeleteI like that you used the quote that pertains to happiness. Yes we can learn all we want, and be successful economically, but what about happiness? When are we to realize what it is that makes one happy? I feel that if we stripped away all of the societal expectations that have been placed upon us, then we might be happier. If we took time to understand everyone and everything is in this life together, then maybe we would all be happier.
ReplyDeleteStudies show that poverty makes people unhappy. Duh. But then it gets interesting, showing that more and more money beyond poverty is not sufficient for making us happy.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the statement albertoid made above. There is a perfect balance that must be made in order for people to be classified as "happy". Too little money and everyday begins as a struggle, too much money and the drive to get more and more quickly destroys the life that you worked to build.
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