Patrick, this is a superb piece! You seemed to channel some Wendell Berry which made me wonder whether you have come acorss Hadden Turner's substack Over the Field? He writes in a very similar vein. Where is that photo taken that you used at the start of the post? (it looks very much like Switzerland....)
Thank you Ruth! I do indeed read Over the Field and, as you suspected, am a big fan of Berry. I'm afraid the photo is simply a stock photo but I believe it is Switzerland.
Great piece Patrick, It seems ludicrous that so many in government and business discount the hidden costs - but also that we as a society let them. I made a similar point in an essay I wrote on wasteful efficiency - that modern efficiency gains now (e.g. harsh tilling of the soil) may lead to time and money saved now, but efficiency loss for later generations. I called it the fallacy of "postponing the cost", but your "deferring the cost" works better I think. Once you become aware of this dynamic you see it everywhere.
I also love the descriptor Henhouse economics - that is very evocative and I shall be using it (with credit of course).
Thanks Hadden--and keep up the good work. A question I think about a lot is how to think this kind of thing and talk to others about it without being an intolerable crank. You do a good job of that in your writing.
It is a perennial issue isn't it? When these kinds of themes dominate our writing it can be easy to sound overly negative (or a crank). I am sure Wendell Berry has felt the same way...
Patrick, this is wonderful. I wonder if you're tapping into the fundamental human need to create. All of these examples require something to be broken/destroyed in order for creativity to take place. Health must suffer for medicine to be invented. There must be war to find peace, etc. We find the cures to the problems we create in order to...create again. This, however, does not explain the racoon's behaviour.
Interesting point.... Of course, I don't know why the racoon does what he does. I can only observe that he does it. With humans I want to be careful not to over-generalize...but, I tend to think of creativity as chiefly rooted in love rather than destruction. What do you think?
Patrick, this is a superb piece! You seemed to channel some Wendell Berry which made me wonder whether you have come acorss Hadden Turner's substack Over the Field? He writes in a very similar vein. Where is that photo taken that you used at the start of the post? (it looks very much like Switzerland....)
Thank you Ruth! I do indeed read Over the Field and, as you suspected, am a big fan of Berry. I'm afraid the photo is simply a stock photo but I believe it is Switzerland.
Great piece Patrick, It seems ludicrous that so many in government and business discount the hidden costs - but also that we as a society let them. I made a similar point in an essay I wrote on wasteful efficiency - that modern efficiency gains now (e.g. harsh tilling of the soil) may lead to time and money saved now, but efficiency loss for later generations. I called it the fallacy of "postponing the cost", but your "deferring the cost" works better I think. Once you become aware of this dynamic you see it everywhere.
I also love the descriptor Henhouse economics - that is very evocative and I shall be using it (with credit of course).
Thanks Hadden--and keep up the good work. A question I think about a lot is how to think this kind of thing and talk to others about it without being an intolerable crank. You do a good job of that in your writing.
Cheers!
It is a perennial issue isn't it? When these kinds of themes dominate our writing it can be easy to sound overly negative (or a crank). I am sure Wendell Berry has felt the same way...
Patrick, this is wonderful. I wonder if you're tapping into the fundamental human need to create. All of these examples require something to be broken/destroyed in order for creativity to take place. Health must suffer for medicine to be invented. There must be war to find peace, etc. We find the cures to the problems we create in order to...create again. This, however, does not explain the racoon's behaviour.
Interesting point.... Of course, I don't know why the racoon does what he does. I can only observe that he does it. With humans I want to be careful not to over-generalize...but, I tend to think of creativity as chiefly rooted in love rather than destruction. What do you think?