Twenty-seven propositions about global thinking and the sustainability of cities (Wendell Berry)
I. Properly
speaking, global thinking is not possible. Those who have "thought
globally" (and among them the most successful have been imperial
governments and multinational corporations) have done so by means of
simplifications too extreme and oppressive to merit the name of thought. Global
thinkers have been, and will be, dangerous people. National thinkers tend to be
dangerous also; we now have national thinkers in the northeastern United States
who look upon Kentucky as a garbage dump.
II. Global thinking can only
be statistical. Its shallowness is exposed by the least intention to do
something. Unless one is willing to be destructive on a very large scale, one
cannot do something except locally, in a small place. Global thinking can only
do to the globe what a space satellite does to it: reduce it, make a bauble of
it. Look at one of those photographs of half the earth taken from outer space,
and see if you recognize your neighborhood. If you want to see where you are,
you will have to get out of your space vehicle, out of your car, off your
horse, and walk over the ground. On foot you will find that the earth is still
satisfyingly large, and full of beguiling nooks and crannies.
