The Importance of Affection

Hello Everyone,


This morning I came across an article published in the Chronicle of Higher Education called "Practicing Affection in the Academy".  Although the essay was mostly focused on how we should conduct higher education, I think that some of his thoughts might apply quite well to some of the issues that we have been thinking about, and will be thinking about more in the future.


I don't know if you are going to be able to read this link or not.  If you can't and are interested in reading the full article, then let me know.


https://chroniclevitae.com/news/375-practicing-affection-in-the-academy?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en


Here is what I consider to be the critical piece...


Last year the poet, writer, and aging agrarian radical Wendell Berry gave a lecture at the National Endowment for the Humanities. The talk was titled "It All Turns on Affection." Rehearsing the well-known problems facing American society, Berry traced the roots of the current ecological crisis, the increasing corporatization and alienation of modern life, and even the recent financial crisis, to a loss of affection—a sentiment, Berry argued, that if properly cultivated can save us from ourselves.


The crux of Berry's argument is that people are limited beings. They will only properly understand and care for those things they can readily imagine, things that fall within the scope of individual experience. Our current predicament is mainly due to the scale of modern life and the disappearance of the circumstances in which imagination and sympathy, the wellsprings of affection, can flourish. Most importantly, Berry argues it is only on the basis of these local affections that “we see the need to grant a sort of preemptive sympathy to all the fellow members, the neighbors, with whom we share the world.”