"Faustian Economics" By: Wendell Berry

“The problem with us is not only prodigal extravagance but also an assumed limitlessness…..we have founded our present society upon delusional assumptions of limitlessness.” This is Berry’s central argument. Surrounding this argument is the reason as to how we came to this. The answer to this question how is because people believe that the American way of life is indestructible; there is always more. What this has led to, according to Berry, is greed and waste. We must have limits, or else humans will cease to exist. This I can agree with.

Berry did something very interesting that I truly admire. He referred to "Faustus" and artists who work with limits and used them to support his argument. Faustus was a highly intelligent man in his day whose thirst for knowledge turned into greed. His greed was so intense that he sold his soul to the devil, literally, in exchange for ultimate power and all of the knowledge in the world. The power and knowledge that he was given allowed him to be at home in one minute and in less than 30 seconds he was at the Vatican. However, even with all of that power Faustus became bored. In the end Faustus was taken to Hell when his "contract" was up.

Berry’s reference says that such “limitlessness,” does not make people happy and does not lead to any place good. Berry says that artists work with limits such as frames and time limits. Yet still artists manage to produce beautiful work within these limits. Thus, we can do the same because freedom itself comes with restrictions in order to fully experience the peace that comes with freedom.

In the end, Berry concludes that the only way to side step a Faustus ending is to perform like an artist in order to sustain our human existence. We need to “re-program” our way of living to incorporate the fact that resources and the environment we live in are NOT limitless. Real artists paint, write, draw, sing and dance as they please within the limits of time, paper and or a stage. We must stop thinking that freedom means the lack of or absence of restraints and, start thinking like real artists.