The Agrarian Renaissance was not so much a social accident as much as a sociological necessity accidentally rediscovered. Years of unwavering faith in evolution, and in the technologies it engendered, drove men to the cities where they stood as prophets of progress to their backward-living rural kin. Here, as icons of evolution and the superiority of man, factories bloomed and great economies were birthed. Together they began to fuel an age of glory to a new definition of labor that was quickly losing its intrinsic value. Mankind lived under this blissful illusion of success until these centralized economies began to fail under the weight of bureaucracy and unsustainable infrastructures. Then the decentralized and agrarian based economies of rural society began to reemerge as beacons of wisdom in an otherwise darkening and ignorant world. After all, who would feed the city dwellers?

 

Increasingly vulnerable to the poisons of industrial society and more rapidly than ever succumbing to ills that were byproducts of ambition and negligence, a new generation emerged and an appreciation for more wholesome living began to gain new credence. A slow exodus of disenfranchised and sickly industrialists began to seep into the rural countryside. At first, this migration was viewed as a movement of paranoid eco-nuts. But it soon became more of a mainstream drive. People were growing weary of the rat race, of the grime and the crime, and were anxious to return to a lifestyle that lingered in their memories like some ancient myth.

 

Of course I'm describing a future event as if it has already happened but, seeing it so clearly, I can hardly help myself. After all, from the beginning of time mankind has always needed to eat. More than shelter from the elements and protection from one's enemies, man has always needed food and water. No advance of technological genius or mutation of evolution has ever conquered these basic needs. Nor do I believe it ever will!

 

The darker side of the coming Agrarian Renaissance is that we run the risk of returning to an era when rural dwellers pay their city-dwelling feudal lords for protection from neighboring urban marauders. In fact, the rural land may not actually belong to these city-dwelling overlords, but if they hold its protection in their hands, it might as well. Is there a remedy to this somber scenario of a return to a more lethally armed and brutally dark age? Only where rural wisdom outstrips urban insanity!

 

 

 

First, the erosion of absolutes will set the stage for an arbitrary morality subject to the whims of men. This popular, public-relations morality will cater to the cravings and convenience of a paper economy and will completely disregard the foundations of truth and integrity upon which all sound government is based.

 

Second, a seemingly messianic alternative will emerge to enforce justice and legislate a pseudo-morality that rejects the perversion of excess and arbitrates a new set of mostly foreign absolutes. Yet, while embracing violence as a legitimate means to punish non-compliance and eradicate dissent, this alternative, mistakenly viewed as genuinely messianic, will, nonetheless, extol its peaceful intentions and legitimize the excess of its own peculiar messianic liberties.

 

Third, the illusion of paper economies will buckle under the weight of this moral conflict. Temporal affluence-dependent technologies and the science of convenience will fall prey to the more vital demands of basic local needs. But the shift in priorities will come too late to prevent much of the damage already wrought on fragile agrarian ecologies. Famine will ensue and with it the extravagance of greed will drive the exploitation of the poor to new levels.

 

Thereafter, mankind will suffer from the triumvirate negligence of shortsighted technology, from the violent retribution of pseudo-moral fundamentalists, and from its own unbridled appetites, resulting in death by sickness, famine, and sword. Then, most likely, Christians, Jews, and the God they worship will be blamed for the failures of mankind and for the ills they suffer. But all of this will set the stage for a new agrarian renaissance whose modern-day forerunner, toward which we are now moving so quickly, is only a dim shadow of what we'll eventually see.

 

Though some may consider me naive to entertain such a pessimistic scenario, I say, given the current state of world affairs, its naive to imagine that it could never happen. For the following reasons I am convinced that such a scenario is likely:

 

1) There is an active precedent for this progression. The erosion of absolutes is already undeniable. The counter-balance to this erosion of absolutes is now emerging through various expressions of religious and social fundamentalism. And, whereas there is nothing inherently wrong with fundamentalism (I'd be considered a fundamentalist by most), there is something inherently wrong with any brand of fundamentalism that must legislate or enforce adherence.

 

One such popular variety of fundamentalism that now threatens our freedom is liberal fundamentalism, wherein the refusal to grant moral license results in the loss of moral freedoms. Being the media darling of this generation, such liberal fundamentalism has created a public relations reality that has already outstripped objective truth as the decision-making toggle for everyday life.

 

2) A pseudo-morality is already gaining popularity. Islam, by virtue of force if not by pro-creation, is emerging as a dominant political influence in shaping the decisions of world leaders. Along side, violent socialism is also taking great new strides. And since the world cannot tolerate a politically incorrect double standard, it can say nothing about the violence through which liberal, socialist, and Islamic fundamentalist ideologies are spread or enforced. Having recently exercised such aggression itself, pride prevents the Western world from admitting the aggression now threatening to overrun and destroy it is wrong.

 

3) The paper economies of the world are already suffering a violent shaking and desperate restructuring -- all of this in an attempt to find new ways to pretend the money they've created is worth far more than it actually is. The truth is that paper money is biodegradable and even if it weren't it is only ever worth the food and water it can buy. As these diminish, inevitably, so does the value of money. The issue is not one of currency. The issue is one of value. And when the world is hungry enough, no one will be able to convince it that any amount of money is worth more than its next meal.

 

All of this points toward the inevitability, sooner or later, of an agrarian renaissance. The question is not if it will come. If the human race wishes to survive, it must come! Rather the questions are these: "When will it come? When it does come, what will it look like? And when it comes will we have had the foresight to recognize and prepare for it or will we trample it as ignorantly and mercilessly as we have trampled our own agrarian heritage?"

 

I believe in a benevolent agrarian renaissance but, like all change, I do not believe that it will come without travail and urgent pressure. I am preparing for a hopeful future, but I understand its price will be hard and humble labor. Yet, it is a labor that I relish, a labor whose prize is life itself, a labor that writes "heritage" on the page of future generations and endures as a living monument sculpted to honor God.

 

Beyond mere obedience and the sacrifice of our own lives, given to draw men toward Christ, what greater honor could we show God than to be good stewards of His creation? My view of the emerging agrarian renaissance places God squarely at the center of its efforts. It is not only about surviving tribulation, more so, agrarian renaissance is about appropriately honoring God in the global theater of our redemption.

 

Michael Hennen