Agrarianism

Agrarianism is defined by the following basic statements:

• Farming is the sole occupation that offers total independence and self-sufficiency.
• Urban life, capitalism, and technology destroy independence and dignity and foster vice and weakness.
• The agricultural community, with its fellowship of labor and co-operation, is the model society.
• The farmer has a solid, stable position in the world order. They have "a sense of identity, a sense of historical and religious tradition, a feeling of belonging to a concrete family, place, and region, which are psychologically and culturally beneficial." The harmony of their life checks the encroachments of a fragmented, alienated modern society.
• Cultivation of the soil "has within it a positive spiritual good" and from it the cultivator acquires the virtues of "honor, manliness, self-reliance, courage, moral integrity, and hospitality." They result from a direct contact with nature and, through nature, a closer relationship to God. The agrarian is blessed in that they follow the example of God in creating order out of chaos.

Thomas Inge