Wendell Berry: "the disease of modern character is specialization. …we cannot feed or clothe ourselves, or entertain ourselves, or communicate with each other, or be charitable or neighborly or loving, or even respect ourselves without recourse to a merchant or a corporation or a public service organization or an agency of the government or a style setter or an expert ..in this state of total consumerism, which is a state of helpless dependence on things and services and ideas and motives that we have forgotten how to provide for ourselves. -- all meaningful contact between ourselves and the earth is broken."