Returning to Our Most Natural State: A Reflection on 'The Objective' Wendell Berry’s haunting poem, The Objective , captures the stark reality of modern civilization’s relentless pursuit of progress at the expense of our natural world, our communities, and even our sense of self. In this powerful reflection, Berry forces us to confront a question that many of us have avoided: How did we get here? And perhaps more importantly, is there a way back? The Road to Displacement For centuries, we have been marching toward an ever-elusive goal—development, efficiency, success—without pausing to ask whether the path we tread is the right one. The poem lays bare the consequences of this unexamined pursuit: bulldozed landscapes, poisoned rivers, fo...