Agrarian
Means:
Farming,
Gardening,
Horticulture
or Fruit
Tree and
Berry
Cultivation,
Growing Your
Own Salad
Vegetables
and Berries.
Agrarianism
is a
social/political
philosophy which
values rural
society over
urban
society, the
independent
farmer is
seen as
superior to
the paid
worker.
Agrarianism
sees farming
as a way of
life that
can shape
the ideal
social
values. It
stresses the
superiority
of a simpler
rural life
as opposed
to the
complexity
of city
life, with
its banks
and
factories.
Agriculturalism was
an early
agrarian
social and
political philosophy
in ancient
China that
advocated
peasant utopian communalism and egalitarianism
(equal value
of all
people).
The
philosophy
is founded
on the
notion that
human
society
originates
with the
development
of agriculture,
and
societies
are based
upon
"people's
natural
propensity
to farm."
(Adam and
Eve in the
Garden of
Eden)
The
Agriculturalists
believed
that the
ideal
government,
modelled
after the
semi-mythical
governance
of
Shennong,
is led by a
benevolent
king, one
who works
alongside
the people
in tilling
the fields!
The
Agriculturalist
king is not
paid by the
government
through its
treasuries;
his
livelihood
is derived
from the
profits he
earns
working in
the fields,
not his
leadership.
Unlike the
Confucians,
the
Agriculturalists
did not
believe in
the division
of labor,
arguing
instead that
the economic
policies of
a country
need to be
based upon
an
egalitarian self
sufficiency.
They
encouraged
farming and
agriculture
and taught
farming and
cultivation
techniques,
as they
believed
that
agricultural
development
was the key
to a stable
and
prosperous
society.
The
philosopher Mencius once
criticised
his chief
proponent Xu
Xing for
advocating
that rulers
should work
in the
fields with
their
subjects.
One of Xu's
students is
quoted as
having
criticized
the duke of Teng in
a
conversation
with Mencius
by saying:
‘A worthy
ruler feeds
himself by
ploughing
side by side
with the
people, and
rules while
cooking his
own meals.
Now Teng on
the contrary
possesses
granaries
and
treasuries,
so the ruler
is
supporting
himself by
oppressing
the people’.
The whole
economic
system based
on money and
not on
produce like
fruits,
vegetables
and dairy
products
supports the
artificial
lifestyle of
the city
with its
stressful
traffic and
air
pollution.
The
Industrialization
of farming
is the cause
of so many
problems.
The American
people
started out
as
subsistance
farmers
working the
land, but
the large
city created
an
artificial
lifestyle
away from
the land,
cut off from
the soil by
concrete and
asphalt
jungles.
Farming
became a
mass market
industry
like Ford's
car
factories,
and thus
began the
demise of
the small
family farm.
The most
noble
profession
is farming.
All wealth
originates
with the
land, making
farming the
only truly
productive
enterprise.
Agrarianism
claims that
agriculture
is the
foundation
of all other
professions.
Paradisianism
or the
Paradisian
way of life
is to,
"Build
Paradise,
and eat the
fruits
thereof."
Growing a
garden in
the suburbs
or country
is
building
your own
paradise
that
provides
food,
exercise and
the
enjoyment of
seeing the
fruits of
your labor.