- ISBN13: 9780679756514
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- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
The celebrated essayist and poet offers a collection of essays dealing with important social issues, stressing the importance of communities, the need for diversity in local economies, and the dangers of globalizat… More >>
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Wendell Berry is a name that has come up over and over in my reading and in discussions with other readers. Most intriguing to me was the fact that his writing — covering topics from politics to religion to current affairs, and everything in between — has been recommended to me by friends and acquaintances from all political and theological stripes, spanning the entire spectrum from left to right. One of the book’s endorsements pointed out Berry’s “unique position in American social debate: not liberal, not conservative, not libertarian, but always sharp-tongued and aglow with common sense.” Sounds like my kind of writer!
Berry is one of the last century’s most prolific writers of poems, short stories, essays, and novels. He also taught at the University of Kentucky during the time that both of my parents attended there. Even today at the age of 75, he is an active speaker, teacher, and advocate for the ideas he has set forth in his writing.
I chose for my first foray into the writing of Wendell Berry this book, which is a collection of eight essays (the last of which provides the title for the book) centered loosely around the theme of economics, though there is a diversity of themes represented in the various essays. I feel that I ought to present my review of this book on two levels: Quality and Content.
The quality of Berry’s writing is first-rate. I’ve read many books that I would classify as well-written, but there are occasional books that are a joy to read, simply because of the way an author has been gifted in the art of sculpting stories through the medium of words. This is one of those books, and Berry is one of those gifted writers. It is no wonder that people of so many different backgrounds have enjoyed his writing. I think I would enjoy reading his essays even if I disagreed with him on every point!
Which brings us to content. I don’t believe there could be anyone who disagrees with Berry on every point, simply because of the sheer common sense and pragmatism with which he writes. I imagine that I’d quite enjoy reading his essays even if I was in complete opposition to his conclusions, which I am not. Of course, I doubt as well that there is anyone who will completely agree with Berry, but this would please the author, who states in the foreword, “An essayist has no right to expect complete agreement but has a certain responsibility to ward it off. If you tell me, dear reader, that you agree with me completely, then I must suspect one or both of us of dishonesty.”
Berry is in no danger of being completely agreed with, as he is the rare individual who can be classified as truly “other” in nearly every way. As he lays out his philosophy on economics, the environment, war, religion, and any number of other things, he goes to great lengths to avoid being boxed into what he calls “political packages”. He believes strongly in conserving and preserving the environment, but is not an “environmentalist”. He hates war, and is highly critical of militarism, but is not what we would typically think of as a “pacifist”. He is a self-described “contrarian” and “dissenter”, but also a great American patriot. At every point he fairly but critically evaluates American culture as he observes it (the essays in this book were written between 1991 and 1994), while outlining his vision of what ought to be, with a practical (though not at all easy) plan for how it could be accomplished.
You (and I) will have to read more of his writing to truly comprehend Berry’s positions, but I’ll attempt to briefly outline some of them as set forth in these essays:
Strong focus on developing the community and local economy
Berry writes in the tradition of the “Southern Agrarians”, believing that the key to success in and joy of life is rooted in land ownership and conservation. Each person should own land, growing crops and raising livestock to support their own family. Neighbors should spend time together, supporting each other both financially (by buying/selling within their local community as much as possible) and socially (by bearing one another’s burdens and encouraging one another’s successes). The key to common safety and defense is good relations within the community, and between neighboring communities. He upholds the Amish as an example of a community that lives in such a way, but does not advocate separation from society-at-large as they do.
There is not much hope (or use) for cities in Berry’s worldview. Cities separate people from the land, and create foreign dependence and a society built on competition rather than on mutual success. He exhibits both optimism and pessimism toward the possibility of a future worldwide agrarian society (his idea of a utopia). Optimism, in that he believes that all it would take is for small, local pockets of people to begin to live in such a way, influencing first their neighborhood, then their towns, counties, states, nation, and eventually the world, as people learn to live peaceably together and to desire mutual success rather than attempting to “climb to the top” at others’ expense. Pessimism, in that he does not see this as a realistic possibility, because humans are generally too selfish and greedy.
Conservation of God’s Creation
Berry believes in the inherent goodness of God’s creation, and feels that humans, as the height of creation, have an obligation to be good stewards of the land and creatures. He agrees with anti-Christian conservationists that the Church has a terrible track record of stewardship, but sees Christians as the best potential solution, not the greatest problem. We need only see that everything belongs to God and that we are to care for what He allows us to “own”, extending our influence as we are able.
In the only essay where Berry specifically speaks of his Christian beliefs, though, he goes too far in his high-view of Creation, bordering on worshiping creation more than the Creator. His views on Biblical interpretation seem to be somewhere between the Julius Wellhausen tradition of “higher criticism” and the deism of Thomas Jefferson. Alarmingly, he also speaks of God’s Spirit residing in animals, plants, and the dust itself, which is a heterodox idea found in panentheism and the gnostic Gospel of Thomas, not Scripture.
While Berry describes himself as a Protestant, his actual doctrinal beliefs (as near as I can discern from these essays) would be rejected by all but the most liberal of Christian theologians.
Peaceableness toward enemies
Written in the aftermath of the Gulf War, Berry devotes one essay in this collection to defining his philosophy of “peaceableness”. He advocates applying the Biblical command to live peaceably with neighbors on a national scale. This does not imply a passive non-violence, nor aggressive anti-war protesting. Instead, it requires an “active peace”, that would require as much courage and sacrifice (frequently including lives) as war. His concept of peaceableness is an outworking of his agrarian society on an international level, when nations would genuinely desire the mutual success of all others, rather than engaging in power struggles that ultimately accomplish nothing but endless cycles of destruction. Though many discount this idea as being naive or unrealistic, he rightly points out that it has rarely been attempted, and that some nations, such as Switzerland, have successfully implemented policies of peace for extended periods of time.
Decreased reliance on technology
Berry is adamantly opposed to most uses of technology. He sees most technology as destructive both to the land and to our communities, because our interpersonal relationships are increasingly impersonal. He is in favor of
“natural” technological advances that improve our ability to responsibly farm the land or to communicate with one another, so long as we don’t become overly reliant on technology.
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Overall I agree with Berry on many points. I like the idea of buying local and building a strong local economy based on mutual success and good relationships. I believe this type of economic situation (rather than Marxism/socialism as some suggest) is what is described in the New Testament (see Acts 2:42-47, 4:32-35) when believers in the early church “had all things in common”. I would wonder, though, whether there might be a scenario in which this type of philosophy might be applied to the culture we see today. Is there a “middle ground” in which people rely less on technology and more on personal interaction, developing our local economy and limiting our dependence on outside (whether foreign or other domestic communities) goods, and being responsible stewards of Creation, without completely reverting to a totally agrarian society? I don’t know. If it is possible, it will only happen because of the leadership of great thinkers and communicators such as Wendell Berry, though hopefully with a better grasp of God’s purposes for Man as set forth in His Word. We must remember that, as much as we love God’s Creation (including our fellow Man), this world is not our home. Our desire for perfect community will be found only in the Body of Christ, and will only be realized in the Heavenly Kingdom that is yet to come.
Rating: 4 / 5
Wendell Berry’s Sex, Economy, Freedom, and Community is a a powerful, lucid examination of the commercialism, unrestrained sexuality, individualist freedom, and other the problems plaguing contemporary American culture as a result of the disintegration of community. Berry contrasts community life, which is characterized by “cooperation and responsibility,” with private and public life lacking the disciplines of community interest, which “gravitate toward competition and exploitation” (p. 121). As community restraints are undercut, then both private and public life become “the arena of unrestrained private ambition and greed” (p. 121).
1. Sex and Economy
Berry writes that “The triumph of the industrial economy is the fall of community,” and that the fall of community will be accompanied with the fall of all the things that community engenders and protects: “the care of the old, the care and education of children, family life, … but of all the damaged things probably the most precious and the most damaged is sexual love” (p. 133). He goes on to distinguish between the sexuality of community life and the sexuality that has liberated itself from community. The first kind is centered on marriage and joins two people “into the freedom of sexual consent and into the fullest earthly realization of the image of God” (p. 138). The second kind “has forsaken trust, for it rests on the easy giving and breaking of promises” (p. 139). As community disintegrates, the public language of sexuality comes “under the influence of private lust, ambition, and greed” (p. 122). Sexuality is divorced from its proper context of a loving, mutually committed relationship within the family and becomes the pursuit of lust and pleasure.
Berry gives the example of a skin lotion advertisement in the New York Times Sunday Magazine that depicted the headless and footless naked torso of a woman. The photo represents the male chauvinist’s sexual ideal of “a woman who cannot think and cannot escape” as well as “the devaluation of sexual love in modern times” (p. 134). With the countenance and the eyes exclusion of the photo, the soul of the model is cut off from her body. Community is broken down as the advertiser seduces the consumer into making a thoughtless and unnecessary purchase.
As a result of the sexual liberation of the modern age, “Women, though they may dress as if the sexual millennium had arrived, hurry along our city streets and public corridors with their eyes averted, like hunted animals. `Eye contact,’ once the very signature of our humanity, has become a danger” (p. 142).
2. Freedom and Community
Much of the disintegration of community has been justified by modern ideals of freedom. Historically, freedom has been associated with knowledge of the truth, but today, it is associated with individualist liberties (p. 145-6). Yet the irony is that “as the emphasis on individual liberty has increased, the liberty and power of most individuals has declined” (p. 151). For many people, especially the poor and underprivileged, few significant choices are open for them to make. Modern notions of freedom have more limited than liberated humanity.
This freedom has also been manifested in an arts movement that has become divorced of all traditions and seeks to offend its audience. Furthermore, advertising and commercial art have subscribed to “free-market sexuality” where “price is the only index of worth” (p. 166). The privacy of sexual intimacy has been pried open by modern artists and advertisers and our only hope in protecting this privacy and other “tender, vulnerable, and precious things” lies in the hands in the community (p. 168), which is gradually being eroded.
Rating: 5 / 5
Wendell Berry is a prolific writer from Kentucky. After a period of scholarly activity, Berry returned to his native state and became a farmer. He is also a member of the Temenos Academy, a Traditionalist group based in Britain and sponsored by Prince Charles.
“Sex, Economy, Freedom and Community” is a collection of essays written during the early 1990′s. Berry is difficult to place politically, and ironically refers to himself as an “anthropobiotheointerpenetretist” and “gastrointeroenvironmentalist” (!!). Green conservative Christian would perhaps be a more mundane description.
Berry calls for a kind of land ethic similar to that of Aldo Leopold, in which humans are seen as part of a larger community, encompassing nature and wildlife as well. He calls for self-sustaining, small rural communities to replace the present industrial civilization. Globalization and free market liberalism are rejected, as are Communism and any system based on industrialism and centralization (although he has a soft spot for government price regulations, if they aid farmers). Berry believes that large cities such as New York or Phoenix aren’t sustainable. He also criticizes the idea that “thinking globally” can change the world for the better: only thinking and acting locally will do. Community is a central concept to Berry, who believes neither in state centralization nor complete individualism.
The author criticizes really existing Christianity for being anti-environment, but believes that the Bible (if properly interpreted) means care for all of Creation and opposition to greedy accumulation of wealth. In effect, Berry wants to “Green” the Bible. He criticizes the Gnostic notion that we are good spirits trapped in an evil material world, since this could lead to indifference towards environmental destruction (why bother if the world is evil?). Rather, Berry wants us to affirm Creation as a whole, including the seemingly useless or dangerous parts. There does seem to be a hint of pantheism or “panentheism” in the author’s thinking, since Berry believes that all of Creation is somehow divine due to the immanent presence of God’s spirit.
The worst essay in this collection is “Sex, Economy, Freedom and Community” (also the title of the entire book). It contains a truly conservative and somewhat bizarre idealization of life long monogamous marriage and the mysteries of sex (who apparently can be enjoyed only within monogamous marriage). Of course, the spiritualization of sex craved by the author has never existed anywhere in the world, and is simply a fig leaf for patriarchy.
But then, what else to expect from a Traditionalist? (They aren’t “traditional” enough. Neolithic societies were women-centred!)
That being said, Wendell Berry’s book can nevertheless be read as an introduction to a form of environmentalism and anti-globalism more far-reaching than usual.
Rating: 3 / 5
Every day it seems the world looks a little more broken to me. It helps so much to read a few pages of Wendell Berry. He is a fantastic example of someone who thinks for himself; and really strives to get to the core truth about the important issues we face as a civilization. It should be required reading for everyone in the United States – IF we want to get on a path to restoration and healing of our society. But that’s where the scary part comes in. I’m beginning to think people would put this book down and give up on it a few pages in. Even if they did get all the way to the end, not many would be willing to put the ideas into practice in their daily lives.
I picked this selection for my book club, and it was very interesting to watch the responses of the participants. You could sense the tension – watch them wiggling in their chairs. They were so relieved when we were finally done with the book; and not because it was poorly written; just because it requires an examination of how far we’ve all fallen from what is true. I will continue to encourage people to read this excellent and important book, but it will never be an easy sell…and that’s a shame.
Rating: 5 / 5
This is the first Wendell Berry book that I’ve read, and from the introduction, I found it to be an immensely interesting and engaging read. I was amazed at how skillfully Berry could take complex social issues and boil them down into bite-sized (read: understandable) pieces. I typically wouldn’t find myself being overly interested in a collection of essays like this, but needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised by the enjoyable read.
The one element of this book that was hard for me to swallow was Berry’s overly idealistic view of people and communities. Granted, significant changes to the current social, economic, and agricultural systems would most likely have to begin in the mind of an idealistic individual, but I felt like many of Berry’s arguments rested solely on the inherent goodness of people as a whole. Here’s the core problem – individuals act in their own self interest. People are selfish.
This is still a worthy book to read, however, and can bring about fantastic discussion. (I may be frequenting a farmer’s market now, as a result of his arguments…Just trying to close the distance between producer and consumer!) Read it and wrestle with it.
Rating: 4 / 5