Please remember that you are choosing to read my opinions.

Well, I'll probably post something different this weekend, but I've been reading a bit and I thought I'd share it with you. It isn't likely that a bunch of people on Mindsay have heard of Wendell Berry. Nevertheless, I thought I'd introduce him to you through some of his writings.

http://www.oriononline.org/pages/oo/sidebars/America/Berry.html

From the site above, you will see his essay entitled "Thoughts in the Presence of Fear". After Sept. 11, 2001, Mr. Berry was asked by his publishing company to write something. Based on his past work, they expected something good. What they recieved, however, was amazing. Amazing, and some would say, pessemistic. I don't think those people know Wendell Berry's underlying message of hope and optimism. To say that things are bad is one thing, but saying there is a way out is hopeful. Wendell Berry gave people a way out when the media and the government was telling us to stay calm, act normal, and go shopping.

I want to share with you my favorite points in this little essay. Keep in mind the course of action we have chosen, and all the things that Mr. Berry didn't know in 2001 when he wrote this.

XIII. One of the gravest dangers to us now, second only to further terrorist attacks against our people, is that we will attempt to go on as before with the corporate program of global "free trade", whatever the cost in freedom and civil rights, without self-questioning or self-criticism or public debate.

XIV. This is why the substitution of rhetoric for thought, always a temptation in a national crisis, must be resisted by officials and citizens alike. It is hard for ordinary citizens to know what is actually happening in Washington in a time of such great trouble; for all we know, serious and difficult thought may be taking place there. But the talk that we are hearing from politicians, bureaucrats, and commentators has so far tended to reduce the complex problems now facing us to issues of unity, security, normality, and retaliation.

XV. National self-righteousness, like personal self-righteousness, is a mistake. It is misleading. It is a sign of weakness. Any war that we may make now against terrorism will come as a new installment in a history of war in which we have fully participated. We are not innocent of making war against civilian populations. The modern doctrine of such warfare was set forth and enacted by General William Tecumseh Sherman, who held that a civilian population could be declared guilty and rightly subjected to military punishment. We have never repudiated that doctrine.

XVI. It is a mistake also - as events since September 11 have shown - to suppose that a government can promote and participate in a global economy and at the same time act exclusively in its own interest by abrogating its international treaties and standing apart from international cooperation on moral issues




XVIII. In a time such as this, when we have been seriously and most cruelly hurt by those who hate us, and when we must consider ourselves to be gravely threatened by those same people, it is hard to speak of the ways of peace and to remember that Christ enjoined us to love our enemies, but this is no less necessary for being difficult.

XIX. Even now we dare not forget that since the attack of Pearl Harbor - to which the present attack has been often and not usefully compared - we humans have suffered an almost uninterrupted sequence of wars, none of which has brought peace or made us more peaceable.



XX. The aim and result of war necessarily is not peace but victory, and any victory won by violence necessarily justifies the violence that won it and leads to further violence. If we are serious about innovation, must we not conclude that we need something new to replace our perpetual "war to end war?"

XXVII. The first thing we must begin to teach our children (and learn ourselves) is that we cannot spend and consume endlessly. We have got to learn to save and conserve. We do need a "new economy", but one that is founded on thrift and care, on saving and conserving, not on excess and waste. An economy based on waste is inherently and hopelessly violent, and war is its inevitable by-product. We need a peaceable economy.



http://www.oriononline.org/pages/oo/sidebars/America/Berry.html

If you enjoyed the first link, he also wrote many other things, but specifically he wrote about National Security that many people should be interested in, since it is something that effects us. Once again, Wendell Berry approaches the issue from his perspectives, that of the citizen, the farmer, and the free thinker. You can read that here:

http://www.oriononline.org/pages/om/03-2om/Berry.html

And that's your reading material.

Next up: Discussion of the dream where I have two penises. Anyone good with symbolism?