1. Out of Wendell Berry's 27 declarations, I would definitely say that the fifth declaration spoke to me the most. In this paragraph Berry states that, "We citizens of the industrial countries must continue the labor of self-criticism and self-correction. we must recognize our mistakes." (Berry 2). Wendell Berry shows us throughout this essay that in order for our society to move forward from such a traumatic event in our history, that we must acknowledge our mistakes as a nation and further more continue to ask ourselves what are we doing to incite these acts of violence. Our nation cannot not make progress if we keep denying the past and pushing the blame onto others. This essay being written in the aftermath of 9/11, it is amazing to me how level headed Berry seems to be while he shares his thoughts. This passage means more to me knowing that in such an emotional time Berry chose to write about what changes we need to make in order for us to progress as a people as opposed to writing in hatred of those who attacked our country.
2. In Wendell Berry's second essay, "The Idea Of A Local Economy", he discusses the idea of oversimplification. This concept is mentioned towards the beginning of the essay, where Berry points out the "environmental crisis" that is plaguing our nation. Berry goes on to explain, "The environmental crisis has happened because the human household or economy is in conflict at almost every point with the household of nature. We have built our household on the assumption that the natural household is simple and can be simply used.--- And so we will be wrong if we attempt to correct what we perceive as environmental problems without correcting the economic oversimplification that caused them." (Berry 12). I believe that this is where his ideas are the best because he points out our failure as citizens of this nation to realize our "environmental" crisis is just an oversimplified economic crisis. Berry's writing was incredible throughout don't get me wrong, but this piece of the essay really stuck with me.
3. The term I chose to define within this essay "The Idea Of A Local Economy" was proxy. According to Merriam-Webster.com proxy is the authority or power to act for another. I think it is important to understand this word because not only does Berry mention it multiple times but he says that it is what we have given up. In order to understand the essay we must also be able to understand what we have given up.
4. Where is America's economy headed? What progress is being made? i believe for us to make any progress as a society we all need to take part in knowing where our economy currently lies and where it is headed.
http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2011/05/top-one-percent-201105
I looked up the term oversimplification and thought that Berry was writing about how things like the media don't give out all facts and information about how the economy is. The fifth statement by Berry in the first essay sounds interesting because I do think that we need to think about the reasons why there is hatred and what we can do to stop it.
ReplyDeleteI checked out your links and found it very interesting. I agree completely with you when you say to progress as a society we all need to take part. Not one or two people can do it, we all have to do it.
ReplyDeleteI thought the oversimplification analysis was on point. You can see quite a few hot button topics where people are misinformed based on wording used to describe the topic and refusal to look any further.
ReplyDeleteI thought the oversimplification analysis was on point. You can see quite a few hot button topics where people are misinformed based on wording used to describe the topic and refusal to look any further.
ReplyDeleteI think you made a really good point in the first part. I didn't even think about the fact that Berry was writing about how to fix ourselves rather than writing about how terrible the people who crashed into the towers were. I know he was probably really upset with what happened, but he chooses to take the high road and try to get the U.S. citizens to rally together so they can find some way to move passed this.
ReplyDeleteI looked up your links and found some stuff i didn't know. I agree we must recognize what we did wrong to move forward. I also think it has to be all of us that want to make a change.
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