Journal 4: John Long

1.)
If there would be one passage from Berry's first essay that really resonated with the most it would be article 20 (XX).
"The time 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'?"
If we take a moment and look back at the history our world has gone through you'll see that victory of those wars have not successfully sustained peace. We've seen and heard our family and friends being victims of war and we have yet to solve the problem of sustaining everlasting peace. The truth of all this is that we has humans are a violent species. War is in our very nature regardless, whether or not we want it. As sad as it may seem war is something that we have lived with since our existence. We have different beliefs and ways of life therefore, there always will be room for some sort of conflict in this world. I believe we gravitate toward our emotions and they get the best of us.

2.)
Berry uses the notion that our so called "proxies" are to blame for the "environmental crisis". He explains that we have given these proxies power and that they have control over our education, entertainment, child care, and many other services. The danger is that those who are concerned with the environmental crisis can be remedied politically. In other words, those who we have given our proxies to will be the ones to fix the problems by finding the solutions. Berry goes on further explaining that people will feel a "sufficient change" from the shift of our sentiments toward the environmental crisis, but "without a practice is only another pointless luxury of a passively consumptive way of life". In other words we as individuals ought to act or make a stand. With this part I humbly believe is true. We should start looking these problems as all of ours and not leave for others to fix as if this problem won't continue and grow into an even bigger one as time goes on. But the one part of his passage I do not agree with is on page 14, Berry writes, "The 'environmental crisis,' in fact, can be solved only if people, individually and in their communities, recover responsibility for their thoughtlessly given proxies"(14). After reading this quote I thought to myself, "why are we only blaming these so called 'proxies'?" Aren't we to blame as well, considering the fact that we are the ones who buy their products? After all we are quite aware of what these products do to our environment, and what "we" do to create these products. You have to ask yourself "who makes these products?" The answer is "we" do. So why is Berry telling us that we should blame these "proxies"? My question is, why do we assume "pointing fingers" is the only way to solve problems? I know we all do it, but instead of pointing fingers and having a debate as to why we're pointing fingers; why don't we start working together and fix the problems? I agree with the part where Berry tells us that we should start taking responsibility for this crisis and start working on ways to correct them, but the "pointing fingers" aspect of it.
3.)
Oligarchy - a form of government in which all power is vested in a few persons or in a dominant class or clique; government by the few.
What made this word stick out to me more than the any of the others was the notion as to why Berry used it. It's defined as a "form of government" that basically has a few people in it where "all power is vested in". That's a power definition, if you ask me. I believe the concept behind this that Berry is using is essentially showing the readers that we're no longer in control of what's happening, and that we ought to take control; and handle these responsibilities together, instead of this group of people, or proxies.
4.)
I often wonder what's the difference between and Oligarchy? and democratic government?
Do you feel that there's a group of individuals that are manipulating our government or way of life?
I wonder if our country's politicians are just there give us the illusion of being in control. If you take a moment and think. How much of our natural resources is controlled? Why don't we hear more about this environmental crisis? Who controls the media? Our education? Why is the educational system always in a complete disarray? I've looked for solid truth and I can't find it anywhere. All you find are conspiracy theories surrounded with notions of madness. What are your thoughts?