Journal 4

Journal 4

Part one-

As I read through Wendell Berry’s first essay Thoughts in the Presence of Fear, I was first struck by the way in which Berry formatted his essay.  This makes the reader pause to think after every section, giving time for reflection on the last thought.  This is simply that, these are Berry’s thoughts in the time following the attack on the World Trade Centers, and one must think, how many other Americans were thinking the same thoughts?            

Berry makes many declarations here, but perhaps the one which sticks out most to me is the one which he begins with.  His declaration I, saying that “the time will soon come when we will not be able to remember the horrors of September 11,” he goes on to explain that we would not be able to remember that day without the optimism which we all shared when that day ended.  He harks back to the “day which will live in infamy,” December 7^th 1941, the attack on Pearl Harbor.  We today are far separated from this, but we still look back and realize the advancements which were caused by the loss of so many American lives.  Now 14 years after the attack on the Trade Caters we still remember the deaths, but our hearts view them as a collective loss, rather than each individual person.

Part two-

            In Wendell Berry’s second essay, The Idea of a Local Economy, he makes many points about the economy on the national and local level, pointing out flaws and stating his own complaints.  His strongest point to me, or rather the one which stuck out the most to me was that “the idea of a local economy rests upon only two principles: neighborhoods and subsistence” (Berry, 30).  Here he comes down to the old standard of helping one’s neighbors, what can one do for another?  He makes a strong point here that this is where it all comes down to, we as citizens must “practice” being good neighbors.

Part three-

            In following the line of thought in my previous statement, we need to perhaps have a better understanding of the word neighbor.  According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, the word neighbor is either “a person who lives next to or near another person,” or “a person or thing that is next to or near another.”  Berry states that we must practice how to be a good neighbor, but what we must understand is that this word is much more than stated in the dictionary, it has meaning beyond merely close proximity to each other.  It today means to work together for a common purpose, to make each other better, and this is what Berry is telling us we need to do in order for a better economy,

Part four-

            To ask a question, I think that I’ll return to my fist point, in regards to the attack on the Trade Canters and the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.  The question can be asked if war, or any movement of troops, is good for the economy?  Berry would answer yes, from his very first point in this collection of essays he declares that the attack would bring about growth in new technologies and allow us to also grow economically. Of course the questions which arise from this one could go on for ages and the debates would (I fear) grow quite heated.