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A review by bittersweet_symphony
Another Turn of the Crank: Essays by Wendell Berry
4.0
This delicate collection of short essays provides for an easy introduction into Wendell Berry's views on community and society.
While centered around rural communities—including forest commonwealths—the substance of his attention focuses on local economies. He wants to revitalize them because they are the way in which we can best conserve some very important human values: affection, conviviality, social bonds, care, mutual aid, stewardship, place, belonging, humility (limits), cooperation, harmony, and unity.
Being an advocate of such "gentle" virtues, Berry does at times show his "angry farmer" side—which is still fiercely endearing. He loves the land, people, the Sacred, and the simple pleasures that come from hard work, understanding how one fits into the local collective, and laying hold of the wisdom that comes from knowing which aspects of modernism are dehumanizing (and to be resisted).
He has an engaging style that is smart and warm. I think most will find him difficult to categorize, as he says so himself: "Nothing that I have written here should be construed as an endorsement of either of our political parties as they presently function. Republicans who read this book should beware either of approving it as 'conservative' or of dismissing it as 'liberal.' Democrats should beware of the opposite errors."
He is an agrarian at heart. At times one will see his skepticism of corporations and free-market fundamentalism. On other pages, readers will encounter his criticisms of government agencies (specifically, non-local ones) and their technocratic workings. He is pushing back against mechanistic or mechanical views of living that hollow out our spiritual and moral lives.
Wendell Berry is a communitarian thinker, focused on changing the way we relate to the earth. As social capital continues to decline and global climate change and ecological devastations further, Berry stands as a sage elder reminding us that many of the answers to our problems already reside in the tradition we inherited (in his case, the Western canon).
We need to become better stewards—of each other, ourselves, and nature. We are not masters of one another or of "the environment." Berry's focus on fraternity (or gender-neutral fellowship, if that reads more appropriately to you) and community as foundational sources of the good life are deeply moving for me.
Having spent much of adulthood obsessed with unbridled individualism as a supreme good, I find his correction healing. The question we should be asking ourselves regarding any governmental policy, technology, or production, is: does this improve the commonwealth of my community or not? Or perhaps alternatively, will embracing this enable my community to better flourish?
Some of his views may skew more socially conservative (in the religious right) sense, but his advocacy for communitarian approaches to living resonate. One genius innovation, as far as I see it in communitarian thought, is that its elevation of local communities and cultures allows for and encourages people to live according to what works best in their particular contexts. He pushes for the particular over the universal (in many ways). Rather than having a bland universalism, wherein all locales look and live the same, a focus on local community fosters a patchwork of truly diverse and thriving landscapes—human and non-human.
While centered around rural communities—including forest commonwealths—the substance of his attention focuses on local economies. He wants to revitalize them because they are the way in which we can best conserve some very important human values: affection, conviviality, social bonds, care, mutual aid, stewardship, place, belonging, humility (limits), cooperation, harmony, and unity.
Being an advocate of such "gentle" virtues, Berry does at times show his "angry farmer" side—which is still fiercely endearing. He loves the land, people, the Sacred, and the simple pleasures that come from hard work, understanding how one fits into the local collective, and laying hold of the wisdom that comes from knowing which aspects of modernism are dehumanizing (and to be resisted).
He has an engaging style that is smart and warm. I think most will find him difficult to categorize, as he says so himself: "Nothing that I have written here should be construed as an endorsement of either of our political parties as they presently function. Republicans who read this book should beware either of approving it as 'conservative' or of dismissing it as 'liberal.' Democrats should beware of the opposite errors."
He is an agrarian at heart. At times one will see his skepticism of corporations and free-market fundamentalism. On other pages, readers will encounter his criticisms of government agencies (specifically, non-local ones) and their technocratic workings. He is pushing back against mechanistic or mechanical views of living that hollow out our spiritual and moral lives.
Wendell Berry is a communitarian thinker, focused on changing the way we relate to the earth. As social capital continues to decline and global climate change and ecological devastations further, Berry stands as a sage elder reminding us that many of the answers to our problems already reside in the tradition we inherited (in his case, the Western canon).
We need to become better stewards—of each other, ourselves, and nature. We are not masters of one another or of "the environment." Berry's focus on fraternity (or gender-neutral fellowship, if that reads more appropriately to you) and community as foundational sources of the good life are deeply moving for me.
Having spent much of adulthood obsessed with unbridled individualism as a supreme good, I find his correction healing. The question we should be asking ourselves regarding any governmental policy, technology, or production, is: does this improve the commonwealth of my community or not? Or perhaps alternatively, will embracing this enable my community to better flourish?
Some of his views may skew more socially conservative (in the religious right) sense, but his advocacy for communitarian approaches to living resonate. One genius innovation, as far as I see it in communitarian thought, is that its elevation of local communities and cultures allows for and encourages people to live according to what works best in their particular contexts. He pushes for the particular over the universal (in many ways). Rather than having a bland universalism, wherein all locales look and live the same, a focus on local community fosters a patchwork of truly diverse and thriving landscapes—human and non-human.