Wedell Berry
Berry, Wendell. Sex, Economy, Freedom, & Community. New York. Pantheon Books. 1993.Wendell Berry, self-styled intellectual, social commentator and purveyor of common sense, authored a biting series of essays on the state of American life and economy, compiled in 1993 under the title Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community. This collection of commentaries on varied aspects of existence as Americans in the emerging global community is worthy of note in many of its accurate criticisms of American waste and pompousness, while laughable in regard to many of its assertions on matters of public policy. As such, one can gather a dual image of Berry as both narrow-minded ideologue and insightful cynic. So, while "Sex..." is certainly an easy read, the same does not apply to its author. Berry introduces his essays with a preface centered on the value of education and the importance of understanding. It is here that the Kentuckian's backwoods wit shines in all its sarcastic glory. In a hilarious incisive listing of the basic assumptions accepted by most participants in modern "higher" education, Berry cites the system's failures and mocks its current goals. To point out the common understanding of the utility of education as a career tool,
Berry wants a return to correct understanding of the value of our lives and the things with which we fill them. Here he demonstrates a degree of acumen in analysis of the underlying misconceptions Americans hold with regard to their natural environment. Otherwise, we abandon our future to those whose interests might conflict with ours. In our separation from community and the land, Berry seems to argue Americans have lost their innate sense of value. The enigmatic Berry returns to solid intellectual ground in his final essay, on the value and nature of community. To make all his protestations about the need for us to identify with the land as our source for life, and then sacrifice all of his intellectual capital with a groundless defense of the salacious trade in a harmful and shamefully addictive drug is the worst betrayal of his earlier logic. Berry does, however, score points with his arguments against the use of chemical enhancement of agriculture, implying that the long term, unforeseen consequences may be unbearable. Left uncorrected, our attitude toward the environment, as Berry astutely observes, will be our downfall. In whatever instance, on whatever continent, drug cultivation cannot be cast in a light of conservation or proper respect for land, it is simply a convenient circumvention of responsibility toward nature and society. Whether it is our illusory mastery of the environment, by which we are insulated from its harshness (and its wonder), or our pursuit of goals outside of nature, something has certainly caused a great disconnect between the majority of Americans and the land that supports them. Berry sees the very real threat that involvement in military actions poses to a society. To advocate growing drugs as cash crops is to support the lowest form of land use, endangering society and Berry's previously sound arguments for sustainable agriculture. designed and obtained as a device for monetary profit, is perhaps the master stroke of the work, and Berry's third listed assumption does so masterfully.
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Acceptance Essays
