Realigning our moral compass

Citizenship Papers
Wendell Berry
Shoemaker & Hoard, 2003
189 pp., $24

Near the end of his Sand County Almanac, Aldo Leopold reminded us that it is imperative for us to develop an “ecological conscience.” There is a great need, he said, to extend our “social conscience from people to land.” He also suggested that this entailed a special kind of citizenship—learning how to be a “plain member and citizen” of the biotic community.

In his new book of essays Citizenship Papers, Wendell Berry clarifies some of the responsibilities that go with being such a citizen. And he warns us that if we continue to ignore these citizenship requirements, we will further erode both our social and our ecological capital to a point where it may be difficult for future generations to be citizens of this planet.

As in many of Berry’s previous works, some of these essays already have been published in various journals, some of them under different titles. But together they form a powerful and cohesive call to responsible citizenship on the planet. The essays cover a range of social, ecological, political and economic issues that face us today. How do we farm responsibly and successfully in our current economic and policy climate? What kind of economy allows communities to thrive? What kind of plant and animal breeds do we need for sustainable farms? What does it mean to be truly patriotic, especially in our current circumstances? Berry addresses these and many other issues with a moral clarity that is rare in contemporary literature.

Berry acknowledges that many “self-styled ‘realists’ of the corporate economy” will dismiss many of his ideas as romantic and quixotic. But he argues that it is precisely this “realism” that “has brought absurdity, waste and ruin to an unprecedented magnitude. It has made violence normal, both as war and as ‘economic growth.’”

While not everyone will agree with Berry’s prescription for what ails us and our world, it is hard to argue with his description of the ills.

• Under industrialism, the farmers, and especially the smaller farmers, are overworked and underpaid, and this exactly corresponds to the condition of the land …Much is taken, little that belongs to it given back.
  
  

• You cannot pollute the world’s only atmosphere and exempt your asthmatic child.
  
  

• The corporate food supply is highly vulnerable to acts of biological warfare.
  
  

• Even the richest beneficiaries of the present economy cannot prosper indefinitely in a country, or a world, of devastated landscapes populated by the poor, the exploited, and the unemployed. Finally the bills will be delivered, and everybody will pay.
  
  

Whether or not one agrees with Berry’s solutions for these ills, we can no longer afford to ignore his call to responsible citizenship, to begin restoring our social and ecological capital. Reading these essays and adjusting our own moral compass is a good place to start. — Frederick Kirschenmann