The Mountain Folk
I have been reading a lot of Wendell berry online. There is a great website with a lot of his essays, poems etc.
http://brtom.org/wb/berry.html
He writes a lot about the need and the positive impact of the small town life. Of great importance are farmers, small communities. The bread basket. Here's a big quote from his article "The Prejudice Against Country People" published in The Progressive. http://progressive.org/?q=node/1596
"I believe it is a fact, proven by their rapidly diminishing numbers and economic power, that the world's small farmers and other "provincial" people have about the same status now as enemy civilians in wartime. They are the objects of small, "humane" consideration, but if they are damaged or destroyed "collaterally," then "we very much regret it," but they were in the way--and, by implication, not quite as human as "we" are. The industrial and corporate powers, abetted and excused by their many dependents in government and the universities, are perpetrating a sort of economic genocide--less bloody than military genocide, to be sure, but just as arrogant, foolish, and ruthless, and perhaps more effective in ridding the world of a kind of human life. The small farmers and the people of small towns are understood as occupying the bottom step of the economic stairway and deservedly falling from it because they are rural, which is to say not metropolitan or cosmopolitan, which is to say socially, intellectually, and culturally inferior to "us." Am I trying to argue that all small farmers are superior or that they are all good farmers or that they live the "idyllic life"? I certainly am not. And that is my point. The sentimental stereotype is just as damaging as the negative one. The image of the farmer as the salt of the earth, independent son of the soil, and child of nature is a sort of lantern slide projected over the image of the farmer as simpleton, hick, or redneck. Both images serve to obliterate any concept of farming as an ancient, useful, honorable vocation, requiring admirable intelligence and skill, a complex local culture, great patience and endurance, and moral responsibilities of the gravest kind."
Wendell berry
I believe this to be true. I have lived in cities, SF, Portland. I have visited NYC, Chicago, LA, San Diego, Washington DC. And when I come home to rural turlock, I feel like these people (for the most part) are more solid, more connected. I have met Senators and Assemblymen from all over California. Last week I served on the staff of City on the Hill Youth Leadership Conference, getting Christian youth involved with politics. We heard from top conservative think tank members, conservative strategists, aides and campaign directors. They all sounded the same, they all had the slick answer, the quick response. One man stood out, Assemblyman Doug LaMalfa.
http://republican.assembly.ca.gov/members/index.asp?Dist=2&Lang=1
He is a downhome boy, his district is the 2nd, Northern California. He is a farmer, talked slow, no big words. He stood out because he knows what's important. He can take stand on issues that affect the every-man because he is! Though we disagree on a lot, he is a republican, I found myself identifying and agreeing with not his ideals but his method, his manner. He is still in touch with what matters, the Mr. Smith quality, from Mr.Smith Goes to Washington. an innocence. Irs like Berry says, Not all farmers, country folk are like this. But there is a way about them. I spent the day today in Columbia, near Sonora. In the backyard of some family friends. Playing bluegrass and folk, talking, telling and hearing stories. These are all typified rednecks. Guys with long beards, playing banjo. People who live in a small house, in the woods. But they are all sweet, caring and valuable. We often write off these people as backwoods and inbred! The city people look down on the people across the valley, up on the hill. The country bumpkins. But a lot of these people have intelligent vital opinions, they aren't all republicans, like we are led to believe. Many of them care for the earth, for people, for the poor. The reason is because they live in the beauty of the mountains. They see the beginning of the rivers, which become polluted. They have been or are poor. Those closest to the earth are the first to see its sickness and problems. A long ramble. I guess.
http://brtom.org/wb/berry.html
He writes a lot about the need and the positive impact of the small town life. Of great importance are farmers, small communities. The bread basket. Here's a big quote from his article "The Prejudice Against Country People" published in The Progressive. http://progressive.org/?q=node/1596
"I believe it is a fact, proven by their rapidly diminishing numbers and economic power, that the world's small farmers and other "provincial" people have about the same status now as enemy civilians in wartime. They are the objects of small, "humane" consideration, but if they are damaged or destroyed "collaterally," then "we very much regret it," but they were in the way--and, by implication, not quite as human as "we" are. The industrial and corporate powers, abetted and excused by their many dependents in government and the universities, are perpetrating a sort of economic genocide--less bloody than military genocide, to be sure, but just as arrogant, foolish, and ruthless, and perhaps more effective in ridding the world of a kind of human life. The small farmers and the people of small towns are understood as occupying the bottom step of the economic stairway and deservedly falling from it because they are rural, which is to say not metropolitan or cosmopolitan, which is to say socially, intellectually, and culturally inferior to "us." Am I trying to argue that all small farmers are superior or that they are all good farmers or that they live the "idyllic life"? I certainly am not. And that is my point. The sentimental stereotype is just as damaging as the negative one. The image of the farmer as the salt of the earth, independent son of the soil, and child of nature is a sort of lantern slide projected over the image of the farmer as simpleton, hick, or redneck. Both images serve to obliterate any concept of farming as an ancient, useful, honorable vocation, requiring admirable intelligence and skill, a complex local culture, great patience and endurance, and moral responsibilities of the gravest kind."
Wendell berry
I believe this to be true. I have lived in cities, SF, Portland. I have visited NYC, Chicago, LA, San Diego, Washington DC. And when I come home to rural turlock, I feel like these people (for the most part) are more solid, more connected. I have met Senators and Assemblymen from all over California. Last week I served on the staff of City on the Hill Youth Leadership Conference, getting Christian youth involved with politics. We heard from top conservative think tank members, conservative strategists, aides and campaign directors. They all sounded the same, they all had the slick answer, the quick response. One man stood out, Assemblyman Doug LaMalfa.
http://republican.assembly.ca.gov/members/index.asp?Dist=2&Lang=1
He is a downhome boy, his district is the 2nd, Northern California. He is a farmer, talked slow, no big words. He stood out because he knows what's important. He can take stand on issues that affect the every-man because he is! Though we disagree on a lot, he is a republican, I found myself identifying and agreeing with not his ideals but his method, his manner. He is still in touch with what matters, the Mr. Smith quality, from Mr.Smith Goes to Washington. an innocence. Irs like Berry says, Not all farmers, country folk are like this. But there is a way about them. I spent the day today in Columbia, near Sonora. In the backyard of some family friends. Playing bluegrass and folk, talking, telling and hearing stories. These are all typified rednecks. Guys with long beards, playing banjo. People who live in a small house, in the woods. But they are all sweet, caring and valuable. We often write off these people as backwoods and inbred! The city people look down on the people across the valley, up on the hill. The country bumpkins. But a lot of these people have intelligent vital opinions, they aren't all republicans, like we are led to believe. Many of them care for the earth, for people, for the poor. The reason is because they live in the beauty of the mountains. They see the beginning of the rivers, which become polluted. They have been or are poor. Those closest to the earth are the first to see its sickness and problems. A long ramble. I guess.
posted by jakedockter at 12:39 AM
1 Comments:
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