Tag: Wendell Berry

the Territory of despair

Then there is the territory of despair, where it is assumed that what is objectionable is “inevitable,” and so again the essential work is neglected. how can we have something better if we do no imagine it? How can we imagine it if we do not hope for it? How can we hope for it if we do not attempt to realize it?

Wendell Berry, “Writer and Region” in What Are People For?

I reflected yesterday on my own tendency towards Berry’s Territory of self-righteousness, epitomized by what he called “political and economic unconsciousness.” The Territory of despair fits hand-in-glove with that self-righteousness. The self-righteousness I feel about my own refusal to play the political game anymore very easily shades at times in despair: what good is hoping, in this world at least, for anything different or better? What we have seems so inevitable, it is hard to imagine otherwise.

I often tell the story of my own political work in the last decade like this: I was an Obamacrat, in that I found Barack Obama uniquely inspiring and interesting; his example made me want to be involved in politics and policy work, and as he faded from the scene, I did as well. The rise of Trump and the nihilism as the defining feature of politics across the board in the 2020s confirmed that I was an Obamacrat, but it also confirmed a deeply seated despair that has taken hold of my understanding of American politics: even after eight years of Obama, after health care reform and Obergefell and an end to the war in Iraq and all the positives of the years 2008-2016, we still got Trump, and white nationalism, and a surge in anti-immigrant and anti-LGBT sentiment, and even more concerning to me, we got a left movement that forgot itself and cannibalized itself in identity politics and online obsessions. What was the point?

I know this is a bleak and reductionist view of the Obama years, and in my better moments, I know why we did what we did. Nevertheless, that Territory of despair is another easy one for me to flee too, and it sits so close to the Territory of self-righteousness, they are like sister cities.

the Territory of self-righteousness

And so there is the Territory of self-righteousness. It is easy to assume that we do not participate in what we are not in the presence of. But if we are members of a society, we participate, willy-nilly, in its evils. Not to know this is obviously to be in error, but it is also to neglect some of the most necessary and the most interesting work. How do we reduce our dependency on what is wrong? The answer to that question will necessarily be practical; the wrong will be correctible by practice and by practical standards. Another name for self-righteousness is economic and political unconsciousness.

Wendell Berry, “Writer and Region” in What Are People For?

This Territory is necessarily related to yesterday’s Territory of historical self-righteousness, and in fact precedes it in the text. I believe this is the Territory I am most in danger of fleeing to most often. I have desired to leave behind the concern with politics I used to have, mostly over a sense of disgust with most of the actors in that field and a feeling that all the stakes in the game are mostly manufactured and manipulated to fool us into a false anger that, in the end, benefits the rich and powerful, regardless of the ultimate policies that “win.”

Getting away from the game of politics is a good thing, but it is really easy for me to sink that into a general apathy about things societal, which is the kind of self-righteousness Berry identifies here. It is a difficult path to walk, the one between the bullshit games of our leaders, and complete indifference, but it is one I am striving to learn, in fits and starts.

the Territory of historical self-righteousness

There is also the Territory of historical self-righteousness: if we had lived south of the Ohio in 1830, we would not have owned slaves; if we had lived on the frontier, we would have killed no Indians, violated no treaties, stolen no land. The probability is overwhelming that if we had belonged to the generations we deplore, we too would have behaved deplorably. The probability is overwhelming that we belong to a generation that will be found by its successors to have behaved deplorably. Not to know that is, again, to be in error and to neglect essential work, and some of this work, as before, is work of the imagination. How can we imagine our situation or our history if we think we are superior to it?

Wendell Berry, “Writer and Region” in What Are People For?

Goodness, this is us, isn’t it? Especially those on the progressive side of things in the last few years: very eager to condemn the past, to declare our superiority to it, to practice a kind of historical naivety, assuming we’d always know the right thing to do, that we are above the currents of history. A healthy dose of humility, and an attitude of grace, should always attend our reading of history.