Bryan Wandel: Wendell Berry on the wisdom and humility of moral complicity.

Miriel M. Thomas Earlier this month, the Supreme Court decided Snyder v. Phelps, a case involving the Westboro Baptist Church’s demonstrations in conjunction with the funeral of a Marine killed in the line of duty in Iraq. Eight to one, the Court ruled that the First Amendment immunizes Westboro from tort liability for the emotional [...]

An uprooted homebody ponders place, distance, and the survival tactic that Wendell Berry would certainly not approve.

I don’t have a TV, but I might watch my neighbors’. I don’t use Facebook, but old friends contact me through my wife’s account. I am living off your immorality. I renounce, and then leach your indulgence. Writers on this blog, such as myself, don’t usually have a problem with moralizing everyday actions. Sometimes we [...]

1. Marx 2. Berry Good localists do not simply fetishize the familiar for its own sake. They also aren’t totalizing some partial argument, about valuing local people, into some catch-all of all things local. Here are two ways to look at value interactions that might help: 1. The first of my arguments can actually sound a [...]