Tragedy of the Commonwealth and the Vision of Wendell Berry, The

By "public," Berry means "all the people, apart from any personal responsibility or belonging."49 He gives the example of a public building, that is, "a building which everyone may use but to which no one belongs, which belongs to everyone but not to anyone in particular, and for which no one is responsible except 'public employees.'"50 This, he thinks, is "perhaps radically different" than, and often at odds with, the idea and the qualities of a community.51

If the word community is to mean or amount to anything, it must refer to a place (in its natural integrity) and its people. It must refer to a placed people. Since there obviously can be no cultural relationship that is uniform between a nation and a continent, "community" must mean a people locally placed and a people, moreover, not too numerous to have a common knowledge of themselves and their place.52

Thus, "[a] community, unlike a public, has to do first of all with belonging; it is a group of people who belong to one another and to their place. We would say, 'We belong to our community,' but never 4We belong to our public.'"53 Explaining this distinction, Berry notes that "[a] community, when it is alive and well, is centered on the household-the family place and economy-and the household is centered on marriage," whereas "[a] public, when it is working in the best way-that is, as a political body intent on justice-is centered on the individual."54 To Berry, the difference here is critical, because as that "political body" or "public government becomes identified with a public economy, a public culture, and public fashions of thought, it can become the tool of a public process of nationalism or 'globalization' that is oblivious of local differences and therefore destructive of communities."55

Thus, in writing of the "commonwealth," he laments that "[w]e have come to think of the word 'commonwealth' as merely synonymous with 'state' or 'political body.'"56 Instead, Berry endeavors "to use the term in its literal sense, unfortunately obsolete, of the general welfare, the public good, the wealth that only can be held in common."57 However else we might understand Berry's idea of the commonwealth, he has made every effort to ensure that we do not confuse that idea with the "public commons." Therefore, we must consider what Berry does mean by the seemingly interchangeable terms "local commons," "community," and "commonwealth." To do so we must look to Berry's four founding stones of agrarianism, faith, knowledge, and affection for the local place.

2. Agrarianism

By his own admission, Wendell Berry is Jeffersonian.58 In his politics and economics he is "a democrat and an agrarian."59 Often writing of the industrial economy in religious, apocalyptic tones, Berry opposes virtually all modern industrialization at home and abroad.60 seeking a "countervailing idea by which we might correct the industrial idea," Berry finds agrarianism.61

Agrarianism, he explains, being "primarily a practice, a set of attitudes, a loyalty, and a passion,"62 is conceptually difficult to define. But drawing upon the wisdom of "agrarian writers, ancient and modern," and even the "sometimes illiterate agrarians who have been my teachers," Berry concludes that "[t]he fundamental difference between industrialism and agrarianism is this: whereas industrialism is a way of thought based on monetary capital and technology, agrarianism is a way of thought based on land."63 The agrarian economy recognizes that "[t]he stability, coherence, and longevity of human occupation require that the land should be divided among many owners and users."64 Thus, for Berry and the agrarians,