Fire and Knowledge

How many deaths of other people’s children by bombing or starvation are we willing to accept in order that we may be free, affluent, and (supposedly) at peace? To that question I answer pretty quickly: None. And I know that I am not the only one who would give that answer: Please. No children. Don’t kill any children for my benefit.

–Wendell Berry, “The Failure of War” in Citizenship Papers (2003), p. 29

Let us have the candor to acknowledge that what we call “the economy” or “the free market” is less and less distinguishable from warfare. For about half of this century we worried about world conquest by international communism. Now with less worry (so far) we are witnessing world conquest by international capitalism. Though its political means are milder (so far) than those of communism, this newly internationalized capitalism may prove even more destructive of human cultures and communities, of freedom, and of nature. Its tendency is just as much toward total dominance and control. Confronting this conquest, ratified and licensed by the new international trade agreements, no place and no community in the world may consider itself safe from some form of plunder.

–Wendell Berry, “The Failure of War” in Citizenship Papers (2003), p. 27

After the war the government had found itself with a tremendous surplus of ammonium nitrate, the principal ingredient in the making of explosives. Ammonium nitrate also happens to be an excellent source of nitrogen for plants. Serious thought was given to spraying America’s forests with the surplus chemical, to help out the timber industry. But agronomists in the Department of Agriculture had a better idea: Spread the ammonium nitrate on farmland as fertilizer. The chemical fertilizer industry (along with that of pesticides, which are based on poison gases developed for the war) is the product of the government’s effort to convert its war machine to peacetime purposes. As the Indian farmer activist Vandana Shiva says in her speeches, “We’re still eating the leftovers of World War II.”

–Michael Pollan, The Omnivore’s Dilemma (2006), p. 41

If we are serious about innovation, must we not conclude that we need something new to replace our perpetual “war to end war”?

–Wendell Berry, “Thoughts in the Presence of Fear” in Citizenship Papers (2003), p. 20

Much of the obscurity of our effort so far against terrorism originates in the now official idea that the enemy is evil and that we are (therefore) good, which is the precise mirror image of the official idea of the terrorists.

–Wendell Berry, “A Citizen’s Response” in Citizenship Papers (2003), p. 5

Let’s define terrorism the right way, and allow no double standards. Terrorism is the deliberative taking of innocent lives. It applies to individuals, groups, and nations alike—all of which can and have supported and committed acts of terrorism. Those who turn airplanes into missiles to attack skyscrapers full of people, those who become suicide bombers, and those who order military strikes against apartment buildings full of civilians and children are all terrorists, not religious devotees, martyrs, or defenders of national security.

–Jim Wallis, God’s Politics (2005), p. 106

In nuclear or biological warfare, in which we know we cannot limit effects, how do we distinguish our enemies from our friends—or our enemies from ourselves? Does this not bring us exactly to the madness of terrorists who kill themselves in order to kill others?

–Wendell Berry, “A Citizen’s Response” in Citizenship Papers (2003), p. 4

An enemy [has] to remain a caricature if he [is] to be kept at a safe distance: an enemy should never come alive. The generals were right—no Christmas cheer ought to be exchanged between the trenches.

–Graham Greene, The Human Factor (1978), p. 203