Thinking Little - the Big Impact of Little People

It is difficult to know where to begin when writing about Wendell Berry. Berry comes from a very different culture than I. He grew up on a farm in Kentucky, while I come from a suburb outside Washington, D.C. The town that I am from is a perfect example of the consumerism that Berry laments in his writings. When often times people’s houses are bigger than their yards, it is easy to see how consumerism is damaging the environment. Berry is correct in that we must all change our attitudes towards the Earth and each other if climate damage, war, and racial prejudice are to be averted. Berry says that the way to resolve these issues is to focus on ones household, and consider the consequences that all of our actions have on our own household. However, most people will not change their ways until these issues begin to affect them on a personal level.

In Wendell Berry’s “Think Little,” Berry claims that if we are to change our ways, these changes will be enacted by thinking little. What Berry means by that is that it will require action on the personal level by many people, rather than by government law, to truly change a culture. Berry shows concern that the issue of the environment may become a fad like the civil rights and the anti-war movements. These movements had broad support but were thorough enough since we are still fighting wars and there is still racial inequity. This idea of Berry’s can best be summed up by this passage.

A crowd whose discontent has risen no higher than the level of slogans is only a crowd. But a crowd that understands the reasons for its discontent and knows the remedies is a vital community, and it will have to be reckoned with. I would rather go before the government with two men who have a competent understanding of an issue, and who therefore deserve a hearing, than with two thousand who are vaguely dissatisfied (Barry 84)

In this essay, Berry uses the Vietnam War protestors as an example of a large group of people who try to enact change without understanding the issue. The Iraq War applies just as well as an example. Berry says, “For most advocates of peace the war has been a remote reality, and the burden of the blame has seemed to rest mostly on the government,” (82). For example, in 2006 nearly 67% of Americans favored war in Iraq (Milbank and Deane, par 4). Contrast that to February 2008, in which only 36% of Americans approve of the war in Iraq (Iraq, par 1).

The change in people’s opinion about the war in Iraq shows that people did not fully understand the decision to go to war. The nation did not grasp the toll the war could take on human lives. Berry says that “that there is no public crisis that is not also private,” (82). People need to consider the issue of war on a personal level. It is far easier to support a war if one is disengaged from it. Imagine if someone close to you was to go to war. Being in that situation can put a whole new perspective on this issue. As the war drags on, more people become involved with it, and the desire to end it grows.

The brutality at My Lai during the Vietnam War had an especially strong effect on people. My Lai was a village in Vietnam that was a source of the greatest cruelty and loss of civilian life during the war. Between 350 and 500 civilians were killed because they were suspected of harboring enemy troops (Blood and Fire, par 10). When reports of the incident were released, people were outraged. The photographs of the incident, which depict whole families lying dead in mass graves, appealed to emotions of American citizens and aroused anti-war sentiment. These photographs showed that war is real and has a direct effect on individuals. The incident exemplifies how war enters the private lives of everyday people. This is a hard concept to grasp, since most people only have to deal with war in hypothetical terms. If people understood the tragedy that war can bring without being shown these photographs, then there is no way war could happen. The soldiers that were there at My Lai certainly have a different perspective on war now.

Berry hopes that people will realize and address the environmental crisis more quickly and more earnestly than the Vietnam War. To avert the impending environmental crisis, it is required that everyone put forth a little effort. Berry affirms this notion by citing that a 40 by 60 foot garden can supply all the vegetables that a typical family needs. Imagine the reduced environmental impact a whole community of people could have if each family grew their own food. Not only would it have an impact on the sales at the local grocery store, but it would have an immensely beneficial impact to the environment as well. To understand the environmental benefit of buying less, examine the current process of how the average family gets their food. First of all, it was cultivated by a machine that requires