Wendell Berry's essay, The Failure of War

Wendell Berry's essay, The Failure of War

We're getting ready to start up a discussion about an essay by Wendell Berry called "The Failure of War." The essay can be found in Berry's most recent book of essays, Citizenship Papers (Shoemaker & Hoard, 2003). Citizenship Papers is a thoughtful book that Andrew got me started reading, and, much as I disagree with much of what the author says, I'd certainly recommend it to anyone.

Berry's premise in "The Failure of War" is summed up by the first sentence of his essay: "If you know even as little history as I do, it is hard not to doubt the efficacy of modern war as a solution to any problem except that of retribution -- the 'justice' of exchanging one damage for another, which results only in doubling (and continuing) the damage and the suffering." War, in other words, is useless.

The essay goes on to explain that war's uselessness lies in a paradox: it is impossible to damage your enemy without also opening yourself up to being damaged in the same way. "You cannot kill your enemy's women and children without offering your own women and children to the selfsame possibility." Modern rhetoric about war, moreover, reflects the fact that most people are aware that war is useless and bad; this is why most wars are fought with peace as their justification (the current war in Iraq being a prime example). The irony of this rhetoric is that peace can never be forged by war. Rather than ensuring the preservation of those who wage it, war cannot but result their self-destruction.

Berry then moves to comparing the modern American economy to modern American warfare. Our energy and agricultural policies are geared towards consuming everything we can get our hands on from abroad, instead of husbanding the resources (natural and human) that we already have at home. This practice is paradoxically self-destructive in the same way warfare is: we appear to be consuming others, but in fact we are consuming ourselves.

After a haunting plea for our government to stop killing the children of other nations on our own and our children's behalf, Berry closes with Christ's exhortation to love our enemies, which he says is the only real way that humanity can make progress.

I'll save my own opinion and comments on the essay for future posts. Hopefully others will chime in as well.