“More at Home, More Quiet, More Employed at the Work That Still Seems My Own to Do”: Reflections on Wendell Berry and Ivan Illich

• In Event: Roundtable Session 84
  In Roundtable Session: Not Knowing and the Politics of Powerlessness in Empire

Abstract

An exchange of Wendell Berry’s letters (Prakash, 2011) and comments from his interviews will be examined in a two- part reflection. In the letters, Berry presented his view on public life, his distrust of political activities that oversimplified complex matters, and his self-characterization as a solitary person in need of “more quiet and more time at home.” Berry’s concern with care for the self and land, and “the work that still seems my own to do” is first examined. Secondly, the analytic phrase, “the power of powerlessness” is used to explore both Berry and Ivan Illich (drawing from Ivan Illich in Conversation) as social thinkers in search of an alternative politics who had no desire for the power of politicians.

Authors

• Rene Galindo, University of Colorado

• Madhu Suri SURI Prakash, The Pennsylvania State University

• Dana L. Stuchul, The Pennsylvania State University