At least two conservative types who have regularly commented here expressed an ignorance of knowledge that liberals are concerned about simple-living, healthy-living, wholesome life concern for rural and agrarian topics. They appear to be wholly unaware of this vast Agrarianism field in progressive writings and expertise.
Indeed, the term, Agrarian, itself, is a progressive philosophy regularly espoused by liberals. From Wikipedia:
Agrarianism is a political and social philosophy that has promoted subsistence agriculture, smallholdings and egalitarianism, with agrarian political parties normally supporting the rights and sustainability of small farmers and poor peasants against the wealthy in society. In highly developed and industrial nations or regions, it can denote use of financial and social incentives for self-sustainability, more community involvement in food production (such as allotment gardens) and smart growth that avoids urban sprawl, and also what many of its advocates contend are risks of human overpopulation; when overpopulation occurs, the available resources become too limited for the entire population to survive comfortably or at all in the long term.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agrarianism
A partial list of philosophers and writers coming from a more liberal or progressive tradition who have written about agrarianism, simple-living, healthy rural communities, etc include these below among many others (with the caveat that not all would fit neatly in liberal/progressive traditions but nearly all would be considered wildly liberal by many modern conservatives):
Wendell Berry
Aldo Leopold
John Muir
Henry David Thoreau
Rachel Carson
Robin Wall Kimmerer
Robert Penn Warren
Harlan and Anna Hubbard
Helen and Scott Nearing
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Edward Abbey
Arundhati Roy
de la Torre
Ellen Davis
Thomas Paine
Patty Krawec
Edwin Way Teale
Martin Luther King
Jane Goodall
Marjory Stoneman Douglas
And I could go on and on. Look up rural environmentalists, agrarianism, liberal environmental writers, indigenous environment, black agrarianism, etc. Some quotes:
“The long fight to save wild beauty represents democracy at its best. It requires citizens to practice the hardest of virtues--self-restraint. Why cannot I take as many trout as I want from a stream? Why cannot I bring home from the woods a rare wildflower? Because if I do, everybody in this democracy should be able to do the same. My act will be multiplied endlessly. To provide protection for wildlife and wild beauty, everyone has to deny himself proportionately. Special privilege and conservation are ever at odds.”
“It is those who have compassion for all life who will best safeguard the life of man. Those who become aroused only when man is endangered become aroused too late. We cannot make the world uninhabitable for other forms of life and have it habitable for ourselves. It is the conservationist who is concerned with the welfare of all the land and life of the country, who, in the end, will do most to maintain the world as a fit place for human existence.”
~Edwin Way Teale
“Our strategy should be not only to confront empire, but to lay siege to it. To deprive it of oxygen. To shame it. To mock it. With our art, our music, our literature, our stubbornness, our joy, our brilliance, our sheer relentlessness – and our ability to tell our own stories. Stories that are different from the ones we’re being brainwashed to believe.
The corporate revolution will collapse if we refuse to buy what they are selling – their ideas, their version of history, their wars, their weapons, their notion of inevitability.
Remember this: We be many and they be few. They need us more than we need them.
Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.”
~Arundhati Roy
“Let me outline briefly as I can what seem to me the characteristics of
these opposite kinds of mind. I conceive a strip-miner to be a model
exploiter, and as a model nurturer I take the old-fashioned idea or
ideal of a farmer. The exploiter is a specialist, an expert; the
nurturer is not. The standard of the exploiter is efficiency; the
standard of the nurturer is care. The exploiter's goal is money, profit;
the nurturer's goal is health -- his land's health, his own, his
family's, his community's, his country's..."
“If change is to come, it will have to come from the margins.”
~Wendell Berry
“Campaigners for God, Country and the American Way of Life did not
stop when they had crushed radical trade unions and jailed socialist,
syndicalist and communist spokespeople. They also bought out and took
over the communication apparatus...
The same men who operated mines, factories and department stores became
owners, directors and trustees of the entire communication apparatus.
Communication, like merchandising and farming became parts of the big
business octopus that was reaching its tentacles into every
profit-yielding corner of American life."
~Scott Nearing
For a small sampling.
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This was a quickly thrown-together effort. There is, of course, SO much to cover on the topic. I'm shamefully not well-read on LatinX authors on agrarian concerns, but I know enough to know there is much written on the topic. As well as from women and indigenous peoples. But it's a start.
1 comment:
An answer I left for Craig on his blog...
I had said...
"What I stated was that progressives have long been advocates of clean rural living, simplicity, healthy farms."
Craig responded...
Yes, that's what you said. The question is what do you mean when you use the term "progressives" in that context? Do you mean all progressives? The vast majority of progressives? Some subset of progressives?
Concern for nature and simple living and healthy rural communities is a common theme amongst progressives.
That does NOT mean that all progressives want to live in the country.
That does NOT mean that I or any of us are suggesting that THE ONE RIGHT way to live is simply and in a rural setting, as with the Amish.
That does NOT mean that all progressives are informed about or even care about simple living or healthy rural settings.
All it means is that when you are in progressive circles (as I am, as most of my friends now are, as many of my family are, as is true in the extended circles of people I know and read and admire and am connected to), it is common to hear concern for
a. simple living over and against extravagant or hyper-consumptive living
b. healthy farm practices
c. vegetarianism or some form of less-consumptive meat eating
d. simpler, cleaner transportation options like walking, biking, cleaner vs dirtier cars, ride sharing, mass transit - whether one is in the city or rural settings
e. cleaner energy - whether one is in the city or in rural settings
f. more sustainable farming practices, smaller farming operations, more farming and less agribusiness done by outsiders
g. increased connections between rural farmers and city consumers, talks of "fork to table," CSAs, Farmers Markets, etc
These are part and parcel of progressive talks. And even when we're talking about more urban and urbane progressives (many black people and LGBTQ people haven't felt safe in rural settings for a while), they may not be as familiar - or familiar at all - with the Wendell Berrys and John Muirs, but they STILL get the importance of healthy farm/city connections and greener, healthier lives for all of us, including healthy food options, which means closer connections to farming, gardening and farmers.
Maybe part of the problem is when you see a progressive type advocating for "greener living" or more wholesome farming/rural connections, that you think we're a monolith and ALL speaking specifically of those particular topics regularly. But in all the progressive circles I'm familiar with (here and around the US and around the world), we LOVE our
* urban social workers who are concerned for police abuse might be one priority and
* we recognize that promoting affordable housing might be Marie's priority, and
* keeping people off drugs might be Jameel's priority and
* getting farm food access to urban food deserts might be Jackson's priority and
* improving transportation options might be Pat's priority and
* promoting LGBTQ rights might be Leslie's priority
and solar power
and wind energy
and access to libraries
and inclusion for the disabled
etc, etc, etc
We are GLAD that we have these wide range of concerns and efforts underway and while I may not be actively involved or even especially familiar with animal rights, I'm glad to hear about it and support those who are chasing those efforts and THEY tend to be glad to hear about and support those areas where I'm working.
It's not one thing or a few small subset of things... it's the work for a healthier, cleaner, more just, more accepting world and community. And there's just huge cross-over support on any effort that's seeking that kind of progressive.
So, no, I'm not saying ALL progressives are actively informed about and advocating simple living and closer farm/city connections. I'm saying, rather, that progressives support progressive actions to improve the world and stop oppression and that can look like a lot of things.
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