Page18 RAIN June1978 small changes are big changes - Wendell Berry - reprinted from ·1 .g of America ($9.95), copyright 1977 by Wendell Berry, bJ .iision from Sierra Club Books, 530 Bush Street, San Francisco, ' .'\. 94108 . . . . The only,re.al, practical, hope-giving way to remedy the fragmentation that is the dise~se of the modern spirit is a small and humble way-a way that a government or agency or organization or institution will never think.of, though a person may think of it: one must begin in one's own life the private solutions that can only in turn become public solutions. If, for instance, one is aware of the abuses and extortions to which one is subjected as a modern consumer, then one may join an organization of co'nsumers to lobby for consumerprotection legislation. But in joining a consumer organization, one defines oneself as a consumer merely, and a mere consumer is by qefinition a dependent, at the mercy of the manufa~turer and the salesman. If the organization secures the desired legislation, then the consumer b~comes the dependent not only of the manufacturer and salesm·an, but of the agency that enforces the law, and is at its mercy as well. the law enacted may be a g..ood one, and the enforcers all honest and effective; even so, the consumer will understand that one result of his effort has been to increase the number of people of whom he must beware. 'The consumer may proceed to organization and even to legislation by considering only his "rights." And most of the recent talk about consumer protection has had to do with the consumer's rights. Very little indeed has been said about the consumer's responsibilities. It may be that whereas one's rights may be advocated and even "served" by an organization, one's responsibilities cannot. It may be that when one hands one's responsibilities to an organization, one becomes by that di- • vestiture irresponsible. It may be that responsibility is intransigently a personal matter-that a responsibility can be fulfilled or failed, but cannot be got rid of. - If a consumer begins to think and act in consideration of his responsibilities, then he vastly increases his capacities as ·a person. And he begins to be effective in a different way-a way that is smaller perhaps, and certainly less dramatic, but sounder, and able sooner or later to assume the force of example. A responsible consumer would be a critical consumer, would refuse to purchase the less good. Anq he would be a moderate consumer; he would know his needs and would not purchase what he did,not need; he would sort among his needs and study to reduce them. These things, of course, have been often said, though in our time they have not been said very loudly and have not been much heeded. In our time the rule among consumers has been to spend money recklessly. People whose goverping habit is the relinquishment of power, competence, and responsibility, and whose characteristic suffering is the anxiety of futjlity, make excellent spenders. _They are the ideal consumers. By inducing in them little panics of boredom, powerlessness, sexual failure, mortality, paranoia, they ·can be madf to buy (or vote for) virtual1y anything that 1is "attractively packaged." The advertising indusfry is founded upon this principle. What has not been often said, because it did not need to be said until fairly recent times, is that the responsible consumer must also be in so~e way a producer. Out of his own resources and skills, he must be equal to some of his own needs. The household that prepares its own meals in its own kitchen with some intelligent regard for nutritional value, and thus depends on the grocer only for selected ~aw materials, exercises an influence on the food industry that reaches from the store.all ,the way back to th~ seedsman. The household that produces some or all of its own food will have a proportionately greater influence. The household that can provide some· of its own pleasures will not be helplessly dependent on the entertainment industry, will influence it by not being helplessly dependent on it, and will not suppor,t it thoughtlessly out of boredom. The responsible consumer thus escapes the limits of his own dissatisfaction. He can choose, and exert the influence of his choosing, because he has given himself choices. H~ is not confin'ed to the negativity of his complaint. He influences the m<l!rket by his freedom. This is no specialized act, but an act that is substantial and complex, both practically and morally. _By making himself responsibly free, a person changes both his life and his surr~undi'ngs. It is possible, then, to perceive a critical difference between responsible consumers and consumers who are merely organized. The responsible consumer slips out of the consumer cate~ gory altogether. He is a responsible consumer incidentally, almost inadvertently; he is a responsible consumer because he lives a responsible life.
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