An interaction and an incident yesterday, one that I will not elaborate on in these pages, had me thinking about both mercy and democracy. Mercy is certainly not the sole providence of small farms. But Victor Hanson, in his excellent history, The Other Greeks, makes a persuasive case that Greek democracy developed out of the small farm culture of ancient Greece. That the nature of agrarian interactions, of modest finances and the need to accomplish the work with few hands led to an independence of culture and the martial willingness to defend it. Which led me back to wondering if mercy has some roots in an agrarian past? Whether mercy, in the end, is the ability to act decisively and also with compassion, all informed by the daily practice of intimate familiarity? And whether democracy without an informed exercise of mercy can thrive?
From my Winged Elm Farm Alphabet:
M is for Mercy
Mr. Blake says that “mercy has a human heart.” As a quality based on compassion for those in one’s care, mercy on a farm gets a lot of experience. It is frequently exercised in dispatching an animal when butchering, mercifully killing an injured duck whose leg has been pulled off by a turtle or any of the other seemingly endless ways of dying or being injured on a farm. Farming expands with a clear-eyed view the means and ways of compassion, strips the sentiment and leaves you with choices that cannot be put off on anyone else.
This really belongs with the headcheese article….
I vividly remember the day one of the elderly, Greek sisters who lived next door said, “Come on in! I have a treat for you to taste.” In the kitchen steaming on a platter was the biggest tongue I had ever seen. “Now you just wait,” she told me, and proceeded to split the “cover” on the tongue down the middle and pulled the skin of the tongue off. My stomach churned. A slab of tender, fat-free muscle was left on the plate surrounded by onions. She cut me off the tip of the tongue, which is probably the best part, forked it up, and served it to me herself. There was no escape. I would NEVER have volunteered, but I had been taught to be polite to the sisters, so I opened my mouth and the tongue hit my tongue. Actually, it wasn’t so bad! A bit chewy maybe. “There now,” said the sister, “that was pretty darn good, wasn’t it!” Much surprised, I had to agree. Dhyan
You are right, Dhyan. The look of the tongue is a tough hurdle for most. But the taste is really just that of a fine grained muscle. Good to be adventurous.
Perhaps its my turn to be missing the cognition switch – or perhaps there are elements of the events the other day that while they should remain absent here are needed by a dim bulb like me to stich this together. Either way, I think I’m missing something.
I am struck by the pondering however. Can an agrarian system foster a behavior the likes of mercy? I see the connection to choices forced upon us in our role as farmer, particularly when the role is prescribed more as steward – keeper of the resource. When we appreciate the other beings around us having a hand in our livelihood it makes sense to care, to have some empathy – and thus show mercy toward them.
But I’m inclined to think that mercy was around before agricultural endeavors. For evidence I’ll point to adoption that some animals will do for non-kin members of their species (when say a mother with dependent young dies). Adopting a relative’s offspring can be explained by fitness matter’s – you are related and thus a relative’s success is similar in kind if not degree to success of your own offspring. But when sharing resources with an unrelated individual has a fitness cost it should be selected against in a purely ‘survival of the fittest’ type of evolution. Altruism is not mercy, but I’ll suppose it may have similar roots, and I think altruism predates agrarian pursuits as well.
I see mercy and agrarian lifestyles playing well together in a sense where the latter reinforces and makes mercy a more significant behavior.
If all this has gone completely off the rails, then I should merely offer a notion from ER Sill’s poem:
Be merciful to me, a fool.
Clem,
Thanks for the response. I was thinking of the definition of mercy, “compassion shown towards someone (or some creature) whom it is within one’s power to punish or harm.” I used agrarianism as a starting place only because for us moderns the concept of reaching back to the Paleolithic is a bit far. So the concept of mercy, as derived from a position of power, seems perfectly in keeping with the exercise of power on small diversified farms over the millennia. And that decisive actions, tinged with clear-eyed mercy would be compatible with the rise of democracy, seem wholly reasonable.
Then again, perhaps my cognition switches are in the off position?
Cheers,
This is off thread, but I recently got a request from Uncle Sam to fill in the 2014 National Agricultural Classification Survey (and if Uncle is watching… I did fill it out and send it back… you may now stop pestering me)…
So my question – if Winged Elm was likewise invited to participate – would you be comfortable sharing your reaction to all the questions? I ask because my own reaction is fairly mixed. I see value in it… but good grief mom.
Dear Anonymous,
I had the same reaction, we filled it out last year. I couldn’t believe how damn long it was. I mean, really?
Cheers,