community and exit
One fundamental flaw in the idealized concept of small town America is the lack of freedom to exit. In small towns the freedom to exit is greatly reduced – especially in rural areas where...
Tagged: localism
individualism, properly understood
I have been rather harsh in my treatment of the “rugged individual” in these pages, and yet have come to an essentially libertarian position on most economic issues. At the heart of libertarian philosophy...
aesthetics in everything
I stayed at a quaint bed and breakfast this weekend in a charming old mining town on a little mountain in the desert. It’s now home to dozens of artists and artisans – painters,...
the caricature of lament
I want to reuse this title sometime, because I think it’s really good. I got it from this really good post by JL Wall over at Upturned Earth, responding to both myself and Nathan...
localism vs neighborhood-ism
I have to admit, I haven’t been following the dust-up between the First Thingers/ Pomocons and the Front Porchers all that closely. But I must say, that what I have read has been some...
Tory Anarchist vs Front Porch Republic
Read Daniel McCarthy’s critique of the Front Porch, dovetailing rather nicely with many of my own reservations of the localists and agrarians:
giving up cars
I’ve thought about this sort of community before, but I didn’t know anyone was trying something this radical….
going to war with the army you have
“Rather than deep moral and spiritual renewal leading to civic health, what if it’s our national solipsism and susceptibility to suggestion that pull us together, and pull us through? What if, rather than being...
left conservatism revisited
So my wife tells me yesterday that I’m not conservative. She asks me how exactly I consider myself to be, in any sense of the word “conservative” and I go through some of my...
Working with what we’ve got…part II
Daniel Larison picks up arguably one of my most awkwardly worded sentences in one of my most awkwardly written posts and then writes: It’s true that idealism would be quite heavily burdened by idealism,...
Friday Night Jukebox, DIY Edition
As a fellow part-time hipster, I found a lot to like in William Brafford’s meditation on DIY indie rock and localism: Here’s the application to politics. DIY never sought to replace the major labels;...
Indie rock, DIY, localism.
E.D. wrote, “The idealism of the paleoconservative cause is simply too burdened by the idealism of its vision.” To which I offer—not necessarily as a rebuttal—three letters: DIY. As punks and hardcore kids in...
Working with what we’ve got….
I’m sure I’ve run this course long enough. I’ve been in constant contemplation of the merits of the individual vs. the community. I’ve written endlessly about the subject and read a good deal on...
Sameness
“Our people made that choice, the choice to go to Sameness. Before my time, before the previous time, back and back and back. We relinquished color when we relinquished sunshine and did away with...
Localism Saved by Globalism, Cont’d
UPDATE, 3/25: In response to some accurate criticism, I have pulled back some of the arguments made in the below post; my revised argument can be found here. The good Mr. Dr. Larison has...
Why Localism Requires Globalism
UPDATE, 3/25: In response to some accurate criticism, I have pulled back some of the arguments made in the below post; my revised argument can be found here. Over the last few weeks, some...
Background on (Neo)distributism
ED’s piece yesterday calling for a neo-distributist/localist economic order is well worth the time. As coincidence (or synchronicity?) would have it, I have been reading some books on distributism and thinking a great deal...
Redefining Prosperity
The modern conservative movement is built upon a paradox. Indeed, both Parties in the United States system – and there are functionally only two – have long preached basically the same message. Means are...
