What To Do Next DocuMonday: A Proposal
How anybody can deny the excellence of this idea is beyond me.
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Deneen on small business
Nothing terribly new, but Patrick Deneen has some good stuff on the decline of small businesses: Finger on the Scale. The piece seems to imply (rightfully, I think) that we can’t ever escape the formative effect that the imagination and goals of society have on economic exchange. The real issue is how we can re-center that influence toward its proper aim. Not to turn all Aristotelian or anything…
This is an open question; no need to agree with Deneen one-hundred percent. But I think we’ve got to wrestle with this.
…perhaps it would not be too difficult to begin looking at systematic ways in which current policy supports concentrated economic power, and to begin its dismantling. It may also be that Government needs to be more active in enforcing anti-trust measures. The Republican orthodoxy will scream that such activity is an intrusion of “Gummint,” but it’s clear that Gummint has already intruded in this area, and is doing tremendous damage to the fabric of the nation (the Republican orthodoxy’s ecstasy in the wake of the recent Supreme Court decision that ensures unlimited corporate participation in our electoral process does not inspire confidence about their motives). Perhaps some log-rolling is in order: in exchange for a serious consideration about the disproportionate impact of regulation on differently scaled businesses, a sustained look at anti-trust enforcement could be considered…. We will differ even here on how much of a role the Gummint should have in tipping the scales, but it’s quite clear that the scales have already been considerably tipped, and that American towns, citizenship, and virtue have all suffered as a result – and that finally cheap prices are too high a price to pay.
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Localist Theses
It occurs to me that we could use a set of theses on localism. Food, economic justice, what have you. My conversations have been bogged down by not clarifying my presuppositions. So I’m going to try to write something up.
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It was in the immature stage of our discussions, but we did bring up some theses here on HPN. I’d modify some statements now. And you’ve got a whole new perspective on this stuff from the ground level.
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Thank you for the reminder, I had forgotten. We’re probably not all that much further along. I’m looking forward to rereading it.
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Not to condemn the world
An Augustinian is going to recognize that living in this world is a dirty business. An Augustinian is also going to invite the world to be better.
If we agree on that, how should we apply it?
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Lost Theory
Lots of spoilers ahead. If you haven’t seen Lost, what are you waiting for? There are only 75 hours of TV to catch up on.
I haven’t read what I’m sure are hundreds of theories on the Lostpedia for this past episode, because I wanted to come up with a theory of my own first.
Last season we had time travel, and the nuclear blast that stopped the uncontrollable flashes seems to have created an alternate universe.
My theory is that while the Losties on the island fight Esau and come into their own as island dwellers, the Losties off the island will realize something is up (coffins are missing, etc) and play a pivotal role in setting things to right on the island.
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DocuMonday: A Tribute
What fond memories. “Werner Herzog” reads Curious George:
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De-mystifying idols
Calvin on the appearance of truth among the profane:
Therefore, in reading profane authors, the admirable light of truth displayed in them should remind us, that the human mind, however much fallen and perverted from its original integrity, is still adorned and invested with admirable gifts from its Creator. If we reflect that the Spirit of God is the only fountain of truth, we will be careful, as we would avoid offering insult to him, not to reject or condemn truth wherever it appears. In despising the gifts, we insult the Giver (Institutes, 2.2.15).
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Love this, particularly the last sentence. Thanks. JE
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Follow the Money
You all remember the boycott of K-Mart in the 90’s? Frank, I don’t know if this reached Canada, I don’t even know if you have K-Marts. The American Family Association got Christians all over the country to purchase their goods anywhere other than at K-Mart. This was due to their ties to Walden Books, who sold/sopported pornography. The boycott was successful (though K-Mart has returned to its old, lucrative ways) , I wonder how much that helped Wal-Mart to become what it is today.
I have yet to set foot inside of a K-Mart. By the time the boycott was over, K-Mart was so pathetic that I never had a reason to go patronize them. Anyway, the principle behind that boycott was simple: you support whatever you give money to. Christians cannot support pornography in good conscience.
My father used to tell me that the battles I would fight would be the same ones he and my mother fought. His generation fought abortion, pornography, homeschooling, and theology. These battles are not over, but we are the next generation and grew up aware of these issues. Our battlefields extend beyond these, our focus lies well beyond these. We fight our parents’ battles by living the way they taught us. Our battles must be fought on new frontiers or we are not progressing.
Economics is one of the battles of our generation. So is food. What I mean is that if we ignore these fronts, we will reduce the size of the battlefield we hand to our kids. In other words, we will not progress. We will waste the upbringing our parents gave us and the battles they fought will need to be fought all over again.
I remember when the K-Mart boycott was in full-swing, there were discussions of how far to take the issue. Maybe we should stop buying Nikes because they support child labor. It gets messy very quickly. However the mess cannot be used as an excuse to ignore the battle.
We have many potential roadblocks to get past before we can even begin fighting. With the way money works today, how can we even know what we are supporting when we buy a t-shirt or a gallon of milk? How is it possible to support our neighbors with our money when they work at the nursing home, gas station, and Wal-Mart-either places we don’t need goods/services from or places we don’t feel right supporting? If I work for an energy company that uses coal and petrol in a fashion that I am uncomfortable with, what do I do?
In my case, how can I build houses using toxic (at best), unsustainable products manufactured by people I have never met and probably don’t speak English? This is a mess, a big mess.
We have to start sorting this stuff out. We have to start asking questions, talking about it. In short, we have to take a stand. Pick a standard and live by it. Choose your place on this field (there is room for many) and make your stand there. With the knowledge we have today from writers (Berry and many others), our own study, the fruition of our parents’ teaching, and preaching (hopefully I will not be the only one preaching on this stuff), we can no longer plead ignorance as generations before us have. What we don’t know we must search out. What we do know we have to put together and formulate a plan. What are we going to teach our kids about this?
The economic principles we own are not good enough. We buy stuff because it is cheaper and believe in all sincerity that this is a virtue. For some this is ignorance, for the rest of us it is sin. For all of us it is madness. Our basic economic principle is stockpiling money, yet we point our fingers at the corporations and government. Really? Maybe we should examine our accounts and see what economic principles our last ten purchases were made based upon.
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Great stuff, Gabe. Really.
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Gabe, these are interesting questions (and good ones to ask, I agree). Yet, I’d be much more interested to know how you think the rubber should meet the road. Will you stop listening to music published by record companies and stick just with what you can hear locally? Will you and Kristen stop by clothes from J Crew since they manufacture their clothes in sweat shops in China? And more importantly, what will you replace these things with?
Genuinely curious,
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I remember when the K-Mart boycott was in full-swing, there were discussions of how far to take the issue… It gets messy very quickly. However the mess cannot be used as an excuse to ignore the battle.
This to me is always a disappointing objection, because we’ve done it before. When our parents questioned public schooling, they were questioning a monolithic system. The objections would have been numerous – how will mom get the household errands done? where will you find alternate curriculum? aren’t there godly people with who participate in the system? shouldn’t you work within the system to bring change?
You can draw direct parallels between the two issues. Christians make culture. We can create alternate systems. Some will call us to pull out completely, others will transition slowly or for pragmatic reasons instead for principle, and still others will stay in the system forever. How can we apply the lessons of the Christian schooling issue, or for that matter the lessons of the reformation, to this sort of systemic problem?
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Frank, we are asking ourselves those questions right now. However my point is not that we must all make the same decisions, the same amount of decisions, etc. Rather my point is that we need to: 1) be aware of the situation, that this is a huge issue we can’t be lazy about. It is a moral issue with sin involved and it is one of the biggest issues facing the Western Church in our generation. 2) Learn more about it. 3 ) Make our own decisions about how we will act regarding the issue.
This is messy. This is a disaster. Just sorting out where the lines are is going to require Herculean feats. But it has to be done by each of us.We are buying our food more and more locally. We will grow much of it next year. I bought my work boots from a store, not online. All my whiskey is made illegally by locals. When I buy products for work, I try to buy them at the local store as much as my business allows (a whole discussion unto itself). When I buy tools, I buy them from Kerry, the tool guy at MBS. But really, we are just beginning. Austin has already made a string of these choices for his business and is, it seems to me, more developed in his thought than I am on these decisions.
I guess I am equally as curious as you (were in you questions) as to why those questions are more interesting to you than the principle I am getting at. The principle cannot be ignored because the specifics are tricky and may result in different answers from different households. If the principle is true, then we have to act, no matter whether or not the alternatives seem ludicrous, ineffective, or impossible.
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Gabe,
Good answers. Thanks.
I asked those questions, not because I’m trying to ignore the greater principle, but because a “greater principle” is hard to explain without specifics. We could talk till we’re blue in the face about “Loving our neighbours,” but what really counts is how we love our neighbours. And what’s more, we don’t learn to love our neighbours simply be hearing and reading those three words. We learn by seeing love, either in parable or myth or parents or friends, etc.
Perhaps I should just honestly admit that I’m not sure what exactly this “greater principle” is, and that’s a big reason why I wanted to know specifics (rather than make assumptions). I also suspect that every one interprets that greater principle differently — I don’t expect you to talk like Davey, or like Austen, or like Berry. And again, asking for concrete examples opens up a lot to me — I see what you’re saying much more clearly.
I’ll close by admitting that I’m the skeptic in all this. I agree that economics is a significant question, but I’m not yet convinced it’s the question for our generation. (In part because it seems to be the question for every generation — I’ve read everything you and others are saying in Auden and Rosenstock-Huessy’s writing from 75 years ago.) I also find it interesting that you list pornography, abortion, homeschooling, and theology as the battles of the last generation — if they were battles, then most of them haven’t been won. Not hardly.
I just have questions about all this, so please keep sharing. I sincerely want to get at these answers, and while I may infuriate you with my skepticism, don’t let it get to you. I’m sincerely humbled by your list of examples: you live out what you say, and even if I might not do the same things, I think that’s incredibly awesome. Thanks for the teaching.
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What is the Economy?
From Bringing it to the Table: He (Elmer Lapp, a small farmer in Lancaster, Pa.) is also aware that the pattern of subsistence is a community pattern. He says, for instance, that he deals with the little country stores rather than the supermarkets in the city. The little country stores support the life of the community, whereas the supermarkets support “the economy” at the expense of communities.”
This forces a question I have had for a while. What is the “economy?” The stimulus package Obama gave to America was designed to be a shot of epinephrine into the coutry’s failing economy. “If the economy is good, everything will be fine for us.” This is the dominant underlying assumption of every bit of news we have heard in the last two years. But, this is as absurd as trusting in money. I am angry that I have bought this line to some degree, but it is simply not true. It is a line right out of the liturgy of Materialism.
But what is even more interesting is that it as soon as we recognize this line as idolatry, we have to ask how the economy became a god. Not everything about the economy is bad, but what is this thing? I can wrap my mind around the economy of a family, a business, even a town. But I can’t figure out what “the economy” that is being referred to actually is. It is not the economy of the USA. It is not something that can be mapped or described. It does not describe anything itself. It is a mystery.
It seems to me that it is a god. It is a colossal distraction in the very least. Why should I feel the need to support something that has no relationship to me? Why should I fear something that no one can describe to me, that I can’t be sure even exists? This is too much. That I should base most of my actions on a day-to-day basis on something that has been conjured up like this is absurd, and culpable.
Let’s say it does exist and it is the standard by which we measure our economic health as a country and as individuals. Why should I make a decision based on the good of the economy (for the sake of the individuals it contains) that clearly does not benefit my neighbors? This is a contradiction in terms. It is a contradiction of ethics. At this point, we are being asked, solicited, even paid to support our economy. Yet this does not help our neighbors, it hurts them (I think on this forum I can safely assert this?). When it comes to this point it is obvious that we can no longer give ourselves to this pursuit or any pursuit that is based on this line.
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Frank
Gabe,
A very good question. I haven’t read Berry yet, so I don’t want to try and answer any economic questions. However, I do think you hit on a bigger point — fear. I’m becoming convinced that one of the significant differences between the church and the world is whether fear or love is their dominant characteristic. I’m still working this out (so don’t challenge me yet, Davey), but the constant demand to fear is a constant facet of our society, and that ought to tell us something.
I think this sort of approach typifies the Christian localism I’ve seen and read about. They’re not afraid of the future; they simply want to love their neighbour.
Another thought: big change must come from the ground up.
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brendan
I think this NYTimes article speaks to some of what GT brings up here. http://bit.ly/83p6Ns
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I’ve always thought “the economy” was a pretty unhelpful abstraction, but then I’ve never been one for abstractions. When people start talking about the good of “the economy” they’re generally tossing around the old capitalist chestnut that more ‘wealth’ is good for everybody and has the ability to lift the poor up out of their poverty – a strictly unbiblical notion.
@Frank – Here here for ground up change, and hope and love over fear.
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Your fear/love point is crucial, Frank. Fear cripples and makes slaves–in this case–to the economy.
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Holy Smokes!
On December 30th, Half Past Noon will turn 4 years old. Its first year was pretty slow, but even still that’s a long time. Chris, how about redesigning this thing to celebrate? Also, I’d love to hear from everyone how their life circumstances and thinking have changed in the past 3 years.
F is discussing. 
brendan and one other person are discussing. 
A 9:01 am on March 2, 2010 Permalink
Completely agree. The lengthy discussion after the post is also helpful.