Essays from West of 98: Nationwide Problems, Local Solutions
Last week’s essay about the perils of Gnosticism was one of the best-received essays I’ve written in some time. More important than any number of “likes” was to start conversations about how to be a person of both faith and works and influence the world positively. Conversations alone do not make change, but rarely do actions begin to improve the world without a conversation.
It is easy to look around and see a lot of nationwide problems. It is natural to expect nationwide solutions. If everyone is having the same problem, let’s fix it for everybody, right? Our government was never designed to work effectively from the top down. The federal government derives its powers from the states and the states derive their powers from the people. Over the years, our politics have oriented themselves from the top down and our system is more dysfunctional and less effective as a result. There are plenty of people over many decades to blame for that, but I am not here to name names (yet).
I’m here to talk solutions. We don’t need an action hero President. Batman is not coming to save us (I don’t think). How do we ordinary Americans effect change on our world?
Our political system is still designed to work from the bottom up and it works more effectively that way. Therein lies our answer. Nationwide problems are fixed locally. Individual people and small groups improve their local communities. They improve local economies and local culture and the positive change reverberates throughout local society. Those communities inspire other communities to do the same.
I refer back to a quote from Wendell Berry’s “The Work of Local Culture” that I used a while back. Some readers might be tired of me quoting Wendell Berry, but I know others find the same inspiration for rural leadership that I have found in his writing. I encourage you to read this quote, but place it in the context of last week’s discussion about a fallen world and improving God’s creation:
“My feeling is that, if improvement is going to begin anywhere, it will have to begin out in the country and in the country towns. This is not because of any intrinsic virtue that can be ascribed to country people, but because of their circumstances. Rural people are living, and have lived for a long time, at the site of the trouble. They see all around them, every day, the marks and scars of an exploitive national economy. They have much reason, by now, to know how little real help is to be expected from somewhere else. They still have, moreover, the remnants of local memory and local community. And in rural communities there are still farms and small businesses that can be changed according to the will and the desire of individual people.
We have little reason for faith in statewide or national elected officials. They will help our places only as far as it benefits their own desires for election or re-election.That’s fine. They cannot fix an entire state or nation anyway.
Our communities can be changed according to the will and desire of our individual people. In the aftermath of the Uvalde tragedy, I have seen many teacher friends discuss how they individually impact their own students. I have seen them write how they intend to increase their efforts to make sure that each child in their classroom feels loved. That spirit is the essence of Berry’s quote above.
Each of us have an individual sphere of influence. Through words and deeds, we can change that sphere and the people in it for the better (or worse). Let’s not wait for an action-hero President or Batman. Let’s not wait for nationwide changes. Let’s start with our individual spheres. It matters more than we realize.
James Decker is the Mayor of Stamford, Texas and the creator of the West of 98 website and podcast. Contact James and subscribe to these essays at westof98.substack.com and subscribe to West of 98 wherever podcasts are found.