Essays From West of 98: The Counterculture of Localism
Healthy people and healthy places arise when we live locally
“The real wealth of a country…does not reside in the hectic exchanges on the stock market or the rivers of commodities that flow through every household without belonging there. It resides in local communities, in the work that holds them together, and the deep investment represented by a home, a place and the endowment across generations of human love.”
If there is one overarching theme in my five-plus years of weekly essays, that theme is the importance and value of the local, both people and place.
At times, it feels like our society has never been farther away from valuing the local. Just look at the economic, cultural, and political landscape. The companies on which we depend for goods and services continue to grow larger and farther removed from any specific locale. Our cultural institutions are more representative of Genericville USA than any place in particular, to try and appeal to everyone at once. There’s an old saying that “all politics is local” but our political class and those who enrich themselves in the political economy are bent on replacing that notion with the toxic idea that all politics are national. I fundamentally reject that poison, but that’s a topic for another day. Recently, in the aftermath of some regional bank failures, leaders of our financial industry pushed the appalling notion that Americans should put their money only in the largest of national and international banks, “for security.” Sprawling metropolitan areas grow ever larger, swallowing prime farmland and formerly-unique communities. Meanwhile, rural communities struggle to grow or simply stay even.
If you value the local, then that paragraph might be fairly depressing to read. Don’t be alarmed or deterred. The value of something is not based on popularity alone, nor on immediate results. If there’s anything I have learned from Wendell Berry, it is that good work is not less meaningful if the results do not show up quickly, even in your lifetime. Theodore Roosevelt illustrates this idea better than anyone, with the famous statement that “far and away the best prize life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.” That contains qualification or requirement for immediate results.
To follow on my ideas from last week, as everything has gotten bigger and less local, we have become unhappier as a society. We are too busy, many of us are stuck in traffic or tied to our electronic devices, and all of us are overwhelmed by noise and clutter. We are digging the hole deeper and then asking ourselves why it is getting darker around us. The first rule of getting out of a hole is to stop digging. When we focus on things that are truly meaningful, like humanity and simplicity, we should train our eyes on the local.
This is not purely a call for a nationwide return to rural life. Across America, there are thriving urban neighborhoods that exemplify these very same values. They have unique local culture. They have neighborhood bars, restaurants, libraries, and other gathering places in which local community is strengthened. The entire English soccer system is built around neighborhood clubs, even if some of those clubs are now multibillion dollar enterprises (yes I’ve been watching “Ted Lasso”). Urban neighborhoods have neighbors looking out for each other and lifting one another up when in need. If you saw the recent Tom Hanks film “A Man Called Otto,” you saw these concepts of positive localism exemplified in Otto’s neighborhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A very dear friend from law school was born and raised in Pittsburgh and moved back home right after law school. She and I have compared these ideas in rural and urban neighborhoods and they are far more alike than a small town citizen might think. My wife spent a decade in Washington D.C, a place in which neighborhoods are the primary orientation of community life. These concepts exist in healthy, thriving urban communities all across the world.
Our society feels like it is pushing away from the local, so it’s more than a little countercultural to take the opposite approach. But it might be the most healthy approach for people and place alike. If we want to create healthier, happier society with more fulfilled lives for all, we should direct our energy and work towards living locally.
📷: thriving localism in downtown #StamfordTexas
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.