Member-only story
Five Things You Didn’t Know About Your Community
There’s a localism movement afoot.
The Saturday after Black Friday is now recognized as “Small Business Saturday,” an effort to remind people that it’s important to support their local stores. There has been a corresponding harsh backlash against Amazon and its disturbing gains on the back of COVID.
The phrase “Bowling Alone” from Robert Putnam’s 2000 book about America’s alarming reduction in “social capital” has gained currency. I see it used with no explanation, since the writer just assumes everyone knows what it refers to.
More people seem to understand the importance of buying and eating locally-grown food.
The American Chesterton Society, that flagship organization for the oft-forgotten but persistent economic school of Distributism, recently declared that “Distributism” ought now to be called “Localism.”
The examples could go on and on.
If you’re interested in the localism movement, here are five things about the importance of your community that you should keep in mind.
1. Communities are organic
“[Man] combines with other men because isolation endangers him.” Will Durant, Our Oriental Heritage.
