Revised Statement of Localism

Note: this is a revised statement of localism to better integrate with my presentation of the four cares: Care for the Self, Care for the Other, Care for Community, and Care for the World.

Care for the World

Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but on thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect. Continue to contaminate your own bed, and you will one night suffocate in your own waste.

-                 Chief Seattle

When all the trees have been cut down, when all the animals have been hunted, when all the waters are polluted, when all the air is unsafe to breathe, only then will you discover you cannot eat money.

-                 Cree Prophecy

All things are connected. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the children of the earth.

-                 Chief Seattle

I do not think the measure of a civilization is how tall its buildings of concrete are, but rather how well its people have learned to relate to their environment and fellow humans.

-                 Sun Bear of the Chippewa Tribe

The goal in Care for the World is to enable self-sustaining communities where the basic existential needs for respect and security of present and future generations are recognized and protected – sustainability through localism, where the key virtue is stewardship.

Virtue of Stewardship

The practice of localism – the creation of self-sustaining and self-governing local communities – is the practice of implementing the virtue of stewardship. Here are five principles that could provide a framework for such twenty-first century communities. They are: responsibility, reduction, replacement, regeneration, and reconnection.

Responsibility – we should govern our local communities through equal power relationships and peer practices of town hall meetings, citizen councils, rotational stewardship positions, and mentors. We can learn the competencies of self-government and experience the happiness of public engagement at the local level by gathering with our neighbors face-to-face. We can decide how to live together and naturally generate civil cooperation and successful solutions to our local problems. We need to return to some sense of real and genuine self-government and public participation. Even if funding from more distant sources, whether public or private, will be necessary, the management of these resources must be local.

Reduction – we should reduce our dependence on distant sources, whether governmental or commercial, for the provision of the necessary goods and services we need to live our lives. Whether food, housing, clothing, entertainment, public health, health care, education, job creation and training, etc. we must, where possible, reduce our reliance on nonlocal sources for these items and encourage local public and private organizations to do the same. We should give preference to those businesses, which are locally owned and make use of local suppliers. This principle in practice would be good for the environment by decreasing our use of energy in transportation.

Replacement  - we should replace goods and services acquired from remote sources with goods and services produced and provided locally. It would require we build the capacity in local communities and with local control to be self-sufficient in providing what we need to lead lives of human flourishing. It would provide meaningful employment to our local under- and unemployed. We could find ways of using barter, local currencies, co-ops, CSA’s, urban gardens, Farmers’ Markets, and our retired community of seniors to ensure every member of our community had sufficient employment and sufficient resources to meet their needs to live a good life. It is only at the local level that we can and should ensure that none of our neighbors goes hungry, homeless, or lacks needed education, employment, or health care.

Regeneration – we can regenerate the world through the practice of local innovation and creativity in finding new ways, and improving old ways, of meeting our needs. We are creative enough to be able to provide housing, educate our children, manage public health, deliver adequate health care, and provide employment and training, information, and even public entertainment at the local level. Here also, we can best initiate energy conservation programs and even discover ways of generating local “green” energy through wind and solar technologies locally managed and maintained. Bike-share and car-share programs can even solve transportation problems locally.

Reconnecting – This is not a strategy of isolation or secession form either the national or global community, but a return to the only authentic source of political power – the people governing themselves at the local level. Upon the foundation of self-sustaining and self-governing local communities, we can reconnect community-to-community and then to our governments in the exchange of ideas, best practices, and in assisting less fortunate communities. Success in one community can be shared and modeled by other communities, where such sharing with current technologies, need not be limited by geographic proximity. Such interconnected communities will hold government and business answerable to the people. Power must rest with people at the local level, who then are empowered to hold accountable government, finance, and corporate bodies and regulate their activities at the local level through citizen councils of peers and neighbors.