LOCALISM SEEKING A PEOPLE

Paul Klee, the great Bauhaus artist, said:

Nothing can be rushed. It must grow. It should grow of itself. We must go on seeking it. We have found parts but not the whole! We still lack the ultimate power: for the people are not with us. But we seek a people. We have begun…more we cannot do.

Global capitalism is like a high-powered bullet train speeding towards a cliff of economic unsustainability, carrying all the people of the world, as well as the environment along as passengers. It was moments from the cliff bringing certain destruction to it and all the passengers when it came off the tracks and derailed (2008). A perfect time for the passengers to realize the ultimate destination of the train and get off, to choose a new mode of transportation, or at least to choose a different direction for the train! Sadly, instead of reevaluating the mode and direction of transportation, we are rushing to get the train back on track and race once more towards certain destruction over the cliff.     

We can choose differently. We can choose to refuse to cooperate with global capitalism. We can choose to accept more responsibility at the level of our neighborhoods and local communities to stay and manage resources locally. We can choose to reduce our own consumption of goods and services that come from distant sources. We can choose to replace those goods and services with those produced and sold locally, which support and build local businesses. We can choose to find creative ways to regenerate our local economies and local markets, which will employ and care for our local under and unemployed. We can choose to reconnect with other local communities in sharing best practices.    

The polyphonic voices in the world must be orchestrated into a beautiful symphony of human worth and dignity with a creative and productive diversity harmonized into a global network of local communities, rooted in the geography of place but aware of their interdependence with the global community. We have the technology to return to local communities and to stay globally connected. We only need a people. We seek a people.