Friday, June 06, 2008
In Defense of Small-Town Life
Jim Manzi's quickly becoming one of my favorite writers. He's clear, sensible, and (mostly) right. This (blog post) essay at NRO really hit home with me. Not because I grew up in that sort of town. I didn't - I was an Air Force brat who moved from suburb to suburb. Rather, it hit home because it so clearly articulates what's missing in our contemporary political options: if there is one thing that at least the national Democrats and Republicans can agree on, it's that things local must go, whether by virtue of chain-store reconstruction or bureaucratic centralization (or, preferably, I suspect, both). Local communities don't fit into "rationally" planned ideals - they are too thorny, too full of idiosyncratic traditions that don't always make "sense." The essay is well worth your time and reflection.
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5 comments:
Jim Manzi is an excellent writer, and you can find both his Corner posts and original essays at The American Scene.
I don't know that a need to refocus on local community is so much a conservative/liberal thing as a necessity whatever side of the political/social aisle one finds themselves on. If there's one thing my work in government-based social services is teaching me, it's that the community makes a mistake in trusting that government can meet its needs -- whether we're talking poverty or security -- when the focus is on state/national level discussion.
James, it's my observation that those on the left [not necessarily liberals, mind you] see government and society as synonymous.
Those who lean to the right [not the fascists, mind you] see government as attending society, government being an artificial abstraction of society, which itself is basically organic.
So when Barack Obama sees "community organizing" as more a political activism thing than an organic and decentralizing one, I get the willies.
Outside of his foreign policy philosophy, this is at the heart of my reservations about him, that all things are political.
I recommend reading "Reveille for Radicals" by Saul Alinsky. It'll both broaden your mind a wee bit, and give you a good indication of where Obama is coming from. It's community organizing with an emphasis on channeling resources, which usually, now, come from government.
Um, James, I'll rely on you for a summary. Aristotle is sitting on my to-do pile. I sort of get the gist.
I say this because I did a benefit with Lou Grant, who brought in a piece with Himself playing Saul Alinsky in his life story. I played bass while he spoke-sang. Very artsy.
But you seem to agree that Obama's view of "community" is political. This is not good, in my view.
hgh spray
very good comments
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