Localism: Why Decent People Don’t Need Nationalism - A Guest Post by Justin Flom

It's not every day that you get to be the medium of expression for a new political movement.  For this post, I'm very proud to present a guest piece by Mr. Justin Flom.  I asked him to write this piece after a discussion we had where he coined the term "Localism."  He did, and even went the extra mile as to supply song lyrics.  So without further ado, here is some stimulation for your political theory palate...

“What if every living soul could be upright and strong?

Well then I do imagine

There will be sorrow no more.”

-Bad Religion, Sorrow

The guy asked me if I could spare a moment. He had his pseudo-counter-culture military-style jacket on, so I figured even if I’m going to be pleaded into signing something, at least the guy’s got a good heart about it. I forgot it was getting to November, though. I took a quick look at what he was holding, a pamphlet about prop 23, and I knew I was about to get an earful about who knows what and how I can change it. Quickly I interrupted, making clear that I don’t vote. It wasn’t really part of my, uh…

            “Philosophy.” Wow. He finished my sentence for me. Although he was an alright guy, I didn’t stick around for the rest of the song and dance, so I wished Che Jr. luck on his mission and walked away. Unfortunately, there was no slow motion or explosion, just my Alaska t-shirt that says “call of the wild.”

            Even though I handled that situation like a dopamined sun bear, I like advertising that I don’t vote. It makes me feel like I have a purpose, or am an individual. Sure, a sizeable portion of the population doesn’t vote, but that’s because they’re too lazy to pick up a pen to fill in the ballot with, and those ballot reading machines don’t acknowledge dorito residue.

            To me, not voting is more of a form of political participation that voting actually is. People ask why I don’t vote, and if I’m in the right mood, I’ll vocalize my dissent of elections, politics and government in general. It’s like there’s a magician and he’s got everyone else fooled but me. Lots of folks treat voting like the greatest thing since sliced butter. As if the most righteous, patriotic thing you can do other than wear a flag is vote. I’m not the guy to be all up to date and accurate with statistics, but I’m sure I make a bigger difference telling others my opinion than jumping through hoops to put a checkmark next to some guy’s name.

            But let me get down to the point of why Nate asked me to write a fairly unrelated chapter to the continuing story of Spaceship Earth. The key word to my whole anti-voting campaign is a word called “Localism.” There was a day, not too long ago, when I would have called myself an Anarchist. Anarchism, however, gets a bad rap from pretty much everybody. It’s associated with violence, destruction, and most tragically, with being uncivilized. For some reason, people cannot dissociate a lack of government with people being assholes to each other. They have become inseparable. After deciding that I no longer wanted to try and fight ingrained societal beliefs and be thought of as a violent radical, I came up with my own political ideology. Hence, localism was born.

            Most of what Nate knows about localism came from a discussion I participated in on our way to one of our summer bowling nights. It was a very memorable conversation, especially when Max described representative democracy as one of the greatest inventions of mankind and I laughed. Sorry, Max. No offense to you. Anyway, whenever I must describe localism on the fly, it’s less effective, because I sometimes don’t have the opportunity to break down preconceived notions. Max believed democracy was the best because that’s what he’s been told his whole life. That’s not his fault, I used to be the same way, as a politically undeveloped rebel, I even voted once. Gasp! But when so many of the lessons taught to us were taught by the government, it only makes sense that the system’s first priority is the preservation of the system, so although we learn a lot of really great lessons, some of them are undeniably skewed. If you don’t trust anarchism, ask yourself why you don’t. There are reasons we don’t like fascism or communism, because there are recent historical examples of them not working.

            In response to this point, Max argued that there have been ‘experiments’ of anarchism, where small states would attempt to exist without a governing body. But with the looming presence of domineering governments, the communities failed and empires worldwide chuckled to themselves. I’m picturing an analogy where a frat bro hits a pledge’s shins with a shovel, makes him shotgun 10 beers and then sprint a half-mile. Fair? I think not.

            And, unless you’re a soulless demon-spawn, you’ll agree that it’s not fair. Which brings me to my next point: All people have the same basic morality. We understand that hitting other people with shovels is wrong. There are a lot of values that have been indoctrinated into our mass consciousness just because of our culture. Basic ideas like driving on the right side of the road and not wearing underwear on your head. Other ideas, however are simply part of human nature, such as not putting mayo on pizza and murdering other people. A small child, yet uninfluenced by the world, won’t know which side of the road to drive on, but will totally understand that it hurts to get your blanket stolen. As a Christian, I call the pre-placed morality part of the soul given to us by God, but for all you non-religious folks, you still understand that there are certain things that are big no-no’s, without having them be taught. So, how come these ‘natural laws’ are being broken right and left?

            Well, the easy answer is that people are irresponsible. The complicated reason is that the reason people put gum under the desk is the same reason as why people hold up liquor stores. Although people may not think through the logic often, most figure that there’s someone to clean up after them, or at least they’ve been raised in a world where things are done for them. Yes, I am calling government a nanny. Can’t feed your kids? It’s okay, nanny government will provide you with food stamps. Someone making fun of you? It’s okay, nanny government will comfort you by giving the bully a stern talking-to in the court of law. It’s about time for mankind to grow up and learn to make it’s own bed and meals. Or at least be able to microwave bagel bites.

            So, at this point, people ask me about various federal institutions which they feel they could not live without. I’ll admit, I love using country libraries and I attend a public university, so of course there are systems which are beneficial, but lots of other stuff could be easily privatized, even roads and schools. If you think I sound crazy, that’s because you’ve probably never seriously considered how you get your roads and schools. People pay taxes, so, you’re paying for a bunch of random crap anyways. Taxes are like taking 200$ to the supermarket and getting in return lots of things you weren’t asking for while not receiving some of the things you need. I needed a head of lettuce, why did I get a bicycle pump?

            And here we are at the gist of localism. And the difference between it and the layman’s definition of anarchism. Organization can and should exist, but proximal to where you are at. Government has made shortcuts for huge corporations which lead to outsourcing, which lead to fewer ways to get the things you need locally. In turn, those big companies help get those in government reelected. My neighbors on both sides administrate the shipment of goods from overseas, but I’d much rather one of them be a cooper and the other a fletcher. That way I can support those around me and lessen my carbon footprint in one fell swoop. Of course, there’s the inconvenience of me having to go to more than one place to fetch my barrels and arrows, but that’s part of being a more responsible person. (Barrels of arrows,though, are a whole different matter.)

            When everything relevant to us happens locally, we know exactly what’s going on, there’s no duplicity. We know how products are made, where they come from. We know who our local leaders are and what rules we’ve come up for ourselves and why they exist. There’s less bureaucracy  and more people actually getting things done. Competition between businesses is more fair. War is less probable and in worst case scenario, less afflicting. It’s generally a whole lot easier to agree among a town council, since there aren’t hundreds of thousands of lives being affected by the decision. The people in Washington, although they may have good intentions for you, their number one priority is always the next election and whether or not they’ll hold the office. How can you trust, or even willingly put power into their hands? People love Obama, but behind all of the suave media personality that he is, what kind of man is he really? How will we ever know? What happens when one of his successors screws up? You voted for him, so the blood will be on your hands. I’d rather trust leadership with a person that I know and can personally hold accountable.

            Government is a water balloon, and the bigger it gets, the closer it is to popping. Barely fill it up, and there’s less of a chance of it making it look like you peed in your pants.

            So, if you were planning on voting this upcoming election, don’t. And if you really have to, well, at least try to elect your aunt or junior high band teacher or something.


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