Local Socialism and Civil Society
By Russell Arben Fox, In media res
Democratic socialism is, I think, at least potentially compatible with, and perhaps even capable of drawing strength from, the small towns and churches of U.S. society.
Bringing Wendell Berry (and Business) to Sterling
By Russell Arben Fox, In media res
Well, however one construes it, keeping in mind that rebuilding a sense of place will probably also mean rebuilding a sense of mutual obligation between different types of places is an important lesson, I think.
American Conservatism, and the Socialist Specter which Haunts it Still
By Russell Arben Fox, In media res
Socialism is the bogeyman that conservatives of all stripes find easy to associate with all that distorts or corrupts those thinks they, in theory at least, hold most dear: namely, civil society, and the goods which social interactions in and through one's community, church, and family make possible.
What Urban Liberals Might Learn from Rural Rebels
By Russell Arben Fox, In media res
Years of research in rural communities have convinced Ashwood--and she makes a convincing case--that the greatest enemy of rural America is what she calls "for-profit democracy."
Losing (Some of) the Local Commons
By Russell Arben Fox, In media res
Like Wendell Berry, Bollier sees commons-thinking as a push-back against “inevitability,” and as an invitation to hold fast to our ability, as human beings, to imagine an alternative to simple acceptance when we see, as he said in Salina, something “rooted in an ecosystem is redefined as a market commodity.”
Ten Moderately Short, and Only Moderately Philosophical, Theses on Voting
By Russell Arben Fox, In media res
I don't think there is a duty to vote, and I wouldn't support compulsory voting, even if that was a political possibility in this country. I do think voting is responsibility though.
Catastrophe, Technology, Limits, and Localism
By Russell Arben Fox, In media res
Charles C. Mann's The Wizard and the Prophet, published earlier this year, is a fabulous book. Not a perfect book; sometimes, in order to bulk up this two-pronged thesis, he will throw in supplementary material that threatens to bog down his central investigation. But that investigation comes through loud and clear all the same, and it is one worth looking at closely.
What Do Farmers Want?
By Russell Arben Fox, In media res
The clearest point which comes through Wuthnow's thoughtful engagement with the dozens of farmers he and his assistants interviewed, and with the reams of data about rural populations, farm economics, and more that they assessed, is simply this: most American farmers, most of the time, are not agrarians.