About this Site

A revolution doesn’t happen when society adopts new tools, it happens when society adopts new behaviors. - Clay Shirky, Digital Guru

This blog is primarily about technology and community from a local perspective. Questions about community sustainability are explored, such as: is a true sustainable community possible? Can communities break free from dependence on global production and transport of food, goods, and energy? Can a community completely own the technologies it employs?

Localism as a political idea has been adopted by both right and left ideologies. The political idea is not the intended focus and for the most part politics are elided. In my opinion, Jeffersonian democracy is good enough as a local political system. Other systems, like Marxism, Nationalism, and Socialism, imply central (i.e., non-local) planning. In place of politics is an argument for taking on the personal responsibility needed to make technological localism work. The hope is that it can and will work and once it works, individuals may find themselves with fewer responsibilities than before.

On the other hand, politics is unavoidable once one starts working to make one's community a better place. The work involves cooperating, collaborating, and competing to make the community stay focused on being local. I personally am for a small local government, but the companies that make and sell the goods and services I need must also be small. But I'm not proposing a law or government centered around this idea. Either the community freely decides that this is the best course to take, or attempts to do the best it can as a very small member of the global marketplace. That is where things are going today.

There are of course several challenges to overcome, like local energy. Only then will responsible localism work and someday became popular. Once popular, political and corporate forces might try to kill it, making political activism necessary. I'm fully aware that this is a fantasy, like Edmund O. Wilson’s proposal to leave 50& of the earth to wildlife, one of the motivations behind starting this blog.

There will be posts labeled current events that occasionally engage in polemical argument. Politics, political systems, and laws or agreements that should be enacted or removed may be discussed, but only in the context of current events. I will also post about other subjects, like cartoons and writing. Good writing has turned out to be harder than I thought.