The Things that Matter
Why we need to think locally and act locally...
The ancient Vedic Seers once observed that we become our attention. I offer for your consideration now a variation of the same observation: The more distance we put between the things that truly matter in our lives and the things we turn our attention to, the things we choose to observe, the more personal agency and personal liberty we surrender.
The exact same observation holds true for the quality of our lives as well. The more distance we put between the things that truly matter in our lives and the things we turn our attention to, the things we choose to observe, the more quality of life we surrender.
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One of the more pernicious mythologies of the digital 21st century is the one that suggests that you and I are somehow capable of thinking globally and acting locally. We aren’t. In fact, the only ones with the actual capacity, reach, and power, to think globally and act locally are the global institutions — corporations, governments, and NGOs — who promise and purport to empower us while they rob us blind. Just like our smartphones.
The truth is that each 21st-century crisis — the terror attacks of 9/11, the market collapse of 2008, and Covid — has precipitated a massive transfer of wealth from poor and middle class people of all colors worldwide to equally massive institutions, public and private alike. The same crises have precipitated a massive shift of personal agency as well — with corresponding declines in individual liberty and quality of life.
In the end, however, the institutions and political leaders who extol us to think globally and act locally do so as a diversionary tactic to shift our attention away from the things that truly matter, the things they truly want for themselves: our homes and our children. The entire woke agenda is code for a global class war. Climate change, antiracism, gender equity, and endless war are the manufactured battle fronts in a class war designed to steal our homes and our children.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the best defensive (and offensive) measures in the battle to defend our homes and our children are the same today as they were a century ago: faith, family, and community. Much as I’ve been able to determine over the years, the following three Calls to Action represent our best chance to invoke their restorative qualities…
First: Redirect our attention away from the narcissistic mythologies of distant dragons, and return it instead to our own backyards and children.
Next: Reinstitute, promote and protect the meaningful rituals of faith, family, and community as the best and only statistically viable way to moderate the excesses imposed on us by our state-sponsored default addictions to all things media and all things digital. The family dinner table and sabbath day of rest would be great places to start.
Finally: Return to local autonomy as the best way to combat the institutional tyrannies of centralized power.
Of course, the 10-15 hours we devote each and every day in fealty to our digital drug lords and masters offer a pretty compelling explanation for why we can’t find the time or patience to do what needs to be done. Addiction is always a compelling reason to fail ourselves and the ones we love. But no excuse. Because the power to turn our backs on excess and return our attention to those people and things that promote and protect the quality of our lives is always within us. Always. Thousands of us turn our backs on addiction each and every day. We do it with faith. We do it with family. We do it with community. We’ve done it for thousands of years, and we’ve done it pretty much the same way: with the three fundamental calls to action listed above.
“What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.” — Ecclesiastes 1:9
In the end, nothing threatens the centralized power and institutionalized tyranny of digital scale like a return to local autonomy. Nothing threatens Huxwellian tyrants on distant thrones more than states that offer school choice, counties that offer cooperative healthcare, regions and towns that provide support for local artists and craftspeople, or local lending institutions that protect local homeowners. Nothing enrages and challenges the high priests of Huxwell like vibrant communities of faith or — worse yet — families that turn off their digital devices long enough to sit down together at the dinner table. And nothing — absolutely nothing — frosts their collective butts more than parents who claim control of their own children.
In the end, we can’t protect our freedom, our democracy, our homes, our communities, and our children as long as we continue to surrender our faith, time, and money to imperious rulers on distant thrones in exchange for narcotic fools gold and false promises. No, the only way to protect our freedom, our democracy, our homes, our communities, and our children is to treat them as if they actually matter more to us than our own addictions and vanity.
In the end, our obligations to and responsibilities for the people and things closest to us, the people and things that protect and promote the quality of our lives, will liberate us. Remember…
The quality of life is a reflection of how and where and with whom we invest our faith, our time, and our money.
Because in the end, if we don’t pay attention to our families, our homes, and our communities, someone or something else most certainly will.
Please share your experiences:
I’d love to hear about the wise ways you and yours are investing your faith, time, and money. How are you and yours engaged in the battle to protect the quality of life at home, and/or in your local community? Please email me directly at jeff@qolrm, or comment below. Many thanks, as always…