The thesis of the podcast is that economy is an essential component of community, and real experience of community is what holds us together, makes people flourish.
In connection with that, I recommend reading T.S. Eliot's Choruses from the Rock, which deals powerfully with this theme.
Frederica in her podcast points out that in a community, people are bound together by lack of choice, or by an original choice (to belong to the community - eg joining a monastic order, perhaps) which implies the sacrifice of future choice. She speaks about how life in a small town created moral pressures upon people to conform, and they did so because they needed one another, they could not manage alone. Where people can manage without each other economically, community destabilises.
A clear example of this is the rising incidence of divorce. Families were once kept stable by economic necessity. Women were financially dependent on their menfolk. Once that ceased to be the case, though divorce undoubtedly imposes finacial hardship, neither the women nor the men had the pressure of necessity that obliged them to stay together when they had no other incentive to do so. Whether a good thing or a bad thing, it is so.
But people flourish in community, and standards are maintained by the pressure of community. Shame and guilt, like all kinds of pain, have a real and positive function, and anonymity and distance allow people to abdicate from responsibilitues and positive behaviours they would otherwise have upheld.
Reading through, and thinking through, everyone's comments about politics and money over the last few days has led me to some small conclusions. They are only small, and will not fix the national or global economy - sorry about that - but they do at least give me enough light by the little lantern I hold high, to see the next step forward for me.
One of the ethical standards I believe in is that of shopping from small local businesses. Sometimes they can be small and local and abroad, if you see what I mean - for example, my clothes are made for me by Daina Lottice at The Kings Daughters and Sarah Burrell at Tabitha's Legacy. These are both Christian ladies working with their own hands to make a living for themselves that allows them to follow the family-based Christian lifestyle they believe in and an occupation that promotes the good and does no harm. So I am happy to buy directly from these ladies: no giant global corporations, no sweatshops, no enslavement of little children, and family-based Christian lifestyle supported.
But I confess that I have let my commitment to the small local firms, where I actually live, slip. It is more convenient and cheaper to go to the big supermarket. I should be buying foodstuffs from the little greengrocer in Silverhill where I live, and dry goods and bread from Trinity Wholefoods (a co-operative) and Plenty (a shop with the vision of supporting the small farmers and market gardeners in our local area).
The thinking I have done, and the comments you have left, have steered me firmly in the direction of supporting small local businesses, in this town of such poverty, where much of the employment is in the public sector (which is a good thing but destabilisies the economy if it becomes too big). So I intend to put that right. No more supermarket shopping. If the food from the small local businesses is too expensive, I will just buy a cheaper type of food. And I might investigate again the possibility of keeping hens.
Frederica in her podcast points out that for community to be real community, it must include the feature of the economic interdependence of its members. She says that if there is choice, the economic interdependence is not real and therefore the community tends to be fragile, its ties superficial. She cites the fragility of modern social relationships, in which niceness is the tie that binds, and where any criticism is voiced, people sever connection.
These thoughts have turned my mind back to the Amish, whose adherence to a low-technology lifestyle is because of their commitment to community. Asked why he stays with teams of horses for ploughing and harvesting, rather than using a tractor which would do the job with greater efficiency, the Amish farmer is likely to explain that his horse teams keep him dependent on his Amish neighbours. With more sophisticated machinery he could manage much more alone - and that's exactly what he is aiming to avoid.
Same with television. When our children were young we had no television. We had some friends round the corner who also had no television. In the evenings they got a bit bored and lonely sometimes, so they used to come round and chill out with us, sing songs with the guitar, chat, drink coffee. Then they bought a telly. They didn't come round any more - we stayed good friends, but....
And it's the same with the computer. My principal experience of fellowship is this diaspora of Christian friends with aspirations to Plainness scattered around the world. I am content to be the odd one out where I live because my chosen way is strengthened by the support and companionship of friends online. Well, I think that's a good thing - but so, presumably, does the paedophile, the terrorist, the suicide junkie, the gambler and the misanthropist.
I'm going to let these thoughts on money rest now. For the remainder of Plain dress November we'll move onto other things - tomorrow I want to post about something Joanie asked me. But what I have learned from this thinking is that in the private sector lies our economic strength, and I must support it. I have been reminded that where I spend my money I will bless, and so I must choose carefully in spending. And this has recalled me to the ethical responsibility my local community in being physically present around the local shops - being there, actually being in the community - amd spending my money there.
Anyone who is interested in exploring this further I recommend investigation of the Transition Town movement (also here and here).