The problem with single issue movements - ECONOMICS

Wendell Berry wrote this article in Resurgence Magazine on the shortcomings of single issue movements a number of years ago - yet it applies.

"Essay : In Distrust of Movements by Wendell Berry
The movements which deal with single issues or single solutions are bound to fail because they cannot control effects while leaving causes in place."

In it he describes some of the core challenges to any single issue movement...

He lays out some conditions:

"... My first condition is that this movement should begin by giving up all hope and belief in piecemeal, one-shot solutions...

My second condition is that the people in this movement (the mtewiid) should take full responsibility for themselves as members of the economy.

...My third condition is that this movement should content itself to be poor. We need to find cheap solutions, solutions within the reach of everybody, and the availability of a lot of money prevents the discovery of cheap solutions...."

And I especially like his comments in support of local economy:

"If it is unreasonable to expect a bad economy to try to become a good one, then we must go to work to build a good economy. It is appropriate that this duty should fall to us, for good economic behaviour is more possible for us than it is for the great corporations with their miseducated managers and their greedy and oblivious stockholders. Because it is possible for us, we must try in every way we can to make good economic sense in our own lives, in our households, and in our communities. We must do more for ourselves and our neighbours. We must learn to spend our money with our friends and not with our enemies. But to do this it is necessary to renew local economies and revive the domestic arts."

Bottom line - the entire article is worth the read.