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After a quarter-century as an Oregonian, I finally experienced one of the state’s iconic events. My daughter and I attended the Oregon Country Fair. This countercultural extravaganza on six acres of oaks along the Long Tom River west of Eugene has been encouraging thousands to let their freak flag fly since 1969.
There are multitudes of angles to take on all the hurly-burly. You can read one over at FrontierPartisans.com. And I’m thinking next year an RIR On the Road Podcast is certainly in order. But let me turn here for a moment to the Political Economy Of The Oregon Country Fair. Cuz it has one.
There are hundreds of vendors at the fair, and each is juried in on a pretty strict criteria. All the work must be crafted directly by the proprietor. There are hats, jewelry, clothing, pottery, musical instruments, leatherwork, oils and salves and tinctures, woodwork… all of impressive quality. It’s a truly astounding display of entrepreneurship.
*
Attending OCF reminded me that I’ve always been countercultural. My bent was always toward the Cosmic Cowboy/Dripping Springs version of all of that — ridin’ the range and actin’ strange — but countercultural for sure. I’m always on the side of the wild and free and the ardent-hearted.
And there’s something deeply appealing to me about the creator-owned-and-operated approach to making a countercultural livelihood.
I’ve always been suspicious of the way we have wrapped our flag around capitalism, intertwining our concept of political liberty with an economic system that can be liberating, but is also environmentally destructive and — when the plutocrats get the upper hand as they inevitably must — oppressive.
I roll with Edward Abbey:
“Nothing so mean could be right. Greed is the ugliest of the capital sins.”
Singing do-ra-do
Singing do-ra-day
Yeah, I wish Edward Abbey were walking round today… (Tom Russell)
In the binary world we live in in 2018, an automatic assumption kicks into gear right about here: If you’re not a “capitalist,” well then, you must be some kind of socialist or maybe even a Commie.
Nope. False choice — but one we have been conditioned for decades to believe is the only one.
At the urging of RIR commentator Kevin Kay, I spent some time exploring the writing of John Michael Greer, and found this matter nicely explicated in his essay Systems That Suck Less.
Since 1945 the conventional wisdom across most of the world has insisted that there are two and only two possible systems of political economy: socialism on the one hand, capitalism on the other. That’s very convenient for socialists and capitalists, since it allows both sides to contrast an idealized and highly sentimental picture of the system they favor with the real and disastrous failings of the one they don’t, and insist that since the two systems are the only available options, you’d better choose theirs. This allows both sides to ignore the fact that the system they prefer is just as bad as the one they hate.
Let us please be real. In theory, socialism is a wonderful system in which the workers own the means of production, and people contribute what they can and receive what they need. In practice, as seen in actual socialist societies? It sucks. Get past the rhetoric, and what happens is that the workers’ ownership of the means of production becomes a convenient fiction; an inner circle of politicians controls the means of production, and uses it to advance its own interests rather than that of the workers. Centralized bureaucracy becomes the order of the day, fossilization follows, and you end up with the familiar sclerosis of the mature socialist economy, guided by hopelessly inefficient policies mandated by clueless central planners, and carried out grudgingly by workers who know that they have nothing to gain by doing more than the minimum. Eventually this leads to the collapse of the system and its replacement by some other system of political economy.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the new face of “democratic socialism” since her dramatic Democratic primary win in Queens, New York, last month. While it’s easy to understand the appeal of this young, vibrant woman, who took her case to the people and beat her complacent political hack of an opponent like a dirty rug… socialism still sucks.
In theory, equally, capitalism is a wonderful system in which anyone willing to work hard can get ahead, and the invisible hand of the market inevitably generates the best possible state of affairs for everyone. In practice, as seen in actual capitalist societies? It sucks. Get past the rhetoric, and what happens is that social mobility becomes a convenient fiction; an inner circle of plutocrats controls the means of production, and uses economic power backed by political corruption to choke the free market and stomp potential competitors. Monopoly and oligopoly become the order of the day, wealth concentrates at the top of the pyramid, and you end up with the familiar sclerosis of the mature capitalist society, in which the workers who actually make the goods and provide the services can’t afford to buy them, resulting in catastrophic booms and busts, soaring unemployment, and the rise of a violent and impoverished underclass. Eventually this leads to the collapse of the system and its replacement by some other system of political economy.
Just… no.
*
So, what sucks less? In Greer’s view, Syndicalism: “the form of political economy in which each business enterprise is owned and run by its own employees.”
I believe I have always been more-or-less a syndicalist, long before I knew there was a term for such a concept. Although I’m not a Catholic, Distributism as articulated by G.K. Chesterton was always appealing to me. I am particularly ardent in my belief in the principle of subsidiarity: That the rights of small communities — families, neighborhood, towns, should not be violated by the intervention of larger communities, the state, corporations, centralized bureaucracies. In other words, decisions that impact or lives should be made on the smallest and most local level possible.
Fundamentally, I fall right into line with Greer’s preference:
“The version I tend to favor… is democratic syndicalism: the system of political economy that combines a syndicalist economy with a politics based on constitutional representative democracy.”
That jibes pretty damn well with my ideal frontier Jeffersonian community. And when I run that form of political economy through the idiosyncratic-but-on-point test of “what is best for the wild, the free, the ardent-hearted?” it does, in fact, seem that such a system “sucks less.”
And therefore, it’s worth busting out of the box of false binaries and exploring.
tom says
looks like “cactus ed” has my old pair of Vietnam jungle boots on? also looks like he has the right boot on his left foot?! oh well, he was a “kid at heart”.…..I find some relief from the evils of capitalism participating in barter, gifting, donating, among other pursuits. but one thing that really aggravates me about capitalism is the local grocery stores refusal to give me or sell me at reduced price, produce, that I could feed my hens and livestock. they refuse under the guise that they don’t want a liability or a lawsuit…….signing a disclaimer goes in one ear and out the other.…..
I know quite a few people who feel exactly as you do.
I have encountered this very same problem at our local store, and wrote about it. Tons upon tons of food simply thrown away. In my case, the young man who running the produce section wanted to give it to me, but because some woman had a horse die (for who knows what reason) and sued the store after receiving the free food she asked for, the lawyers shut it all down. Tragic. And also stupid.
Traven Torsvan says
I’ve learned also that it’s a common practice for a lot of grocery stores to take spoiled products, sell them to convenience stores in urban areas that are classified as food deserts to be sold at insane markups.
Traven Torsvan says
The DSA’s platform is a lot closer to old school New Deal Liberalism and Scandinavian social democracy. But hey, why be like countries that consistently rank at the top of every measurement of human development, social mobility, and general happiness when we can have a jet program that’s cost billions, taken a quarter of a century to develop, and in the end has resulted in planes that crash when they get slightly wet, or fly into another time zone?
lane batot says
Okay. I vote for YOU!
You have no idea what might be wrought.
I’d name Guy Clark Poet Laureate In Perpetuity, put Steve Earle in charge of the War on Drugs and replace Andy Jackson with Ray Charles on the $20.
lane batot says
SUPERB platform!
Saddle Tramp says
Great piece Jim along with the FP write up as well.
Here’s something from Lawrence Ferlinghetti who at 99 years old has seen a few things from being a Naval Commander in WWII to starting City Lights Bookstore and on and on…
https://youtu.be/29N5HqBAkeU
Outstanding. Thanks ST.
Saddle Tramp says
https://youtu.be/29N5HqBAkeU
“So, what sucks less?”
Ahem …
Perhaps Distributism.
Pat_H says
Oops, I was on the phone while reading this (my apologies).
You did mention Distributism!
No worries!
Now that I’ve had more time to read this and that I’m not trying to read it while I’m on the phone, I have to say that this is a very interesting post. Of course, I’d say that, as I’m a Distributist.
Chesterton famously noted that the problem with Capitalism isn’t too many Capitalist, it’s too few. Distributist, and there’s a variety of approaches to Distributism, seek to remedy that through a variety of ways, all of which seek to have more individual ownership at the local level. Some of them hold it as sort of a personal philosophy, while others, like me, see it more as a type of economic approach that would incorporate changes in the law favoring distributism. One easy way to do that is to limit the corporate business form, which would be a distributist policy by default.
What you note about Jeffersonian views is quite correct. Jefferson was an Agrarian and all Agrarians are Distributist, but not all Distributist are Agrarians.
FWIW, I’ve babbled about Distributism enough to give its own tag line on my blog, although a lot of the post that receive it are only vaguely distribustist in nature:
https://lexanteinternet.blogspot.com/search/label/Distributism
One of my favorite quotes from the man. I’ll fire up that link this weekend and explore. Thanks Pat.
lane batot says
.…But the problem with the PLANET is too many bipedal primates, capitalists or otherwise!!!
Quite so.
Pat_H says
Here’s another interesting one, this one from Belloc:
“If we do not restore the Institution of Property we cannot escape restoring the Institution of Slavery; there is no third course.”
By the way, Reddit has a Distributist Subreddit
Pat_H says
Coming back around to this. I’ve been doing some Labor Day musing and straying into Distributist themes in doing so. Here’s an example:
https://lexanteinternet.blogspot.com/2018/09/labor-and-conglomeration-of-everything.html
Thanks for that. Reading over coffee…
I hope that at least the coffee was enjoyable.
As a total aside, over the past couple of years I’ve gone from ground coffee to grinding my coffee, as I bought a couple of bags of whole bean coffee and I’m too cheap to not use it. Anyhow, it’s good and I’ve stuck with that. I’ve been oddly Distributist about that as I try to buy coffee from outfits that are regional to this region when I can.
Somebody just gave me a French Press but I haven’t used it yet. If anyone has advice on that, I’ll take it.