Re: Crunchy Copout
[Caleb Stegall  02/23 11:59 AM]

Professor Russell Fox of Western Illinois University writes:

In response to the individual who e-mailed in response to Caleb's commitment to following through on the need to avoid the language of choice, even as it pertains to things that our today considered to be perfectly obvious givens, such as choosing to live a long ways away from our families:

"Perhaps what we need are Regional Spiritual Directors, who will examine our passbooks to see if we have a good enough reason to move to the big city, and make sure we're not trying to skip out on our feudal rents."

The author things he or she is making an absurdist point....but why? What on earth might a parish priest, a local rabbi, or a Mormon bishop be except, well, a kind of "Regional Spiritual Director"? Or how about a family patriarch (or matriarch)? This isn't to say that family and church and state should merge. It is to say that, if you really believe that the sort of livelihood which makes possible "Crunchy" virtues and ways of life is at least in part undermined by the dominant libertarian/contractual/choice ethos of modern America, then the only way to combat such an ethos is to re-introduce, as Caleb insists, a concern for authority and discipline and belonging into one's lifestyle decisions. Maybe there are certain choices that ought to have to be made in the face of authoritative challenges, demanding from us greater levels of justification than "Oh, I can make so much more money living there." If that and that alone is a wholly legitimate reason to pull out of a community, well, then what real hope for community is there in the long-run?