Welcome to the latest issue of Decent Tuesdays, an experimental edition of The Main Street Journal that covers and connects the many aspects of decentralization.
In the ongoing drama of the news, we all wonder what comes next and what we can make of it. In a recent essay for The Atlantic, “America Needs a Mass Movement— Now,” David Brooks rues how few institutions are resisting the current global tide of populist authoritarianism and suggests that it’s because 1) decision-makers are scared to not obey, and 2) people don’t recognize these forces as a social movement that goes deeper than party politics. I disagree about people being clueless, but agree with Brooks’ main thesis: President Trump will unfortunately fail to solve his supporters’ problems, so we need to construct a new vision of America that’s more inspiring than his, and then turn it into a social movement that has its own heroes and villains— with dramatic victories and defeats every couple of weeks that will keep the movement top-of-mind.
As a model, Brooks points to what he calls the Populist Progressive movement, an alliance of small-town Populists with elite, big city Progressives who eventually banded together to oppose the widespread corruption, concentrated corporate power, and gross inequalities that had resulted from economic depressions and industrialization in the late 1800s.
That sounds great, but do we really need to look back 125 years for the movement that America needs now? Ponder the list of The Main Street Journal partners, all working towards local futures. I think that fits the bill. To quote the residents of Whoville in Horton Hears a Who, “We are here!”
If it’s hard for someone like Brooks to see the growing localization movement as a candidate for Mass Movement That America Needs Now, it might stem from something I’ve seen elsewhere: not wanting to side with the wrong people on issues of globalization and elitism.
The globalization issue reminds me of another remarkable essay, Richard Sclove’s “Building Hope in a Time of Morbid Symptoms,” which likewise calls for a new vision rather than just political resistance and restoration. Sclove and Brooks start on the same page, but Sclove becomes more specific, calling for local self-reliance, decentralized and participatory democracy, and fostering in-person ties and soulful work.
Brooks implies that the new global populism is a reaction against the economic globalization (neoliberalism) of the 1980s and ‘90s, which sounds right. But that doesn’t mean anti-globalization has to mean nationalistic and anti-immigrant; it emerged at the 1999 Seattle WTO protests as anti-corporation. Being anti-globalist doesn’t mean you’re a xenophobe, and maybe anti-globalist sentiments are something that we can all share, if we allow ourselves, even without a zombie apocalypse. Sclove even predicts that the “fringe” visions in the book Alternatives to Economic Globalization, which prioritize democratic, ecological, and social justice, may soon become the most practical options.
Regarding Trump’s anti-elitism, Brooks doesn’t show sympathy, which is understandable. Many of the worst genocides, purges, and internal revolutions in history were rooted in anti-elitism. But if people have a right to their anger, a comprehensive social movement needs to engage with and direct those feelings constructively.
One possible strategy comes from the more nuanced intellectual antecedents of Trump’s anti-elitism, which Brooks traces back to Christopher Lasch, James Burnham, and others. Burnham’s The Managerial Revolution (1941) criticizes managerial elites specifically, the executives and administrators at large, powerful institutions. I think these are the elites that the reasonable Trump supporters resent, rather than scientists, engineers, doctors, and other experts— even if Trump himself questions all expertise. Regardless of their politics, people become frustrated with remote administrative power; it’s been effective PR for Trump to own the issue and ignore it where it’s inconvenient.
But managerial elites only exist within large organizations, so they’re incompatible with decentralization. If we can refocus dumb, blanket anti-elitism to its older, anti-Organization Man sentiment, then that’s another win for localism. More localism, less elite power.
People are calling for a new mass movement, so let’s make it decent. If you once had high hopes for Trump and now find yourself here, welcome to a new source of inspiration, heroes, and ongoing dramas. Credit him for shaking things up, and let’s take the movement forward without the ego, ignorance, cruelty, dishonesty, and corruption. Let’s focus on local resilience, local heroes, local prosperity, and local community to make America great again.
This piece has been updated to add the word “unfortunately.”
Image Credit: Richard Sclove, Mobilizing Art & Soul in a Time of Crisis
NEWS
MEDIA
Bluesky’s Banning Backlash Reveals Flaws in Decentralized Model, WebProNews (October 7)
Bluesky is premised as a decentralized alternative to X (formerly Twitter) that lets you run your own servers to contribute to the platform experience. Recently, Bluesky leadership banned some users for harassment, prompting accusations of bias and control. Other users tried and failed to set up their own servers, contradicting (for now) the promise of easy decentralization.
FOOD
At 40, Farm Aid Is Still About Music— It’s Also a Movement, Civil Eats (October 15)
The annual Farm Aid concert fundraiser has supported family farms for 40 years, as hundreds of thousands of them have shut down. Always politically oriented, this year’s event is pro-diversity, pro-climate action, pro-immigrant, and sometimes anti-Trump. Event leadership stood willing to cancel the anniversary event in order to back a local Teamster’s union strike.
MAKING
Closing the Gap Between Housing and Home With Upcycled Furniture, Next City (October 16)
In Chicago, social service caseworkers who find homes for homeless families aren’t equipped to furnish them. So the nonprofit Digs With Dignity restores secondhand furniture and home goods for the families to use. This keeps furniture and waste out of landfills, and 95% of the recipient families surveyed have remained stably housed, in contrast to the typical 50%.
ENERGY
Inside the Colorado factory where AtmosZero is electrifying steam, Canary Media (October 15)
Steam power is still ubiquitous in industrial processes, but the old-fashioned gas boilers that generate it are CO2-intensive. Colorado startup AtmosZero has developed an electric heat-pump boiler that’s clean, relatively inexpensive, and draws heat from outdoor air rather than capturing waste heat from other equipment. It’s used by New Belgium Brewery.
SOLIDARITY
Contemporary Communitarianism, Stir to Action (October 13)
Local sports leagues, political chapters, moose lodges, and other clubs all confer empowering civic skills that have been largely lost as organizations have centralized and moved operations online. The Democracy Policy Network and documentary Join or Die seek to help people rediscover civic life and counter their fear of committing to one another.
GOVERNANCE/POLICY
America Needs a Mass Movement— Now, The Atlantic (October 14)
Building Hope in a Time of Morbid Symptoms, Richard Sclove (October 17)
Two essays argue that the current moment demands fundamental social, political, and economic reinvention (discussed above).
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