anarchival

A friend of mine once observed that it’s impossible to have more than one lifestyle. You can be a Democrat, or a Christian, or a soccer player, or a vegan, or a Renfaire re-enactor, but it’s difficult to be more than one of those things at any given time. Personally, I thought his statement was bullshit, but then I’ve never been very good at fitting in with a group, and I stopped identifying myself under any particular social label(s) a long time ago.

The consequence of being curious about everything is that I’ve sampled nearly every subculture this country (and a few others) has to offer, and I’ve taken a little (and sometimes a lot) from nearly every one of them. I’ve learned in the process that I can enjoy a lot of different activities, a lot of different ideas, and a lot of different people, without dedicating the rest of my life to any them. The result is that I’m undisciplined and virtually incapable of commitment, but it has also provided the advantages of adaptability and versatility. I can’t help it – I am a liberal by nature. It’s vital to my happiness that I embrace this fact instead of fighting against it.

Ironically, my tastes still tend towards the traditional. I love family, I just don’t define it under the terms of 1950s sitcom comedies. I love being at home. I enjoying gardening and crocheting, reading and writing, making and listening to music. My vision of bliss is a farm on a lake. I believe in giving service, in healing, in prayer. I think that education, freedom, and conscientious capitalism, can take us further along the evolutionary road than anything else we’ve come up with as a species.

The Five Rules of the Good Steward

1. Your money is power. Is this purchase the most beneficial use for it?

This is probably the most complicated rule, but it’s also the most important. The reason it’s complicated is that the results are never the same for any two people, or even any one person from moment to moment. The reason it’s important is that it rules out most purchases before their ethics even becomes a problem. Do I really need to spend that $50 at the bookstore? Would the money be better saved, or donated to charity, or applied within my budget, or spent on a better value somewhere else? This test isn’t meant to rule out every single purchase we make for fun or pleasure, since of course there will always be something else we “should” be doing instead of those things, but it’s meant to put those purchases into their proper context, especially if you’re in the habit of spending outside of your priorities. Pleasure should always be one of your priorities, since humans can’t experience happiness without it, but in order to really enjoy it you don’t want to sacrifice something else that’s actually more important to you.

2. The first value of humanity is life. Is this purchase sustainable?

Eco-friendly is the new black, so this is getting less and less difficult to live by. This isn’t just about being “green,” although that’s a significant part of it. It wasn’t very long ago when our ancestors understood exactly where and how every item they owned was made. Of course, their markets were much smaller then, and it made their lives shorter and more difficult in many ways. We are blessed to live in a world that offers so much bounty. However, like all material goods, that bounty comes at a price. Unfortunately, the modern economy has drastically undervalued its goods in the interests of making quick profits, and the end result is that we will all suffer even greater consequences than our ancestors did if we do not balance the scales. The only way we can make this change in our culture is to demand it as consumers. It might be more expensive to purchase sustainable products in the short-term, yes, but the point here is that we pay the fair price now, so that we don’t have to pay for it with interest later.

3. The second value of humanity is freedom. Does this purchase do any harm?

The dictates of conscientious capitalism belong here. Is the product the result of slave labor? Were animals tortured to make it? Am I financing terrorism by purchasing it? Adversely, was it produced by a person or organization that works in opposition to these evils? It’s probably safe to say that most of the time we don’t even know the answers to these questions, unless we happen to feel so passionately about these causes that we do a lot of homework beforehand. If we as Americans are willing to believe that capitalism is not only the expression of freedom, however, but that capitalism is the precursor of freedom, we should be careful to put our money where our mouth. Butter, not bombs.

4. The third value of humanity is community. Is it local?

Put simply, don’t shit where you eat. The majority of the food we eat nowadays is anything but locally-produced. That salad you bought at the grocery down the street is the product of thousands of miles of transportation and refrigeration costs, and the result of a massive industrialized agricultural industry that all too often makes us sick instead of feeding us. Do you like your neighborhood? Would you like it to be better? In the event there is some sort of disruption to our national and international supply chains, would you like to maintain your quality of life? Then buy locally. Frequent locally-owned stores and purchase locally-made products. The circle of life flows much more smoothly when it begins and ends in the same place.

5. To give is to receive. Receiving is pretty swell, too.

Don’t hold anything back, and you will have everything you ever need. It’s not that material possessions are bad, or that God wants us all to take a vow of poverty. It’s the prioritization of those things over the things that truly matter which creates problems for humanity. We should be just as willing to give it all up as we are to welcome it all in. Then, happiness becomes inevitable.

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