9 July 2009

Hereto is an answer for why one might patronize their local economy ever before supporting the global and mainstream alternative. I mean this not as any religious writing, but am certainly using Christianity as a foundation to these thoughts.

The epitome and very central teaching of Christianity are two things which are also the same: love God and love your neighbor. The latter is something I would expect any decent human, despite religion or belief system, to agree is a good thing. It is logical to follow, of course — as did the thoughts of a man two centuries past — with the question, who is our neighbor?

When we ask ourselves this question it would be right to respond with another question, who is not our neighbor? Anyone that surrounds us in a way physical, emotional, intellectual, or other is our neighbor. By this we can determine that everyone — from our closest family and friends, to strangers in other continents and faraway countries — are indeed our neighbor.

I have thought that in the case of a dire emergency, such as if there was some natural disaster come upon us, putting our lives in danger, I would foremost tend to my wife to make sure she was okay and safe. I would expect the same of others to put the interest of their own family ahead of others.

So it follows, in this example there appears to be a natural hierarchy established in defining who is our neighbor. My wife is my first neighbor. Following will be the rest of my family, my friends, our neighborhood community, church community, local businesses and organizations. Furthering this line of reasoning, my neighbor will thereafter be my city, other cities, my country. And so we’ve established what seems a natural neighborly hierarchy of near to far. None less important than the other, but caring for those within arm’s reach before those intangible.

Given this, if one will love his neighbor, should he not then put his local economy much before the global? This is the conclusion I have come to, and I struggle to make effort to live by it. (It boggles my mind, for example, that a web designer will not think twice of contracting an overseas developer, and then complain about our present state of economy. All for the sake of saving himself a few dollars in the meantime.)

It can certainly be a sacrifice to spend and hire locally, more for some than others. But it is a sacrifice well worth the gain one will have in the life of a real community. A local, tangible community. This, in part, is loving your neighbor.