- Episode AI notes
- The speaker sought alternatives to globalism and Marxism, rejecting the idea of a global plutocracy.
- Reading E.F. Schumacher’s ‘Small is Beautiful’ led to a life-changing experience for the speaker.
- Discovering the concept of proto-localism and empowerment through works by G.K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloq helped the speaker escape traditional capitalism.
- Distributism promotes redistributing productive property to ensure individuals and communities have a stake in the means of production.
Subsidiarity, or localism, emphasizes decision-making at the most local level possible rather than centralizing power in economics. Time 0:00:00
Seeking Alternatives to Globalism Summary: The speaker, as a young man, was a radical with strong beliefs against capitalism and Marxism, seeking alternatives to what is now known as globalism. The speaker was motivated by politics and economics, rejecting the idea of a global plutocracy. Through exploring alternative economic and political approaches, such as E.F. Schumacher’s ‘Small is Beautiful,’ the speaker underwent a life-changing experience.
Speaker 1
Yeah, so as a young man, I wrote a book called Vices with the Devil, which is my own journey to Christian conversion. As a young man, I was a very angry, racist, radical. And I was obviously motivated primarily by matters of politics and economics. And I was anti -communist, but when I would get myself in arguments, heated arguments with Marxists, they would accuse me of being a stormtrooper of capitalism. My attitude to that was, well, I might not like Marxism as a solution to the problems that are confronting the modern world. That doesn’t mean that I want the world being ruled by Bill Gates and other globalist billionaires, in other words, a global plutocracy, a global rule of the rich. So, of course, Bill Gates wasn’t around then, but whoever his equivalent was at the time, we used to call them multinational corporations before we started talking about global corporations And globalism, globalization. So, I was opposed to all of that. I thought, I refuse to believe that Marxism is the only solution to this, what we would now call, globalism. So I was looking for alternatives. And that was how I stumbled across Smallest Beautiful by E .F. Schumacher. And I think it would be fair to say that it was life -changing. I’d already been introduced to what we might call third -way approaches to economics and politics through the writings people like G .K.Seeking Alternatives to Globalism and Marxism Summary: The speaker found himself opposed to both Marxism and global capitalism, looking for alternatives beyond these extremes. Through reading ‘Small is Beautiful’ by E.F. Schumacher and works by G.K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloq, the speaker discovered the concept of proto-localism and empowerment as a way to escape the confines of traditional capitalism.
Speaker 1
And I was anti -communist, but when I would get myself in arguments, heated arguments with Marxists, they would accuse me of being a stormtrooper of capitalism. My attitude to that was, well, I might not like Marxism as a solution to the problems that are confronting the modern world. That doesn’t mean that I want the world being ruled by Bill Gates and other globalist billionaires, in other words, a global plutocracy, a global rule of the rich. So, of course, Bill Gates wasn’t around then, but whoever his equivalent was at the time, we used to call them multinational corporations before we started talking about global corporations And globalism, globalization. So, I was opposed to all of that. I thought, I refuse to believe that Marxism is the only solution to this, what we would now call, globalism. So I was looking for alternatives. And that was how I stumbled across Smallest Beautiful by E .F. Schumacher. And I think it would be fair to say that it was life -changing. I’d already been introduced to what we might call third -way approaches to economics and politics through the writings people like G .K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloq. And their ideas that effectively proto -localism and the way you liberate yourselves from capitalism is what we might now call empowermentPrinciples of Distributism and Subsidiarity in Economics Summary: Economics should focus on the well-being of individuals and communities by ensuring the redistribution of productive property, not just wealth. Distributism promotes a society where people have a stake in the means of production they rely on. Subsidiarity, or localism, emphasizes decision-making at the most local level possible rather than centralizing power. These principles aim to create a society where economic systems serve people and communities rather than concentrating power and wealth in the hands of a few.
Speaker 3
It says that economics has to come under human life and under human communities, and economics needs to be oriented towards the flourishing of persons and towards communities. But a lot of these words, I think, are somewhat challenging even in terms of the vocabulary that’s used, distributives, subsidiarity, things like that. Can you explain something like distributism or subsidiarity? What does that look like in terms of an actual workplace or an actual community?
Speaker 1
Well, first of all, these are problematic words. Subsigiality, they’re both ugly words. In fact, subsidiarity is at least accurate. Plipatism is just vague, I don’t like it. And Chesterton and Bellock in coining it said that they didn’t like it. I prefer to use the word localism, but basically, well, I’ll go through them one at a time. Distributism, what Chesterton and Bellock meant, was not the redistribution of wealth. They thought that would be a consequence of what they were advocating, but it’s not they were advocating itself. What they were advocating is the redistribution of productive property. In other words, a healthy society is a society where as many people as possible have a real stake in the capital from which they earn their livelihood.
