#489 "Localism": The Antidote to Globalism with Special Guest Dale Ahlquist

I love GK Chesterton and this is really what we need to push back against this craziness , this insanity going on at the World Economic Forum and all the way down . Klaus Schwab , you will owe nothing and be happy .

We hear Bill Gates flying around on his private jet from his mansions trying to get rid of cow flatulence , changing cows because they're causing climate change . I mean this insanity . I mean it's so stretched and you would think that nobody would be paying attention to this at all , but we are , because the money and the power is behind this .

You will eat bugs and lab-grown goo . That's going to be meat . I'm sure that's going to be healthy for all of us . So you see the attack being legislated into laws across the world right now attacks on family , the church .

You even see so many churches being burnt down and the ruling class again establishing laws , unjust laws , pushing down on everything that's true , good and beautiful in the world . And GK Chesterton would say is there a solution to this ? She goes , yeah , I am .

I am the solution , you are the solution , and millions of us who clearly understand the spiritual battle we're in between our Lord and Satan . And so I was surprised , when we're looking for solutions and you may too that Catholic social teaching , if properly understood , is the solution to this .

Just very briefly , catholic social teaching was first promulgated by Pope Leo XIII in his 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum , and Dale Alquist writes in his book Localism , which he edited as an amazing array of each chapter , is another author , and with these wonderful , wonderful insights into how to restore the family again , how to restore this link to the gospel that

leads us forward really , and kind of give us clues to this . But how can we practically do this in the world ? Well , this is localism and it's so beautiful . It's really the opposite of centralization . It's the opposite of this money grab .

It's based on the idea that more workers should become owners and widespread ownership would provide freedom and independence and make for a more just society .

It does not pull any punches , claiming the industrial capitalism is responsible for many grave ills in modern society and that socialism , on the other side , is a well-intentioned but wrongheaded solution that only makes matters worse . As I studied John Paul's encyclical Centesimus Annus cyclical centennius centesimus annus that means 100 years .

It was written by John Paul II on 100th year anniversary of Rerum Novarum , pope Leo's work , and it just opened my mind again to these beautiful teachings . And this really is the solution , if we understand it . Sometimes we really need a game plan , we need to unpack this , and so my guest , dale Alquist , is going to be on to help us do this .

So buckle up and get ready for today's episode . I'm excited and honored to be with Dale Alquist . He's the president of the Society of Gilbert Keith Chesterton GK Chesterton I almost couldn't get that out , dale and honored to be with Dale Alquist .

He's the president of the Society of Gilbert , keith Chesterton GK Chesterton I almost couldn't get that out , dale , what I'm so used to saying , gk . He is the creator and host of the EWTN television series the Apostle of Common Sense . He's the author of six books , the editor of 16 more books , the publisher of Gilbert Magazine .

He's the co-founder of the First Chesterton Academy , a classical Catholic high school in Minneapolis , Minnesota , which gave birth to the growing Chesterton Schools Network that now includes almost 70 schools in the US and four other countries .

Dale , just before we came on I told you I feel like I know you because I've seen you so many times playing the role of GK Chesterton in that EWTN series the Apostle of Common Sense , you know . Bring us back through history a little bit on that series .

And so I have people all the time . This is a very timely book , a timely time to talk about this . I think that most people that have their eyes open are feeling this pressure of the one world government , and this is almost the opposite of that and it's a solution to that one world government , isn't it ?

Like all sane men and most mad ones , I'm concerned about social reform . You know that the church always has to be reformed , that the society always has to be reformed because there's people there , isn't it , dale ? And we all have to be reformed always . And I'll just say one more thing on it . You start out the first sentence .

And 100 years ago , when GK Chesterton and Bellock and their colleagues formed a league to promote the idea of widespread property ownership and independence and this is what I mean by the opposite , you know where you're here Klaus Schwab say right , you will own nothing , and be happy , isn't it is amazing , isn't it ?

Capitalism wasn't working because it created an industrial society that was a complete mess , that most people had been reduced to wage slavery , which he said was no better than slavery , and he saw that the wrong solution to capitalism was socialism . So he basically condemns both the leading ideas for economics and no one thinks that there are any other two choices .

young people . We speak at the john paul to renewal center of to young people and , and I really see the injustice being done to young people today , you know the way we're twisting and distorting their minds , their bodies , their souls . It's amazing , but those young people are looking for solutions .

You even see the social activists , you know the climate change people , and these young people are almost used as pawns by these globalists , you know . But they're looking for a solution and you're exactly right .

They look at , you know , we look at communism , fascism , and they say , well , you know , guys , I'm trying to wake up young people and say , well , you know socialism and include it with that . Of course , this is not the solution . But then they look at capitalism , to your point , and they say , well , that's not the solution either , jack .

And they're right , you know , and and I think we have to make sure we , we , we frame that properly so that people don't think we're just throwing out capitalism uh , I mean democracy in when I say that .

You're talking about some , some really important issues here , and we've seen capitalism and and what you call in the book , finance capitalism , run , run , run amok . But this gives us a solution , doesn't it , for those young people .

And I'll just say this you have in the book and we'll get to that where Alan I think it might be Alan Carlson's part , but anyways we call it the Green Revolution and it's getting back to these small farms and this local community there .

And local government , they realize well , that's a good thing , because the things that affect you most directly you should be able to control . That's subsidiarity , that's one of the main principles of Catholic social teaching . The things that affect you most directly you should control . That's localism in one phrase there , and localism is that in one word .

But then the other element of Catholic social teaching is solidarity , solidarity . So in other words , we get to control the things that most directly affect us .

But then we work together on these things and we have a common interest to take care of our local community , take care of our families , and thereby , by taking care families and thereby by taking care of our bodies , we're taking care of our souls , right ?

I'm going to frame it this way , dale , and then you fill it in , so we'll call it basically the three necessary societies , and I like to take it back for people and give them a little visual , if they can visualize like a two-dimensional triangle in front of them , almost looking like a pyramid , and at the base of that holding up the two corners marriage and

the family , christ and the church . And then we go into what they would call polity , right , we're filling this in with everything else , from the culture up into how we legislate laws , you know , with everything else , from the culture up into how we legislate laws , etc . So that we can see how this works .

You know all of these things communism , fascism , world economic order . They want to take out the base marriage and the family , christ and the church . And of course , all the laws that come in are pushing against us , right , against the small . So what you're bringing in , the solution and what localism does ? It builds this whole thing back up again .

So I'm going to throw it into your corner , but sometimes I think it's a good framework for people to start to say , oh yeah , okay now , okay , I understand .

So you're putting the frame back in so that we can go out into our community and to the culture and build the nation back up yeah , amen , and you know we're , we're basically we're against centralization , like that's the , that's one of the ways to put it .

And then the same thing goes with political laws , that the laws that affect you again directly . You should be able to control those laws . You should have a hand in making those laws . Nobody knows who their city government is . They don't know who their city councilman is . They talk . All know who their city councilman is .

They talk all day about who should be president . That's going to affect them a lot less than who's sitting at city hall , and getting involved in local politics is really an important thing , because that's serving all the families in your community when you're involved with the local laws .

And we're working with the John Paul II Renewal Center and many , many groups , grassroots groups around the nation are working to change their school boards , their library boards , their county boards and , you're exactly right , nobody even knows who those people are . You know , they're so grateful , dale , and I say this very you know , up front .

They're very grateful when you knock on their door and just say , hey , here's some good guys running for county board or whatever , and most people are grateful for that because they don't know these people to your point and they should they should .

That's how you control what your child is taught and that's how you form better citizens is by taking it out of the central control and putting it back in the local control . So we start a central category all over the country .

It took this in this example two hours a day for someone to stay up with the public school students right , their counterparts . And I know this for a fact .

In fact , just recently my wife said , jack , you know those friends of yours that you know they're more of my friends than they are hers , and it's just for no reason , it's just because of where we're at , in in in different circles and churches and stuff , but anyways , they're on vacation all the time and it's because she's caused a vacation , but it's not ,

it's the is the , the father works and he takes all the kids and the whole family with and she goes . How do they leave all the time ?

And I said you know , honest to goodness , to goodness , honey , they tell me two to three hours a day and they , they homeschool them , right , and they take them on these trips and they work two or three hours a day and the rest of the time they're out looking at sites and different things .

I had a conversation with them , dale , sitting at a table for dinner with the kids there 16 , 15 , maybe down to eight or nine . Those kids , you would have thought they're all adults speaking . They were so smart , so intelligent , et cetera , et cetera . So for schools , for sure .

And then you get them away from all the pornography and all this gender ideologies too . So let's talk about localism now . When you take it down , I think everybody can do this right away .

I have , you know , because we're talking about small family plots , say , but you start out with there's so many things you can talk about here , right , but you start out with a garden , you put in some flowers , you look at the sky . This is all in your book .

I just all these ideas are just flown from different things that I've just read out of the book here . And you remember to look up at the stars at night , you know , and the beauty of around you . But you're also getting practical food , you know . And the other thing is that you're , you're , you're inviting the whole family to participate again in this .

You know this common bond that you know I forget the term that you're using in the book a lot , but it's just bringing this back to this common bond again with the family . So you're building up the family again . You're seeing the beauty , you're getting your hands in the soil . Maybe you take it from there , right ?

The whole world has it backwards so that all the great activity happens outside the home , and the outside world is the narrow world , whereas the inside world , inside the home , is the place of freedom .

It is the place of broadness , it's where the universal ideas are discussed , right , chesterton says he says , I've never lost the conviction that traveling narrows the mind . You know Chesterton paradox , but the idea is that the man on his plot of ground is thinking about the universal things . As you said , looking up at the stars .

All the local things are universal things , Whereas the more specialized we get , the less things we do for ourselves , the more narrow we become .

I mean , parents need to be bonding and spending time with the kids , right ?

And you say something else really interesting in all of this is look at , you don't have to go out and buy a farm for this . You start tomorrow . You know , if you've got a little plot of land right , you start tomorrow putting something in .

Let's just begin , because you're accomplishing not only again , food being out in beauty , but you're putting the family back together .

You know you take this to your local community and your church , right , you mentioned in the book too , building up a community within the church , which only makes sense , and then going right , right , you know , forming small businesses and also visiting right , going right , right , you know , forming small businesses and and and also visiting right Small businesses and

and and and keeping the money again in the in the community .

You know how to get it started , how to sustain it and implement it , and we just really brought in a lot of different writers to to contribute and it's it's quite a collection , but the fact that we have a us senator , as one of our contributors is , is pretty amazing too yeah , so why don't you talk a little bit about that , how you , how , how you came

about to to bring this all together and and make sure we don't run out of time before we talk a little bit about capitalism ?

Senator Marco Rubio contributed an essay to the book called Localism in American Politics , and he said that small ownership has been the basis of a strong economy throughout the history of the United States Small ownership and local businesses and he'd said something similar to this in a speech that we'd heard , and the co-editor , Michael Warren Davis , was able to

contact the senator and asked if he did .

They show in their essays how they put these principles to work where they are and have been very , very successful in creating a small , locally based group of families that support themselves and each other . And you know , it's happening because of decisions they're making .

But the fact that they've implemented these ideas in Africa and Italy , those are pretty different places . We could do the same thing here in the US . These are universal principles and I think that's what's really exciting about localism .

Dale , I remember when Bill Gates was in Africa and I don't remember the exact context , but he's in Africa and he's showing the Africans how to farm . And he's showing the Africans how to farm and you know , and he's doing this mass farming and showing them about contraception and keeping their families small .

And here's the reason I bring this up is because we have to start to reframe what real wealth and treasure is . Real wealth and treasure . We have to take this out of this materialism , this consumerism , and say you know , it's not about the latest iPhone , it's about the . This is what the Africans in essence told Bill Gates .

No , the treasure is our kids , the treasure is our family . The treasure is this little plot of land , and now you just showed me how to destroy it , because now it eroded . They don't . You know , he didn't understand the way the Africans were doing this . Now , that doesn't mean that we can't improve things . We can improve things once in a while . Right .

We could bring in some new techniques , but that's up to them to implement , right .

Go outside and work the dirt a little bit , get some fresh air , read some scripture , and I mean it's a , it's a peace and a joy . I mean , you know , sometimes you look at this , well , that's some kind of weird Puritan attitude . No , it's not . It's the most refreshing , beautiful we're made for , this , isn't it ?

Entertain me , just being a passive . You're a slave . If you're just sitting there being passively entertained , you are not a free person .

Anybody particular come to mind and anyone that would help us frame capitalism and and , and the problems of just capitalism run amok , which you know . John Paul II , in Centesimus , I think Honest , right . He looked back at Pope Leo XIII's work and rerun Nevarum a hundred years later , and that's what that means , right ?

So it's a hundred years later , looking back , and he really looks back at the moral and religious base , and that's what that means , right ? So it's 100 years later , looking back , and he really looks back at the moral and religious base , and that's our country again , too Dale , isn't it ?

You know , john Adams , you know this will only work with a moral and religious people . And John Paul's focus , I think what he brought to the table in his document , looking at these three necessary societies , is look , you've got to get this moral and religious core back in right and legislate from there .

So we've really gone a long ways away from there , haven't we ?

And that's always been such a battle to fight when we're explaining Catholic social teaching , because Catholic social teaching is about subsidiarity and solidarity . Subsidiarity does mean , as we said , controlling the things that affect you .

If all your money is going to some remote big corporation , that is not an ideal economic situation , but that is how capitalism works . It's just that the big corporations get bigger and everyone becomes a wage earner and everyone becomes a wage earner and the opposite .

As Chesterton says , the opposite of employment is not unemployment , the opposite of employment is independence . That's the thing people have to get in their head . You don't have to be an employee . They think , well , I got to go out and get a job , work for someone else .

No , find a way to be your own boss and be your own employee , because that way you are controlling your dollars and controlling your life . It has to start small . Obviously , people have to work at jobs for a while until they can get on their feet , but most jobs don't even allow them to do that .

That's , and that's the failure of you know , the way the capitalist system has run in our country for the last hundred years is that most people are too poor , uh , to to accomplish anything other than a wage . And and that's not freedom , that's just no , and they're just wage slaves .

It's the love , it's relationships , it's knowing that you know this world is temporal and that we have to bring what's . You know , the transcendentals , right , and what you're talking about here brings all that back in what's true , what's good , what's beautiful , especially the beauty of love .

And here's the last thing I really want to just touch on is that this has a message , you know , for all of those young people that are looking not only for love and , you know , for some peace , but it also , you know , shows them this is the new green revolution . You want a green revolution .

You've got to stop walking around with the latest iPhone , holding a big plastic water bottle and talking about plastic . Get back to the earth . Plant a little garden , even if you've got just a little plotter or a planter . Start getting back to this . This is the green revolution , right ?

No , you're in Washington , it's in in no , I'm in chicago , but yes , you got philadelphia so we're right outside of philadelphia july 25th through 27th , go to chestertonorg for more information about our summer chestertonorg , and I'll put that in the in the show notes .

Tell your local bookstore to stock it .

Thank you so much for your time God bless you , thank you , bye-bye .