If you are like me, you will enjoy this video of a phenomenal American character and the curious phenomenon of culture he has created. Ephemeral art on the beaches of California are glorious expressions of individuality, causing us to ruminate on the transitory nature of this life. Lovely garden-farm meals for hundreds (bring your own plate) cause the overly-urban to ruminate on mankind's ineffable ties to the land.
But the art is captured for posterity only through photography. It is performance art, a cultivated taste for the cultivated aesthetic palate. Likewise, meals that cost each person (except participating local farmers) about $125 a "plate" are the luxuries of an urbanized society that has produced enough surplus that the products of the pre-industrial world may now be savored as piquant symbols of an elevated sensibility, as miuch as delectable morsels from the soil.
Among conservatives, you may want to consult Crunchycons, by Rod Dreher, celebrating the nexus of practical frugal living and voting with the environmental ethic that sees man as steward of the natural gifts of God. This is not Gaia-worship, it is a worldview for sober men and women who cherish an ancient heritage that has been lost by alienated moderns.
But also note Money, Greed and God by Jay Richards (Discovery Sr. Fellow, Acton Fellow, now Discovery Fellow once again) and his explanation of how crunchy conservatism is only achievable in a society that has attained a high degree of specialization and, let's face it, successful mass production. As I say, it is a luxury. It's a fine, desireable luxury, and one to be encouraged (in Dr. Richards' opinion, and my own). But it does not lead to a description of how Everyman should be pushed to live, let alone how the government should order our economy. It usually has to be subsidized, one way or another.
Surely we should aspire to be a Western society where small scale farms and local produce, backyard gardens and an appreciation for the land are more easily sustained. But they constitute a social good, not so much an environmental solution. We need to find reasonable ways to make such goods sustainable and not exaggerate their potential to make our environment sustainable.
