In Dale Ahlquist and Michael Warren Davis’ new book, Localism: Coming Home to Catholic Social Teaching, Joseph Pearce writes a chapter called Freedom Is In Our Pockets. My first instinct upon reading the title was “Are you kidding me? Slavery is in our pockets. The path to Hell is in our pockets.” Because in today’s world, the first thing I think of in our pockets is the iPhone. However, Pearce was referencing something different in our pocket, he was referencing our money. This, of course, led me to think “Are you kidding me? Slavery is in our pockets. The path to Hell is in our pockets.” Because upon hearing this explanation that it was money I thought of 1 Timothy 6:10 “For the love of money is the root of all evils; it is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced their hearts with many pangs.” However, Pearce is not calling for the love of money but rather intentionally using it and spending it and not hanging on to it. He is calling for spending a little more than you could have bought things in order to buy things locally. Sure Walmart has a cheaper option, but for a few bucks more you can buy the same thing from your neighbor. Lots of things you can buy from your neighbor even though he probably sourced the ingredients less locally, but many things - particularly food - you can buy from your neighbor who grew the food locally. It may be more expensive, but that is the only weapon we have against the ever centralizing and encircling culture of today. Pearce explains this by stating The bottom line is that every dollar we spend is a vote that we cast for a better or a worse world. Dollars are the weapons with which the culture wars will be won or lost: not someone else’s dollars but our own. The buck stops with each one of us, which means, to mess with the idiom, that we need to pass the buck to the right people. That’s more than just a catchy slogan. The one demonstrable victory that the right has had in this unfortunate culture war was over Bud Light last year. After promoting proudly the disgusting behavior of a profoundly confused man, the right wing as a whole responded by giving up Bud Light. To this day, I have loved ones who have very little political leaning and do not even necessarily care that Bud Light did what it did, but who still do not drink it because they refuse to take on the social burden of being that guy. This has been seen at a smaller level with the recent incident regarding Tractor Supply Company, who announced a DEI initiative and retracted it almost within a day, fearing a Bud Light style response. While this was the most successful measure of the culture war, which proves Pearce’s point that our dollars are our best weapon, it was still only a half measure. Shortly after the Bud Light situation, Modelo became the best selling beer in America… another Anheuser-Busch beer. While I argue that this still served a purpose and sent a message, it could have gone so much further. Imagine what could have been done not just against the negative parts of the culture but also for an actually positive culture if, rather than switching to Modelo, Coors, or Miller, each person protesting switched to a local brewery. We have one weapon in the culture war, it’s time to use it. So spend your afternoon today at a local brewery, for the good of the culture.
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