We can applaud yesterday's small towns without worshipping them. We can appreciate the local without demonizing the central.
But we also need to insist that today's progressives applaud yesterday and that today's centralizing gnostics respect the local. I'm afraid those just aren't going to happen, so we're left with the natural response to idealize (a form of worship) the past and hate the central.
Localism without Nostalgia - Front Porch Republic
Let’s have a localism without nostalgia, a practical but also a faithful localism. As localists let’s be committed to an accurate accounting of the checkered past that grounds our hope.
Adam Smith
