"Human beings, in their settled condition, are animated by *oikophilia*: the love of the *oikos,* which means not only the home but the people contained in it, and the surrounding settlements that endow that home with lasting contours and an enduring smile. The *oikos* is the place that is jot just mine and yours, but *ours*. It is the stage-set for the first-person plural of politics, the locus, bother real and imagined, where 'it all takes place'. Virtues like thrift and self-sacrifice, the habit of offering and receiving respect, the sense of responsibility - all those aspects of the human condition that shape us as stewards and guardians of our common inheritance - arise though our growth as persons, by creating islands of value in a sea of price. To acquire these virtues, we must circumscribe the 'instrumental reasoning' that governs the life of the Homo oeconomicus. We must vest our love and desire in things to which we assign an intrinsic, rather than an instrumental, value, so that the pursuit of means can come to a rest, for us, in a place of ends. That is what we mean by a settlement: putting the *oikos* back in the *oikophilia.* And that is what conservatism is all about."
Roger Scruton, How to Be a Conservative, page 25, Starting from Home.
This piece strikes a chord with my own experience of what has happened in my own locality in South Wales. Atomisation of the community with so many people coming and going. Apathy and boredom. Yet in a small market town no more than 12 miles away you get a different vibe altogether. Just a look at the town events notice board in the car park I get the impression that this place is a thriving and vibrant community. People stop and talk to eachother in the street, often in Welsh. Just my thoughts. Thank you again.
"Human beings, in their settled condition, are animated by *oikophilia*: the love of the *oikos,* which means not only the home but the people contained in it, and the surrounding settlements that endow that home with lasting contours and an enduring smile. The *oikos* is the place that is jot just mine and yours, but *ours*. It is the stage-set for the first-person plural of politics, the locus, bother real and imagined, where 'it all takes place'. Virtues like thrift and self-sacrifice, the habit of offering and receiving respect, the sense of responsibility - all those aspects of the human condition that shape us as stewards and guardians of our common inheritance - arise though our growth as persons, by creating islands of value in a sea of price. To acquire these virtues, we must circumscribe the 'instrumental reasoning' that governs the life of the Homo oeconomicus. We must vest our love and desire in things to which we assign an intrinsic, rather than an instrumental, value, so that the pursuit of means can come to a rest, for us, in a place of ends. That is what we mean by a settlement: putting the *oikos* back in the *oikophilia.* And that is what conservatism is all about."
Roger Scruton, How to Be a Conservative, page 25, Starting from Home.
You might like https://ukresponse.substack.com/p/armistice-day
This piece strikes a chord with my own experience of what has happened in my own locality in South Wales. Atomisation of the community with so many people coming and going. Apathy and boredom. Yet in a small market town no more than 12 miles away you get a different vibe altogether. Just a look at the town events notice board in the car park I get the impression that this place is a thriving and vibrant community. People stop and talk to eachother in the street, often in Welsh. Just my thoughts. Thank you again.