I once read an article by Ken Meyers on the importance of locally produced culture. (Ken is the sharp and erudite host of an audio journal I’ve been subscribing for years called “Mars Hills Audio.”) When the makers of pop culture–media, basically–don’t live in your town they are not subject to some basic restraining forces: personal reputation; social sanction and disapproval from neighbors. So the content degenerates.
Culture produced in Hollywood, or other such disconnected, distant places:
- erodes the authority of parents to define the moral worldview of the children
- destroys the prospect of local traditions and cultures shaping individuals with a sense of place
- makes kids “grow up” too fast, by giving them access to the whispered conversation of the grown-ups, and generally portraying scenes normally not accessible to children in real life
- homogenizes and degrades culture
- distorts reality by creating an unreal picture of what the “rest of the world” must be like
The list of harmful affects of distantly produced culture can go on and on, of course. So what would the local production of culture look like? I think it would have to begin with living in close proximity, and the eschewing of distantly created pop culture. I think the fact that most of our Gracepoint members live within walking distance from one another, and generally avoid the popular media offerings gives us a fighting chance of creating such a local culture–a set of sensibilities, values, habits, relating patterns, stories–that arises out of who we are as God’s people.
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