The practical essence of the way of Folk Culture is to create new folk communities which strive to make real the idealism and way of life of Folk Culture.
This means people living and working in rural areas, ideally in trades or occupations connected with the land, and ideally aiming to become self-sufficient in terms first of food and then in other items.
It also means an acceptance that what is fundamentally important about life is this close contact with the land, with Nature, with the local area where they dwell.
All this, and what it implies, is done because it is understood that the very purpose of our lives is to strive to live in harmony with Nature, in a way which makes possible the development of those qualities which make us human: our reason; our honour; our concern for Nature and our own folk; using our will to change ourselves for the better and to aid our evolution as a folk and a species.
Thus there is and must be an acceptance that material luxury, material possessions and material wealth - and the pursuit of or desire for such things - are detrimental to living in harmony with Nature and detrimental to developing those personal qualities necessary to express and develope our humanity.
This means a complete rejection of the way of life of the modern world, with its emphasis on urban living, on the accumulation of possessions, devices and machines, and with its arrogant assumption that Nature, and the living beings of Nature, are there for us to use, to exploit.
Anything and everything which by its use, its production, its construction, its possession, undermines and aids the destruction of Nature, and of that way of life which is essential to our humanity, must be avoided and done without if it is possible and practical to avoid it and do without it, even if this means some personal discomfort, some personal hardship, some personal hard work.
To do otherwise is to be hypocritical: to place one's own comfort and welfare before the welfare of Nature and those beings of Nature which the modern capitalist-consumer way undermines and is destroying.
Of course, the rejection of many modern devices and conveniences will involve some personal discomfort and some personal hardship, but we must change our priorities, and always consider the consequences of what we do, what we acquire, what we use. That is, we must consider the wider, the greater, perspective of Nature, of the cosmos, often putting Nature, for instance, before our own immediate comfort, our own immediate desires and needs, especially if this comfort, these desires and needs, are not necessary to our immediate survival.
The ideal to be striven toward is to use only those things which can be made by hand from local materials with no harm done to Nature, and to eat only that which is produced locally or by the community. That is, the ideas of a modern economy, of the mass manufacture of goods produced by raw materials plundered from Nature, of a mass urban way of life, are totally rejected.
The key to this Folk way of living is the cultivation of land: the creation of small organic farms where there is a proper husbandry of the soil, and a care for and respect of, wildlife and farm animals, with the people living in this way not adding to - by their possession and buying of unnecessary material goods, devices and machines - the exploitation and destruction of Nature and the living beings of Nature which is the consequence all modern economic systems, and all modern societies.
The quintessence of the way of living of the new communities is to strive to be content with living in harmony in Nature by working with one's own hands to produce the essentials of living. There will thus grow a sense of participation in, and partnership with, Nature: a genuine respect born of both reason and love.
In the practical sense this requires reasonable land to farm, land which can be productive enough to grow the crops necessary, and hard manual work.
Such a way of living, with such a harsh rejection of the modern world, is essential if we are to live as we should be living. And such a way of living is indeed practical: a goal worth striving for.
Naturally, such a way of life will not be easy. Sacrifices will have to be made. But the difficulties and obstacles can and will be overcome if we act in a truely human way by using our will to change our own way of life, to change our desires, and most importantly to alter our priorities, doing away with all the things that are unnecessary, and which are detrimental and damaging to Nature.
The External World:
Essentially, the world external to the community is and will be for the foreseeable future, irrelevant.
The concern, the focus, of the communities must be their own way of life, their own long-term goals, and not the politics or concerns of the external world.
The long-term goal is to be a practical example to others of our humanity and our necessary respect for Nature and the cosmos, and to lay the simple foundations for a new culture: a human renaissance born from developing our human qualities of respect for Nature, our honour, our reason, our desire to understand, and our need to belong in a meaningful and evolutionary way.
The whole modern world - with its abstract politics, its abstract social ideas, its desire for material comfort and luxury, its abstract idea of continual economic growth, its urban way of living, its greed, its lack of respect and lack of honour - is rotten, and indeed evil: harmful to both us, as human beings, and to Nature.
It cannot be redeemed, or made into something good. We must begin again, through creating a new way: through changing ourselves, inside, and then setting an example for others to follow, enabling them to change themselves as they must also be changed by accepting new priorities and thus by accepting those things which express our humanity.
David Myatt