The Maholian Way - Part Two: The Maholian Way in the lives of two

What relationalism seeks to do is to increase the reach of our relatedness and decrease the reach of our actions, to the extent necessary to bring them into much closer alignment. The more they are in alignment the more our actions will be shaped or moderated by a desire and a capacity to do the right thing by the people who stand to be affected by our actions.

A few points of clarification are warranted here. Firstly, relationalists often talk about the reach of our relatedness rather than the reach of our relationships, because this is more encompassing of the range of possible situations. If we talk about a relationship that we have with someone it implies that we know them personally – and in fact is often taken to mean an intimate relationship – whereas relatedness can also describe a connection with those we don’t know personally but know of to varying degrees. Thus, as the degree of relatedness increases, we know and care more about the people, we know and care more about the effect of our actions on them, we come to know of them as individuals, and we come to know them personally.

Secondly, relationalists don’t believe that things were necessarily any better in earlier times when there was less of a disparity between the reach of actions and the reach of relatedness. This is because a range of other factors counterbalance this. In modern times people are better educated and less ethnocentric, and they have to some extent universalised standards of decent behaviour that were previously only applied in dealings with in-group members. Also, those of us in today’s world who don’t have to  focus on the grim imperatives of physical survival can afford to be kinder to others.

Thirdly, Maholians recognise that not all close relationships are good relationships for all concerned. They can often be hostile, neglectful, abusive, violent and oppressive. But relationalist approaches, in the many ways that are described in this account, are intended to prevent this from occurring and to deal effectively with it when it does.

How, then, do Maholians reduce the reach of their actions and increase the reach of their relatedness?

They reduce the reach of their actions by developing and maintaining self-reliant local communities that meet a large proportion of their members’ social and economic needs. These communities are not, however, insular or autarkical, as there is still a healthy level of social, cultural and economic interaction with other parts of Maholia and beyond. But neither are they as vulnerable to the vagaries of outside forces as equivalent localities in other developed countries tend to be. This is particularly true on the economic front. For example, Maholian communities save their own money through local financial institutions that invest the funds in local enterprises and projects, with interest rates and lending policies that reflect local conditions. There are also other local organisations to facilitate economic development and ensure that all factors necessary for production and trade are present and working well together.

Having such self-reliant communities also means that the reach – and level – of people’s relatedness within such communities tends to increase. This is because more frequent and sustained interactions for all sorts of practical reasons in different areas of life give people a bigger stake in getting along and a better chance to get to know one another. But there are also many other measures adopted in Maholia to increase the reach or level of relatedness in those spheres of life in which people’s actions affect others. Returning to our stories of life in Maholia, we’ll see how this occurs

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