Word: localism
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Gloucester is a good American town, the kind of town that hates anything too far out of its ken. Gloucester glared an American Gothic chagrin at 19th century religious mutants who sought to reform their church under the stern eye of local bigots and skeptics. These sectarians later became known as Unitarian Universalists and Christian Scientists, and the Gloucester people still chuckle at this historic yarn and shake their heads...
...entering Gloucester's fishing industry--that city's staple business--the church's members have offended not only the conventional religious mentality which binds the community, but also the sea, the sacrosanct element which, for centuries, has sustained Gloucester's economy and heritage. The "Moonies" are underselling the locally established fisheries, buying fish from trawlers at higher prices than anyone else can possibly afford. They have purchased waterfront property in the Cape Ann area at exorbitant prices--prices which were raised so high in the first place to keep them away. They are scaring Rotarians, small businessmen, local politicians...
International Seafoods, Inc., is owned by members of the Unification Church and is a tax-paying business. And its local competitors and detractors claim that it has an unfair advantage in the market--it has the financial backing of a wealthy tax-exempt organization and "free labor." Alper says that either International Seafood's employees--all of whom are members of the church--are not paid, or they donate their wages back to the church...
...passions aren't as overtly political, not yet anyway. But the musical conditions are the same--an explosion of bands that can play good, loud, fast rock and roll in towns that have probably never heard it before. Bands that you can hear just by walking into a local club on any night; bands that you don't have to buy tickets for months in advance; bands that have only a guitar, a bass, and a drummer, and couldn't care less that they don't have a French horn. And more bands than any record label could possibly sign...
Which poses a nightmare for the people whose job that's always been. Audiences are going to want to hear local artists whether they get recording contracts or not. Record companies don't have the time or the discernment to choose among the groups; their efforts to date have been haphazard at best...