One of the things we’re finding out as we go through old
newspaper files of the 1880s and 1890s is that “opinion journalism” is nothing
new. It’s probably older than the clay
tablets passed around by the ancient Sumerians, letting people know you can’t
trust old Mekiajgacer, Son of Uta, because he disagreed with Zamug, Son of
Barsalnuna over whether the bills of exchange drawn by Balih, Son of Etana,
were better than the promissory notes issued by Ur-Nungal, Son of Gilgamec.
If that weren’t enough, we’re also finding that the “facts”
reported today in the history books sometimes don’t agree too well with the
facts as people of the day reported them.
Things tend to get left out by academics who don’t bother to go to
original sources, but take the word of someone with an ax to grind. As a case in point, we found a 24-page paper
by a modern academic that had a five-page bibliography . . . of which four
items (that’s items, not pages) were original sources. The vast bulk of the material simply
reinforced the academic’s predetermined position, and was carefully selected to
do just that — when some of the original material we’ve found flatly
contradicts it.
And we wonder why it is so hard to get people to pay serious
attention to the Just Third Way when they’ve accepted the assumptions of, e.g., Keynesian economics without
question. To try and turn things around,
here’s what we’ve been doing this past week:
• As many people know, CESJ, while not a Catholic or even
religious organization, relies heavily on Catholic social teaching as “third
party” moral authority supporting the Just Third Way, particularly the
encyclicals Rerum Novarum (1891), Quadragesimo Anno (1931), and Divini Redemptoris (1937). In the past few weeks we have located
original documents dating from the late 1880s hinting that a “doctrinal
statement” might soon be issued on the question of private land ownership. We also located the full text of a “long
lost” pastoral letter issued by Archbishop Michael Corrigan of New York on
November 27, 1886, setting out Catholic doctrine on private property,
especially private property in land.
This morning, we located an item in the Milwaukee Journal of Saturday, April 30, 1887, that states, “New York, April 30. — Archbishop
Corrigan has concluded not to make any statement in regard to the existing
controversy between Dr. McGlynn, Henry George and others and the Catholic
church, in view of the fact that an encyclical letter from Pope Leo XIII.,
bearing upon the land theory, is expected daily.” This is an important discovery due to the
fact that Rerum Novarum has been used
to support a theory of property that contradicts that of the Just
Third Way.
• CESJ received two very interesting comments from members
of the Just Third Way network this past week: “It's hard to remain hopeful
these days. Sometimes I feel like Pope Benedict XVI wrote Spe Salvi just
for me. If it weren't for CESJ, I think I'd have an even harder time remaining
hopeful. At least I know there's an answer out there.” — J.C., 12/19/13. “Those
days happen more frequently for me. I suppose the Bible ends dramatically for a
reason. We just have to do what our Lord asks of us. I can see no better way to
love thy neighbor (other than sharing the gospel) than helping share the
message of the CESJ.” — R.C., 12/19/13.
• On Tuesday of this week, we had a posting on the surge in
stock buybacks by U.S. corporations, touted as a boon for all concerned. We disagreed.
Much to our surprise, in today’s Washington
Post, columnist Harold Meyerson joined us — halfway — in suggesting that,
perhaps, stock buybacks aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. (“An Expensive
Habit,” 12/20/13, A29.) He then joined
us (again, halfway) by calling for “a whole new economic order.” We say “halfway” because what he described as
“a whole new economic order” is nothing more than an intensification of what is
most wrong with the current system. Not
that we’re telling you to do anything, but wouldn’t it be great if one or two
(thousand) people sent Meyerson an e-mail at meyersonh [at] washpost [dot] com
to tell him (briefly) about the potential of Capital Homesteading?
Just a thought.
Not unexpectedly, in the same issue of the Washington Post (the same page,
actually), Charles Krauthammer put the screws on “Obamacare,” A.K.A., “The
Affordable Care Act.” We say, “not
unexpectedly,” because Krauthammer has not only pointed out the obvious flaws
in the ACA before, he has a medical degree.
Again, not telling anyone what to do, but the weaknesses that Dr.
Krauthammer notes in the ACA are addressed in CESJ’s healthcare proposal
— and if enough people sent him e-mails at letters [at] charleskrauthammer
[dot] com telling him about the CESJ proposal, it might give him some leverage
and help him introduce a viable solution in quarters where it might get the
attention it needs. Again, just a
thought.
• The big news is still that Freedom Under God is available after nearly three-quarters of a
century. CESJ is now taking bulk/wholesale orders (please, no individual
sales). The per unit price for ten or
more copies is $16.00 (20% discount). Shipping
is extra. Send an e-mail to “publications [at] cesj [dot] org”
stating how many copies you want and the street address (no P. O. Boxes) where
you want them delivered. We will get
back to you with the total cost, how to pay, and estimated delivery time. All payments must be made in advance, and
orders are placed only after payment clears.
Individual copies are available from Amazon
and Barnes and Noble,
as well as by special order from many bookstores.
• CESJ offers a 10%
commission on the retail cover price on bulk sales of publications. If you broker a deal with, for example, a
school or civic organization that buys a publication in bulk (i.e., ten copies or more of a single
title), you receive a commission once a transaction has been completed to the
satisfaction of the customer. Thus, if
you get your club or school to purchase, say, ten cases of Freedom Under God (280 copies) or any other CESJ or UVM
publication, the organization would pay CESJ $3,920.00 (280 copies x $20 per
copy, less a 30% discount), plus shipping (the commission is calculated on the
retail cost only, not the shipping). You would receive $560.00. Send an e-mail to “publications [at] cesj [dot] org” for copies of flyers of CESJ and
UVM publications. (CESJ project
participants and UVM shareholders are not
eligible for commissions.)
• So Much Generosity,
the collection of essays about the fiction of Nicholas Cardinal Wiseman, John
Henry Cardinal Newman, and Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson by Michael D. Greaney,
CESJ’s Director of Research. The book is
now available on Amazon
and Barnes and Noble,
and is also available on Kindle.
Many of the essays incorporate elements of the Just Third Way. The book is priced at $20.00, and there is a
20% discount on bulk orders (i.e.,
ten or more), which can be ordered by sending an e-mail to publications [at]
cesj [dot] org.
• As of this morning, we have had
visitors from 63 different countries and 55 states and provinces in the United
States and Canada (for some reason no one in Wyoming is reading the blog) to
this blog over the past two months. Most visitors are from the United States,
Canada, the United Kingdom, India, and the Philippines. The most popular
postings this past week were “Thomas Hobbes on Private Property,” “Aristotle on
Private Property,” “Distributive Justice”?, XIX: Henry George and the Catholic
Church,” News from the Network, Vol. 6, No. 48, and “Voluntary Taxation? Not in
a Free Society.”
Those are the happenings for this week, at least that we
know about. If you have an
accomplishment that you think should be listed, send us a note about it at
mgreaney [at] cesj [dot] org, and we’ll see that it gets into the next “issue.” If you have a short (250-400 word) comment on
a specific posting, please enter your comments in the blog — do not send them
to us to post for you. All comments are
moderated anyway, so we’ll see it before it goes up.
#30#
