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| Even the Devil backed down from this guy |
Even given the “massacre” of the Democratic Party on Tuesday
(of which less below), we don’t expect that anything will change with respect
to fundamentals when the Republicans are in power. There still aren’t any political leaders with
any kind of realistic vision or even idea of returning power to the people
through capital ownership. Maybe that’s
understandable. Daniel Webster, who
pointed out in 1820 that “Power naturally and necessarily follows property,”
was a Whig, not a Democrat or a Republican.
What we need is less party politics and more getting power
to the people. To advance that, here’s
what’s been happening in the Just Third Way movement this past week:
• Sales of CESJ’s
latest “Paradigm Paper,” The Political
Animal: Economic Justice and the Sovereignty of the Human Person, are doing
well. The Political Animal, like all CESJ publications, is available in
bulk at substantial savings. With the
20% discount applicable to bulk sales (i.e.,
ten or more copies of a single title), a full case of 50 is $400, plus
shipping. Enquire at “publications [at]
cesj [dot] org” for details and cost of shipping bulk/wholesale orders. Individual copies are available now on Amazon, and on Barnes and Noble. Please
note: CESJ does not sell retail.
• This past Monday,
the CESJ Core Group attended the Hubert Humphrey Fellows networking luncheon in
Roslyn in Northern Virginia. The event
attracted a great many people from other countries, all of whom are highly
placed at home. The CESJ people, of
course, sat at the “Economic Development” tables. Perhaps it was just the general atmosphere,
but no one in the CESJ Core Group heard a single negative among the many people
with whom we spoke — not even in response to the short lecture about the proper
use of a central bank in financing development, and the necessity of having an
elastic, asset-backed reserve currency as one of the cornerstones of
sustainable economic development. A
diplomat from Madagascar and an accountant from China were particularly
interested in the money and credit position of the Just Third Way, and the
diplomat mentioned that a good friend of his had just been appointed head of
the country’s central bank, and should hear about the Just Third Way.
• A paper on the
business cycle being prepared by CESJ’s Director of Research for The American Journal of Economics and
Sociology has passed the initial review by the editorial boards of both the
Journal and CESJ. The reaction is that the paper represents a
significant contribution to the understanding of binary economics. The “heart” of the paper is in place, and it
should be ready soon for pre-publication distribution among a select group.
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| Academic Excellence |
• On Tuesday, the CESJ
Core Group had an extended telephone conversation with Dr. David L. Schindler,
Dean emeritus of the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for
Studies on Marriage and Family at the Catholic University of America in
Washington, DC. While the initial
conversation was only supposed to be a relatively short introduction, it lasted
for 2½ hours. There were many points of
congruence in our thinking, and Dr. Schindler expressed concern over many of
the same issues as CESJ, e.g.,
understanding of the fundamentals of justice (even in law schools), academia’s
focus on job training instead of education, the economic dependency of
individuals and families on the State, and so on. A number of areas of possible collaboration
were identified.
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| Actual photo of Aristotle |
• The Campaign for
Distributive Justice concept is being expanded to include possible
collaboration with the Confraternity of Catholic Clergy and the John Paul II
Institute, and fundraising for potentially four publications and two to four
events, including the CESJ/CCC booth at next year’s World Meeting of Families
in Philadelphia, preceded by at least one all-day event to present the
fundamentals of the Just Third Way to start building a core of supporters and
teachers. While the proposed events are
somewhat “Catholic” in character due to the anticipated initial venues and the
presumption that the collaborating organizations will handle all logistics and
administration, with CESJ providing the content, special emphasis will be put
on bringing in participants from other faith traditions, especially Jews,
Muslims, and Protestant leaders, nor will Buddhists, Hindus, or anyone else who
shares an Aristotelian natural law orientation be excluded, especially if they
have an academic affiliation. A short
brainstorming session resulted in a skeleton outline for an all-day event, with
the morning devoted to sessions on the natural law, the principles of economic
justice, and social justice, and the afternoon putting everything together in the
application of the principles in the Just Third Way. If successful, the program could be adapted
as one of the initial Justice University courses for replication and
dissemination over the internet.
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| No good deed goes unpunished |
• A group called “Grassfire” is running
a survey to find out what concerns people, presumably at the grass
roots. We are not either endorsing or
condemning the effort, but the group claims that your opinions will be
presented to members of Congress. Most
of the questions in the very short survey are not really consistent with the
Just Third Way, e.g., we don’t want
to abolish the IRS (just simplify the gazillion-page code and regs) or impeach
Obama (waste of time and effort). There
is, however, space for comments . . . in which you can mention that what this
(or any other country) needs is a Capital Homestead Act to return power to the
people. Get that, and most of the other
problems referred to in the questions will solve themselves. So, take the survey if the spirit moves you .
. . but only if you mention the desperate need for a Capital Homestead Act.
• As of this morning, we have had
visitors from 50 different countries and 43 states and provinces in the United
States and Canada to this blog over the past two months. Most visitors are from
the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. The
most popular postings this past week were “Aristotle on Private Property,” “Thomas
Hobbes on Private Property,” “The Purpose of Production,” “Response to
Professor Shakespeare, I: CESJ’s Position,” and “Halloween Horror Special: The
Faith that Ate Reason.”
Those are the happenings for this week, at least those 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, so we’ll see it before it goes up.
#30#
