The news items for this week are mostly
of a report on CESJ’s participation in the World Meeting of Families in
Philadelphia. The CESJ team, consisting
of CESJ president Norman G. Kurland, Marie T. Kurland, and Michael D. Greaney,
Director of Research was there from Monday through Thursday. The team had to miss Friday, September 25,
due to a conflict with previously scheduled meetings.
• Arriving Monday afternoon, Norman Kurland and Michael Greaney
visited the booth (Number 242), and dropped off some boxes of materials. We also noted that the six boxes of printed
materials from Harrisburg for two of the other three organizations “in” on the
booth — the Confraternity of Catholic Clergy and Evangelization Enterprises, Inc. — as well as for CESJ, had been delivered.
We opened and inspected the material, which consisted of copies of a
brochure for Evangelization Enterprises, Inc., two brochures for the
Confraternity of Catholic Clergy, two brochures for CESJ, and copies of “Pope Francis and the Just Third Way.” The
“banner” (which turned out to be a rigid sign) was not there, but was delivered
before 10:00 am Tuesday morning, the official opening of the exhibit hall. An order of 1,000 bookmarks with the Just
Third Way Edition of Fulton Sheen’s Freedom Under God on one side and Capital Homesteading for Every Citizen on the other had not arrived before the team
left Washington, DC, but Rowland Brohawn, CESJ’s graphic artist, was able to
provide a small number of bookmarks as well as table signs for each of the four
organizations. We also included a
last-minute batch of CESJ publications flyers with bulk ordering information
for Freedom Under God on the one
side, and a list of selected CESJ publications on the other.
• Due to various logistical difficulties and last-minute
emergencies on a number of fronts, members of the other organizations were
unable to attend. This made Norm and
Marie’s last minute decision to go and support Michael Greaney key to the success
of CESJ’s effort. As the CESJ team was
not fully briefed on the “message” each of the other organizations wanted to
deliver (the fourth was Catholic Action for Faith and Family), we were unable to do more than refer people to the brochures and the
respective websites in response to enquiries, but were very successful at
getting a number of passers-by interested — a few more people to “hook” people
and others to answer questions would have made the effort even more effective:
there were times when we couldn’t get to everyone, and “lost customers” due to
having too few people there (and we were unable to visit the other booths, not
having enough people to rotate). It
would also have been good to have had one or two people to circulate through
the exhibit hall, dropping off brochures at the other booths or handing out
bookmarks, which proved to be much easier to distribute than larger pieces, and
had the advantage of Fulton Sheen’s photo on one side, and Abraham Lincoln’s on
the other.
• Fulton Sheen’s photo on the cover of the Just
Third Way Edition of Freedom Under God
was a major draw — especially since CESJ received special permission from the
photographer to use that particular photograph (credited on the inside cover,
with thanks from CESJ). We noticed that
even before the end of the event, the ranking on Amazon started to go up for
the book. This is very encouraging if
CESJ accepts a proposal to republish Just Third Way editions of other books by
Fulton Sheen that are in the public domain and consequently not being reprinted by those who own the copyrights to those of Sheen's works still under copyright protection.
• As we refined our approach, we would “hook” people with
the question, “Would you like to hear the shortest presentation in the world?”
(or words to that effect). By not asking
people who obviously had their hands full or indicated disinterest in some
fashion, the response rate was very high, with many people looking surprised,
then saying, “Sure, why not?” We would
then hand them the brochure describing CESJ and say, “Here is who we are.” The next piece was the
Capital Homesteading flyer with “And here is what we’re trying to do.” We would finish by handing them a copy of “Pope
Francis and the Just Third Way” and say, “And here’s how it ties in with
Catholic social teaching.” The photos of
the three popes (Leo XIII, Pius XI, and Francis) invariably evoked a positive
response. Approximately two-thirds of
the people said they would take the material home and read it there, whereupon
we would mention that the CESJ website URL and contact information is in the
CESJ brochure. The other third wanted to
hear more about the idea. These we would
direct to the banner behind the booth, “ECONOMIC JUSTICE FOR THE
FAMILY/EVERY CITIZEN AN OWNER” and say that the banner summed it
up. We would then open another copy of
the brochure and point out the photo of Norman Kurland and Pope St. John Paul
II, saying that even though CESJ is an interfaith organization, His Holiness
gave his personal encouragement to our work.
We would then point out that making every child, woman, and man an owner
of capital would restore the family as the basic unit of society, and greatly
decrease the role of the State in individual and family life. For those who wanted to discuss the ideas in
greater depth, it was at this point that they would be introduced to Norman
Kurland, who is (as CESJ members and friends are aware), adept at tailoring an
explanation of the Just Third Way to an individual’s special area of focus and
concern. A number of people engaged Norm
in dialog each of the three days, with some of the more interesting described
below. Three bishops accepted the basic
package, and did appear genuinely interested in a practical solution to the
problems they are facing.
• A number of people asked if the Just Third Way is related
to the distributism of G.K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc. The answer we gave was, “Yes . . . and no.” From the perspective of “classical
distributism” (i.e., the program
Chesterton and Belloc espoused, without the later accretions), there are three
key differences. The goal is the same
(widespread capital ownership), but distributism 1) takes the past savings
model of financing capital for granted, thereby limiting resources for growth
to past decreases from consumption, instead of future increases in
production. 2) Asserts a preference for
small enterprise over large enterprise as a guiding principle instead of
letting the free market decide the optimal size. 3) Does not recognize the act of social
justice as the principal means of bringing about social change, relying on
State fiat and coercive laws to impose the desired conditions, e.g., Belloc’s proposal to burden
“large” men (i.e., rich) with
disabilities to bring them down to the level of “small” men when financing new
capital formation, rather than removing the disabilities that now encumber “small”
men to bring them up to the level of the “large” men to establish and maintain
a level playing field (see An Essay on
the Restoration of Property, 1936 — see CESJ's alternate take on this in The Restoration of Property, 2012).
These differences lock classical distributism into the past savings
model of finance, and forces an economy into capitalism, socialism, or the
Welfare or Servile State as the only alternatives. Many of today’s distributists have attempted
to circumvent this “slavery of past savings” without emancipating humanity from
its curse by redefining ownership, advocating effective redistribution (usually
through some form of what Belloc and C.S. Lewis pejoratively described as “the
Douglas scheme,” i.e., “social
credit” — State manipulation and control of the money supply), or adopting
various forms of Fabian socialism, often relying heavily on such authorities as
Arthur Penty, E.F. Schumacher, and others influenced by the agrarian socialism
of Henry George and the theosophy of Madame Blavatsky. Most neo-distributists also seem to take
Chesterton and Belloc’s preference for small, family owned enterprise and turn
it into an absolute mandate.
• An important contribution to the success of the event from
CESJ’s perspective was the fact that, purely by the luck of the draw, our booth
was right next to “Priests for Life.” We got into a very profound discussion with
Father Denis G. Wilde, O.S.A., Ph.D., Associate Director of the organization,
and spoke with him frequently over the course of three days. Father Wilde invited us to his organization’s
headquarters on Staten Island (in between the traveling involved in his heavy
schedule, of course). We also spoke
briefly with Father Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life (who
was much shorter than the twelve feet tall we imagined), and he and Norm had a
twenty-minute meeting (originally scheduled as ten minutes) Thursday morning.
• Norm also had a very long meeting with the people at Our Sunday Visitor, Inc., a not-for profit
Catholic media company in Huntington, Indiana.
Norm was particularly impressed with Mr. Terry Poplava, Executive
Director of Marketing and Sales, who also happens to have been in the Notre
Dame Glee Club (now celebrating its
centennial) with CESJ’s Director of Research, Michael D. Greaney. Our Sunday Visitor’s publications offer news,
commentary, and publications from a “Catholic perspective,” but in a way that
non-Catholics might find more useful and friendly than some other sources, and
certainly more accurate than what makes its way into the popular media. Parishes, schools, and parents involved in
home schooling might find OSV’s educational materials a valuable resource.
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| "He who does not produce, neither shall he consume." |
• Norm spoke at length with Dr. Michael New, a visiting
professor of economics at Ave Maria University.
Dr. New mentioned the difficulties involved in integrating the
principles of economics with those of Catholic social teaching. The Just Third Way, we believe, resolves this
difficulty by basing its economics on Say’s Law of Markets (which, from a
religious perspective, might be called “St. Paul’s Law of Markets”: “[I]f any
man will not work [i.e., produce],
neither let him eat [i.e., consume],”
2 Thess 3:10), and integrating the three principles of economic justice and the
four pillars of an economically just society.
• Norm had an interesting discussion with Father Simeon
Spitz, O.S.B., Vice President for Mission and Identity of St. Gregory’s
University, the only Catholic university in Oklahoma, founded in 1875 (as well as the only Catholic university in Oklahoma founded in 1875. . . if someone else comes along, all they have to do is cover up a comma). Father Spitz is concerned with the disconnect
between much of modern education, geared toward “getting a job,” and the
reality of the natural law based on what can be discerned from human nature by
reason and, of course, matters of faith that are also secured on a foundation
of reason. This is the sort of thing
that CESJ’s “Justice University” concept would deal with, developing
reason-based curriculum consistent with the faith-based tenets of the major
religions of the world.
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| St. Matthew, Jesus's CPA |
• Michael D. Greaney, a CPA, spoke with some parents and
high school students considering a career in accounting consistent with the
Just Third Way (the Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants had
a booth in exhibit hall, and were giving away pink piggy banks). Greaney noted that an accounting student
today has to make a special personal and individual effort to learn and
understand the fundamental principles of accounting underpinning the accounting
equation that are consistent with the natural law-based Say’s Law of Markets, or
the student will simply accept without question the sort of “glorified
bookkeeping” that passes for accounting in today’s job-centered economy. By the way, of the three "professional" careers represented by the Apostles and Evangelists, i.e., physician, attorney, and accountant, the first was an accountant, St. Matthew the Evangelist, Jesus's own CPA.
• As of this morning, we have had
visitors from 49 different countries and 50 states and provinces in the United
States and Canada 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 “Halloween Horror Special XIII: Mean
Green Mother from Outer Space,” “The Purpose of Production,” “Thomas Hobbes on
Private Property,” “World Meeting of Families, I: First Day Report,” and
“Aristotle on Private Property.”
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#