How to Make America Great Again

According to historian Frederick Jackson Turner, the loss of America’s land frontier meant a complete change in the American character as well as the gradual Europeanizing of the United States.  As Turner saw it, the end of “free” land meant the end of democracy as well as the unique American character that made the country great and, as Abraham Lincoln put it, the last, best hope of earth.

The Last Great Hope

Yesterday we took a look at what made England Great & Glorious, Long to Reign O’er us . . . at least until she screwed up the financing of the greatest commercial expansion the world had ever seen up to then, “then” being the period prior to the British Bank Charter Act of 1844.  We discovered that after the government took over the banking system (you don’t have to have actual title to something to own it, you just have to control it, as the agrarian socialist Henry George realized in promoting his theories), the British Empire began its long and slow decline.

You Can Bank on It

Last week we got into a little discussion about Merrie Old England.  One individual started gushing about how so many inventions ’n stuff had come out of England, and wondered why this was so.  Of course, this particular individual was into Art & Literature, so wasn’t too clear on just which inventions she was talking about, but we got the general drift.

News from the Network, Vol. 9, No. 45

It’s been a few weeks since the election, and a great many people still don’t know what to make of President-elect Trump.  We can’t say that we do, either, but we know one thing: whoever is in the White House, if he or she doesn’t have the Just Third Way and Capital Homesteading, the only thing the American people will have is more of the same, only more so.  To keep that from happening, here are this week’s happenings:

Something For Which to Be Thankful

Seriously?  You’re reading this blog on Thanksgiving Day?  You haven’t got anything better to do?  Well, be that as it may, we thought we’d just give you a little something for which you can be thankful . . . besides the election being over, that is.

How to Invent a New Religion: Re-Edit the Dictionary

Yesterday we looked in general at how to start your own religion for fun and profit.  The issue today is how to make certain you do it successfully, or at least until people start thinking for themselves and realize what’s going on.  Since people without property tend to think the way those in power tell them to think, that’s usually not a problem once you’ve abolished property.

How to Invent a New Religion: Abolish Private Property

There is a passage in G.K. Chesterton’s little book on St. Francis of Assisi — titled, appropriately enough, St. Francis of Assisi (1923) — that seems to baffle many people.  It is the one where “G.K.” related how St. Francis was such a one-man earthquake or revolution that, had he been so inclined, he could have founded a new religion.  Ironically, that is precisely what some of the followers of “Il Poverello” (“the Little Poor Man”) evidently thought he was doing, although they still called it “Christianity.”  As Chesterton made his case,

And This Is Important . . . Why?

This past Tuesday, November 15, 2016, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops elected His Eminence Daniel Cardinal DiNardo, Archbishop of Galveston-Houston, Texas, as their new president for a three-year term.  Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles, California, was elected vice president.

News from the Network, Vol. 9, No. 44

Although there has been no sign of actual increases in the production of marketable goods and services in a way that allowed the full participation of everyone as both producers and consumers, the stock market took a big jump right after the election.  The real problem remains, however: how do we restructure the system to give as many people as possible to the opportunity and means to become capital owners?  All we can say right now is that we’re working on getting through to people who might help carry the message:

The Feast of Christ the King?!?!?!?(!)

What the heck?  Why is there a posting on the Just Third Way blog about an obscure Catholic religious feast?  And by “feast” we mean a religious festival, not the kind with roast turkeys, roast beef, roast pork, roast lamb, roast . . . what were we talking about, anyway?

Solidarism and the Just Third Way, IV: Expanded Capital Ownership

Today we look at the fourth pillar of a just market economy, expanded capital ownership.  Father Pesch did not specifically list widespread ownership as a pillar in his system of solidarity, but — as we will demonstrate — it is necessarily implied in his third pillar, “private property.”

Solidarism and the Just Third Way, III: Restoration of Private Property

Yesterday we looked at the role of free and open markets in solidarism and the Just Third Way.  We found that Father Pesch and CESJ are in substantial agreement that the free market and fair competition are fully compatible with the demand for justice and morality in daily life.

Solidarism and the Just Third Way, III: Free and Open Markets

Last Thursday we looked at the role of the State in solidarism as understood by the “redeemer” of solidarism, Father Heinrich Pesch, S.J.  We discovered that a limited economic role for the social tool of the State is a pillar of both solidarism and the Just Third Way.  Yes, we think Father Pesch could have been a little more explicit, but by and large CESJ and Father Pesch come to the same conclusion: the economic role of the State should be limited as much as possible.

News from the Network, Vol. 9, No. 43

As the United States works to deal with the widespread trauma caused by the election of Donald Trump, we in the Global Justice Movement have a much better way to spend out time and efforts: working to restructure the social order so it doesn’t matter how bad elected officials may be, the people are in charge and are giving the orders again . . . something that can happen only with widespread capital ownership:

Solidarism and the Just Third Way, II: Limited Economic Role for the State

Especially these days, people seem confused about the proper role of the State.  Many, if not most people haven’t bothered to find out what the State is supposed to be doing or even what the State really is — a social tool, not the “Mortall God” of totalitarian philosopher Thomas Hobbes.  That is why we usually list the pillar having to do with the social tool of the State before the others — as did Father Heinrich Pesch.

Solidarism and the Just Third Way, I: Three or Four Pillars?

Today we start to look at how well solidarism as understood by Father Heinrich Pesch, S.J. (not Émile Durkheim) and CESJ’s Just Third Way fit together.  Both claim to be based on an Aristotelian-Thomist interpretation of Catholic social teaching — and thus of the natural law — and therefore should come to the same conclusion(s), even if by (slightly) different routes.

Esoteric Posting for Election Day

Just to take a break from our short series on solidarism (and because nobody is going to be reading blogs today, anyway), we’re posting our response to a question we got last week on a rather “esoteric” subject: the basis of the natural law.

Solidarism and the Common Good

Today we start to look at how to restore solidarism to comply more closely with the vision of Father Heinrich Pesch, S.J., whom we have decided is not the founder of solidarism, but its redeemer, so to speak.  To do this we have to understand the whole point of solidarism, at least from the natural law, “Christian” (or Catholic) perspective: to enhance the dignity of the human person under God.

News from the Network, Vol. 9, No. 42

As the situation continues to deteriorate nationally and internationally, and the long slide to moral relativism and nihilism (to say nothing of capitalism and socialism and ismism) continues, the number of surreal incidents and just plain nuttiness accelerates to what, without the act of social justice and the principles of economic justice, would be the point of no return.  Just keep the Just Third Way in mind as you read this issue of New from the Network if you want to retain your sanity:

Faux Solidarism and the Totalitarian State

In yesterday’s posting we gave a brief overview of solidarism, especially as it relates to individual and social virtue.  We closed by noting, however, that what passes for solidarism in many cases these days can hardly be called virtuous.  It violates natural law, particularly the natural rights of freedom of association (liberty/contract) and private property, turning the tool of the State into the master.  This is a phenomenon Archbishop Fulton Sheen noted in his first two books, God and Intelligence in Modern Philosophy (1925), and Religion Without God (1928).

Introduction to Solidarism

Solidarism is defined in sociology as a theory that the possibility of founding a social organization upon a solidarity of interests is to be found in the natural interdependence of members of a society.  Solidarity, a characteristic of groups per se, is defined as unity — as of a group or class — that produces or is based on community of interests, objectives, and standards.

After the Election

While most people are concerned with the upcoming election, we should probably spare a thought or two about what to do afterwards.  After all, whether Clinump or Trumton wins, We, the People, are going to get what is euphemistically termed the “short” end of the stick.  Or maybe the whole stick, a.k.a., “the shaft.”