News from the Network, Vol. 11, No. 39

This past week was marked by good meetings and good contacts, and it looks as if next week will be just as productive.  In addition, a number of publications are moving forward, and a publisher has expressed interest in a new book on Capital Homesteading!  Take, and read:

Liberalism Strikes Back

To a greater degree than many people realize, some extremely serious conflicts throughout history have resulted from an error that most people not only fail to recognize as an error, they do not see any difference between the error and what is correct.  Seemingly so esoteric that it appears to have absolutely no relation to anything in real life, it is the question whether the natural law is based on what can be observed about human nature or is based on someone’s interpretation of something accepted as God’s Will . . . or whatever is put in God’s place.

CESJ Looks at Money, Part I

Recently members of the CESJ “core group” got into a discussion with a couple of monetary theorists who confused what CESJ says about Just Third Way monetary reforms and the proposals of, e.g., the American MonetaryInstitute.  The monetary theorists requested a detailed analysis of exactly where what CESJ advocates from the AMI’s proposal.

The Newmanites

As we saw in the previous posting on this subject, John Henry Newman rapidly became the prime mover in the Oxford Movement.  Between the friends and enemies of Newman, however, it is difficult to decide which has made understanding him more difficult.  Enemies tend to portray him as the arch-traitor to the Church of England.  He is a veritable Ahriman who led so many down the primrose path along the road to apostasy and out of the nurturing cradle of the Anglican Communion into the arms of the Whore of Babylon.

Just Third Way Podcast No. 35

This week your host Dave Hamill talks with Peter Hayes in Louisville, Kentucky about spreading word of the Just Third Way:

News from the Network, Vol. 11, No. 38

The stock market and Congress are both getting extremely surreal, so we’ll leave commentary on both to the usual experts who don’t let their lack of knowledge, consistency, or veracity interfere with their opinions.  Instead, what we’ll do is look at the latest happenings in the Just Third Way:

Initial Success

As we saw in the previous posting on this subject, there was a very natural desire on the part of the members of the Oxford Movement to come to grips with the serious danger threatening the Church of England.  This, combined with some difficulties in completing any plan of association, prevented the formation of an organization to provide a base from which to carry out a coordinated campaign.

(Another) Global Debt Crisis

Back in the early nineteenth century following the Napoleonic Wars and the dissolution of much of the Spanish Empire, the new republics of Central and South America found they had a problem: no tax base, and thus no way to meet government expenditures.  This was doubly a problem, because in order to demonstrate their legitimacy, the new governments had to assume all the obligations of the old government as well as meet their own current needs.

Oxford Movement, Guerilla War Phase

As we saw in the previous posting on this subject, the organizing members of the Oxford Movement were in general — though not specific or particular — agreement on fundamental principles of Christianity that they believed must be embodied in and taught by the Church of England.  They were also in agreement on their opinion that the Church of England was in deadly peril.  What they lacked, and what was to show up as the Movement progressed, was an appreciation of the importance of the phases of a movement, and the need to “secure” and continue each phase before going on to the next one.

Just Third Way Podcast No. 34

In this week’s Just Third Way podcast, Dave Hamill hosts a panel discussion with Dr. Norman Kurland, president of the interfaith Center for Economic and Social Justice (CESJ), Dawn K. Brohawn, CESJ’s Director of Communication, and Michael D. Greaney, CESJ’s Director of Research on the first two of CESJ’s “Core Values”:

News from the Network, Vol. 11, No. 37

As the world attempts to move into Fall in the Northern Hemisphere and into Spring in the Southern Hemisphere, other things are staying pretty much the same.  That is, the powers-that-be can’t figure out that if you want economic recovery, a sound currency, and a just and sustainable economy, you’d better be able to make everybody productive, and that means expanded capital ownership:

Social Justice in Action

In the previous posting on this subject, we contended that the Oxford Movement was an exemplar of social justice a century before the term had the precise meaning Pope Pius XI assigned it in his social doctrine.  Prior to the late 1840s, in fact, “social justice” had a variety of meanings almost completely unrelated to any concept of social virtue.  That would come only with the work of Monsignor Luigi Aloysius Taparelli d’Azeglio, S.J. (1793-1862), and would rapidly be hijacked by the socialists.

Time to Pay Attention to Puerto Rico

Everybody knows about Puerto Rico, right?  It’s that place, that, you know, is “down there” somewhere, where a bunch of people live, who are, like, Americans, sort of, except they’re kinda like, you know, not really.  Is this going to be on the test?

A Brief Outline of Social Justice

As we saw in the previous posting on this subject, two great perils faced the Church of England in the early nineteenth century, capitalism and its near-twin, socialism.  Not that the prime movers in the Oxford Movement saw it that way, of course.  It would never have occurred to any of them, then or later, to give that much importance to the things of this world . . . which made the problem even worse — there is, after all, no problem so bad that it cannot get worse by ignoring it.

Just Third Way Podcast No. 33

In today’s Just Third Way podcast, your host Dave Hamill gives us a little “blast from the (recent) past, with an interview of Dr. Norman Kurland, president of the interfaith Center for Economic and Social Justice (CESJ):

News from the Network, Vol. 11, No. 36

It may sound like the “same old same old,” but it’s really . . . okay, it’s the same old same old.  The difference is that every day we seem to be reaching a larger number of people about the Just Third Way and Capital Homesteading, and a number of people are still coming up with the same old excuses that they have for decades, evidently not realizing that they’ve worn a little thin over time.  Be that as it may, here are a few highpoints on what’s been happening in the movement:

The English Constitution

In the previous posting on this subject, we looked at the background against which the Oxford Movement took place, viz., the culture of elitism that found expression in English type liberalism.  This led naturally to an overemphasis on capitalism to counter socialism.  Since both capitalism and socialism are in many respects fundamentally the same in theory as well as in practice, socialism was as ineffective in overcoming capitalism as capitalism was in countering socialism.

The Crisis of Democracy?

Last week in the Wall Street Journal Walter Russell Mead gave his opinion that the “Crisis of Democracy” in the modern world is a bit exaggerated (“The “Crisis of Democracy” Is Overhyped,” WSJ, 08/28/18, A-13).  According to Mead, the democracies are, if not precisely doing-just-fine-thank-you, at least doing better than the non-democracies.

A Primer on English Liberalism

As we saw in the previous posting on this subject, the Aristotelian and Platonic views of reality led to different theories of politics — and this had a significant effect not merely on the direction of the Oxford Movement, but on the fact of the movement itself.

Just Third Way Podcast No. 32

In today’s Just Third Way podcast, your host Dave Hamill talks with Leonard Walker of the Descendants of American Slaves.  There seems to be a lot of congruity between the Just Third Way and DAS, which only makes sense, as justice for any will be compatible with justice for all.