News from the Network, Vol. 13, No. 09

All eyes today are on the stock markets of the world instead of the productive, primary markets.  We’ll give in to popular pressure and explain why this is a bad idea, but that’s as far as we’ll go:

Personality, Property, and Participation

As we saw in the previous posting on this subject (subject being the Core Values of the interfaith Center for Economic and Social Justice, CESJ), persons need rights in order to exercise their sovereignty and to pursue truth, beauty, love, and justice, not necessarily in that order.

Achieving Sovereignty

In the previous posting on this subject — the Core Values of the interfaith Center for Economic and Social Justice (CESJ) we looked at the issue of sovereignty . . . and had to present a great deal of information on what we mean by the term as applied in “liberal democracy,” or “government of the people, by the people, and for the people.”  We discovered that many people had so many different meanings for “people” and even “government” that “liberal democracy” effectively had no meaning at all!

A Question of Sovereignty

Although it seems to be upsetting to adherents of various new theories (“new” being very relative in this case, referring to non-Aristotelian ways of thinking), our series explaining the Core Values of the interfaith Center for Economic and Social Justice (CESJ) has proved to be rather popular.  Evidently a significant number of people are pleasantly surprised when the realize there is an ethical alternative to both capitalism and socialism that doesn’t require you to check your brains at the door.

Fulton Sheen on "The New Christianity"

Surprisingly (or not surprisingly), an astonishing number of people have commented favorably on our recent series explaining the Core Values of the interfaith Center for Economic and Social Justice (CESJ).  The posting on "stewardship" was particularly popular, even among a number of people who have previously described themselves as "socialists."  They seemed genuinely unaware that the Just Third Way of Economic Personalism presents a viable alternative to both socialism and capitalism.

News from the Network, Vol. 13, No. 08

Modern politics is a wonder . . . you wonder why no one running for office has picked up on the obvious advantages of adopting the Just Third Way of economic personalism as a main plank of a platform.  That being said:

Stewardship

Continuing our presentation and discussion of the Core Values of the interfaith Center for Economic and Social Justice, as we saw in the previous posting on this subject there is a difference between work performed to keep body and soul together, and the work of becoming more fully human, i.e., the work of promoting or working for one’s own perfection or completeness as a human being by conforming more closely to human nature.

The Highest Form of Work

Continuing our blog series examining the Core Values of the interfaith Center for Economic and Social Justice (CESJ), we follow up on yesterday’s posting on our little explication of “Nothing should stand between God and the human person,” with a dissertation on the meaning of work.  As it says in the CESJ Core Values,

God and the Human Person

Continuing our discussion from the previous posting on this subject, a while back — quite a long while, actually — we had a conversation at an organizing meeting of a local writers group with a Catholic attorney who wanted to be a writer.  We didn’t know what sort of writing the fellow wanted to do; from the fact that he didn’t mention any publication record but kept asking about this writer’s credentials we strongly suspect that he thought of writing as a “one day” project, as in “One day I’m going to write something.”

The Green Economy

On today's pod/video cast, we have Martin Smith, who explains why "going green" doesn't have to mean "going without" or "going poor."  It does mean "getting smart" about the choices we and others make:

News from the Network, Vol. 13, No. 07

At the top of the news this week is the Corona virus, but we don’t know better than anyone else what has happened, what could happen, or what will happen, so we’ll stick with other stories until we do know:

“An Ultimate Source”

In the previous posting on this subject — the reason for having “core values” in the first place — we looked at the link between solidarity and core values.  After all, if solidarity means accepting the principles that define a group as that group and no other, it makes sense that the principles be clearly defined or you won’t know who belongs to that group.

Why Have Core Values?

As a follow-up to the previous posting on this subject, we decided to look at the issue of why organizations such as CESJ — or any organization, for that matter — even have core values in the first place.  Obviously, the best place to start looking for an answer is CESJ itself.  Why does CESJ have core values?  Because —

Religion and All That

A while back (four years to be vaguely exact . . . to employ a precise estimate) we posted the Core Values of the interfaith Center for Economic and Social Justice (CESJ).  We gave them straight, without embellishment or explanation, as we thought they are pretty much self-explanatory.  The other day, however, we got an email from someone we had referred to the CESJ website.  As he said,

Just Third Way Videocast: Third Party 2020?

We continue our series of "video podcasts" covering subjects of interest to the Just Third Way (if not always from a Just Third Way perspective) with a look at the election of 1912, the last time a "third party candidate" gave the two major parties a serious run for the money.  The "Bull Moose" (Progressive Party . . . which used to mean something good) candidate Theodore "Don't Call Me Teddy" Roosevelt very nearly won over the Democratic candidate Woodrow "In the Pocket of Wall Street" Wilson.

News from the Network, Vol. 13, No. 06

A number of recent events underscore the importance of implementing Just Third Way reforms as soon as possible in order to head off what could be some disastrous events and to resolve a number of existing situations that appear to be without viable solutions.  Still, there are a number of initiatives working to move forward that give a little hope that what seem to be insurmountable problems can be dealt with in an effective and just manner:

The Facts of Life

As we’ve noted once or twice on this blog, we like to get questions from our readers.  This makes it easy to write the next blog posting.  The only thing we like better is being able to, er, “borrow” somebody else’s answer to a question on some aspect or point of the Just Third Way.

Is Keynesian Economics Socialist?

The other day while doing some research into the origins of the “new things” of socialism (which is not all that social), modernism (which is not all that modern), and the New Age (which is not all that new), we came across an article from 1993, “Liberalism and Socialism: The Same Thing?” (Paul E. Corcoran, University of Adelaide, Australian Political Studies Association Annual Conference, Monash University, September 29-October 1, 1993)

Paying for Justice

Obviously, if you have to pay for justice, it isn’t justice.  That’s not what we mean.  We’re referring to the fact that meeting the demands of justice can — and does — often incur a cost in terms of time, resources, and money.  This is not “buying justice,” any more than paying a judge a salary or jury members for their time is purchasing a verdict (although, obviously, the system can be subverted and corrupted).

The Frontier Thesis

Today's pod/video-cast takes a look at Frederick Jackson Turner's 1893 "Frontier Thesis."  Frankly, it was difficult to find a video that just reported Turner's thesis and gave the facts . . . and this one is no exception.  As far as the Just Third Way of Economic Personalism is concerned, Turner's key point is that the end of "free" land under the Homestead Act of 1862 meant the eventual end of American-style democracy . . . a conclusion with which we have qualified agreement.