Apart from what’s been going on in the U.S. capital, this has been quite a newsworthy week for the Just Third Way, especially in the area of outreach:
• Justice University. The past week saw a number of Zoom meetings and teleconferences about organizing the next round of Justice University sessions. The goal of this session — for which (fortunately? unfortunately?) all slots are already filled — is to “teach the teachers,” that is, give a sufficient grounding in the Just Third Way to be able to introduce others to it. It is not, of course, to teach the whole of the Just Third Way, whether or not while standing on one leg, but to train people to be able to present a brief introduction. It’s sort of a prerequisite for “Just Third Way 101.” No one will be an expert after taking the course (we’re still learning ourselves, a process that never stops), but he or she will know enough to know what he or she is talking about and (sometimes more important) when he or she doesn’t know, and needs to refer to the website, books, and other resources.
• President Biden and Economic Democracy. President Biden, now in his third full day as president, has expressed a desire to unify the country. We’re all for that, and would like to meet with him (yes, we and about 100 million other people standing in line for the same thing) to discuss how, in our opinion, it might be done. Since that may take a few weeks, however, we’ll state for the record that — in our opinion — Biden needs to do two things immediately. One, get the Economic Democracy Act passed. Regular readers of this blog already know the case for doing so, but if they want a refresher or for those unfamiliar with the concept, here’s the link to a brief description.
• Connection with State Senator. Gene Gordon has arranged for a meeting between a CESJ group and a Missouri state senator. After hearing the senator speak on her radio show, Gene got in touch and was able to tell her enough about the Just Third Way that she set aside three hours today for a meeting. Gene’s initiative demonstrates that even if we can’t get to world leaders immediately, we shouldn’t ignore local leaders who may be more in touch with the actual needs of their constituents than those trying to deal at the national or global level, and who sometimes give in to the temptation to forget ordinary people in favor of the Big Picture.
• Heart of America. Another one of Gene’s initiatives is the “Heart of America Project.” The goal of Heart of America is how we can promote the Economic Democracy Act and a working model in St. Louis, Missouri, the (obviously) Heart of America. Gene has been sending out packages on the Just Third Way and getting a 10% response rate.
"Who, did you say?"
• The Three Little Whos. Actually, three gigantic Whos, but who’s getting picky? Rowland Brohawn has the idea of sending out postcards to politicians with a well-known (or at least recognizable) cartoon character explaining that getting America (and the world) back on track involves answering three questions: 1) who will own it, 2) who will control it, and 3) who will pay for it? “It” of course, refers to the new capital so essential to economic growth that most people either don’t think about at all, or sees as taking away their jobs. As Louis Kelso pointed out a few decades ago, however, if you own the capital that took away your job, you’re better off than you were with a job, for then you can do the work you like, even without pay, instead of doing the work you may dislike or even hate, just to get income.
• Global Harmony Association. The Global Harmony Association has published a book that includes a chapter by Norman G. Kurland, president of CESJ. The book will go out to every member of the UN and other key people.
• Economic Personalism Landing Page Launched. A landing page for CESJ’s latest publication, Economic Personalism: Property, Power and Justice for Every Person, has been created and can be accessed by clicking on this link. Everyone is encouraged to visit the page and send the link out to their networks.
• Father Edward Krause Initiative. Father Edward Krause, C.S.C., Ph.D., who has had two EWTN series, has requested a number of copies of Economic Personalism to distribute to key people among his contacts. As the books will be coming from him (with a Notre Dame return address), they are more likely to be given serious consideration than if we sent them ourselves. His adding a hand-written note explaining why he thinks the book is so important also enhances its credibility. Keep in mind that the free download is available to anyone who can’t afford the book, prefers e-books, or for any other reason. While we don’t object to anyone printing the e-book out for his or her own use, keep in mind that the trade paperback is priced low enough that printing it out yourself actually costs more than just buying the book, and is far more convenient to use.
• Economic Personalism. When you purchase a copy of Economic Personalism: Property, Power and Justice for Every Person, be sure you post a review after you’ve read it. It is available on both Amazon and Barnes and Noble at the cover price of $10 per copy. You can also download the free copy in .pdf available from the CESJ website. If you’d like to order in bulk (i.e., ten or more copies) at the wholesale price, send an email to publications@cesj.org for details. CESJ members get a $2 rebate per copy on submission of proof of purchase. Wholesale case lots of 52 copies are available at $350, plus shipping (whole case lots ONLY). Prices are in U.S. dollars.
• Sensus Fidelium Videos, Update. CESJ’s new series of videos for Sensus Fidelium contrasting economic personalism and the Great Reset is off to a good start, although we missed this past week due to unforeseen circumstances. We’ve been on a short hiatus, so the latest one is still “A Meeting With Pope Francis,” which can be found on the “Playlist” for the series. The previous series of sixteen videos on socialism is also available by clicking on the link: “Socialism, Modernism, and the New Age,” along with some book reviews and other selected topics. For “interfaith” presentations to a Catholic audience they’ve proved to be popular, with nearly 99,000 views to date. They aren’t really “Just Third Way videos,” but they do incorporate a Just Third Way perspective. You can access the playlist for the entire series The point of the videos is to explain how socialism and socialist assumptions got such a stranglehold on the understanding of the role of the State and thus the interpretation of Catholic social teaching, and even the way non-Catholics and even non-Christians understand the roles of Church, State, and Family, and the human person’s place in society.
• Shop online and support CESJ’s work! Did you know that by making your purchases through the Amazon Smile program, Amazon will make a contribution to CESJ? Here’s how: First, go to https://smile.amazon.com/. Next, sign in to your Amazon account. (If you don’t have an account with Amazon, you can create one by clicking on the tiny little link below the “Sign in using our secure server” button.) Once you have signed into your account, you need to select CESJ as your charity — and you have to be careful to do it exactly this way: in the space provided for “Or select your own charitable organization” type “Center for Economic and Social Justice Arlington.” If you type anything else, you will either get no results or more than you want to sift through. Once you’ve typed (or copied and pasted) “Center for Economic and Social Justice Arlington” into the space provided, hit “Select” — and you will be taken to the Amazon shopping site, all ready to go.
• Blog Readership. We have had visitors from 41 different countries and 48 states and provinces in the United States and Canada to this blog over the past week. Most visitors are from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Argentina and Kenya. The most popular postings this past week in descending order were “The Disappointing Dr. Joseph Pearce,” “JTW Podcast: Economic Personalism v. The Great Reset,” “Two Different Types of Savings,” “News from the Network, Vol. 14, No. 02” and “Testing the Keynesian Hypothesis.”
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.” Due to imprudent language on the part of some commentators, we removed temptation and disabled comments.
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