The weirdness continues throughout the world as our so-called leaders refuse even to consider adopting that the Economic Democracy Act. In other news:
Jean B. Fry
• Jean B. Fry, R.I.P. We at CESJ were saddened to learn this week of the death of Mrs. Jean B. Fry, CESJ’s longest-serving non-board member volunteer, after a long illness. Jean began as a parttime paid clerk trying to sort through the massive piles of records chronicling the development of the Just Third Way but became so interested by reading the files that she took one of the proto-Justice University courses CESJ offered in the late 1980s. Her dedication and occasional commentary from the ordinary person’s point of view was always welcome and helped the Core Group gain new perspectives on the Just Third Way. She was one of CESJ’s “Soldiers of Justice.” Her support and encouragement continued after her “official” retirement. She will be sorely missed. She will be buried in her hometown of Lynchburg, Virginia, beside her husband Joseph, a veteran of World War II and the Korean War.
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| Jean and her red hat at CESJ's annual celebration |
• Saving Social Security (Again). Concern over the financial future of the Social Security System, the “third rail” of American politics (you don’t touch the “third rail” of an electric train as that is the one that carries the power and will kill you instantly) has caused Republicans to attempt another proposed solution that everyone knows either won’t work or be allowed to work. No one seems able to get it thought their heads that the so-called “trust fund” is filled with government debt that the government owes itself, and the only way to keep the system as a system afloat is to do one of two things that they can’t do politically or financially: either put more money in, or take less out. The idea of returning the Social Security System to its original purpose of being a backup instead of the primary source of retirement income is the only solution, and one that is at the heart of the strategy for adopting the Economic Democracy Act. . . . but nobody seems to be considering it for some reason.
• Unite States Hits Record Debt. With the national debt hitting in the neighborhood of $31 trillion and change, people are starting to panic. Unfortunately, the one thing they aren’t considering is actually getting busy and reorganizing the economic and financial system to be able to repay the debt and get back to normal life, if that even has any meaning these days. By adopting the Economic Democracy Act, it would be possible to repay the entire debt in less than a century with little or no financial pain (remember, it took 150 years to get us into this mess), so why isn’t anyone considering it?
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| Confusing them gets you into trouble |
• Raising Costs to Increase Employment. In yet another genius move, the Federal Reserve claims it is going to keep raising interest rates in order to increase employment. This is cockeyed even for a Keynesian. The (disproved) Keynesian theory is that if you want to increase employment, you print money and induce “demand-pull” inflation . . . and then weenie out of the resultant price level rise by claiming that the inflation isn’t real inflation until you reach full employment. By raising interest rates, the Federal Reserve is inducing “cost-push” inflation . . . which increases the cost of doing business, forcing employers not to hire new workers, but to lay off existing ones to cut costs to maintain profit margins (if any). In effect, what the Federal Reserve is doing is confusing cause and effect, and then confusing the two types of inflation. Inflation of the “demand-pull” variety does not cause full employment, even in the screwed-up Keynesian universe; it is, rather, a side effect . . . at least, according to Keynes. By assuming you can increase employment by inducing the wrong kind of inflation is so wrong-headed as to verge on knavish imbecility, to borrow Hilaire Belloc’s phrase. What they should be doing is adopting the Economic Democracy Act., but the obvious answer will never occur to anyone who keeps insisting that a side effect of stupidity will result in the desired end.
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| They're out for revenge |
• Sheep for Men. In Utopia, Thomas More made the comment that, so great was the demand for wool in Tudor England that people were forced off the land they had inhabited for centuries to starve to make way for sheep, England was the only country in the world where sheep ate men. To assuage the pain of taking men away from isolated rural districts to serve in his “Special Military Operation” in Ukraine, Russian dictator Putin is giving families sheep and dried fish to keep them quiet. Men may be back to eating sheep, but they’re getting “eaten” themselves by Putin’s voracious demand for blood. It’s noticed that conscripts don’t come from Moscow or other urban districts, as they would Putin in more danger if they got angry at the sacrifice of thyeir sons, husbands, and fathers to glorify Putin’s ego. If Putin really wanted to compensate people, he could adopt the Economic Democracy Act. . . . but that would give ordinary people power, which is what Putin fears with a psychotic dread.
• Greater Reset “Book Trailers”. We have produced two ninety-second “Book Trailers” for distribution (by whoever wants to distribute them), essentially a minute and a half commercials for The Greater Reset. There are two versions of the videos, one for “general audiences” and the other for “Catholic audiences”. Take your pick.
• The Greater Reset. CESJ’s new book by members of CESJ’s core group, The Greater Reset: Reclaiming Personal Sovereignty Under Natural Law is, of course, available from the publisher, TAN Books, an imprint of Saint Benedict Press, and has already gotten a top review on that website. It can also be obtained from Barnes and Noble, as well as Amazon, or by special order from your local “bricks and mortar” bookstore. The Greater Reset is the only book of which we’re aware on “the Great Reset” that presents an alternative instead of simply warning of the dangers inherent in a proposal that is contrary to natural law. It describes reality, rather than a Keynesian fantasy world. Please note that The Greater Reset is NOT a CESJ publication as such, and enquiries about quantity discounts and wholesale orders for resale must be sent to the publisher, Saint Benedict Press, NOT to CESJ.
• Help Joe Walk Again for Economic Justice. Just a reminder, if you haven’t already done so, to visit the GoFundMe campaign and consider making a contribution and spreading word out among your social media networks. It’s off to a good start, but it’s still just a start.
• Hortense and Her Whos. In case you’ve been wondering how you might advance the Just Third Way by introducing it to legislators at any and all levels of government, we’ve made it easy for you, with the “Hortense Hears Three Whos“ initiative. Visit the explanatory website, and consider downloading the postcard to send to people in government. Don’t worry if you think they won’t be open to it, as the postcard is intended to get them to open their eyes.
• Economic Personalism Landing Page. 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.
• 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 series of videos for Sensus Fidelium are doing very well, with over 155,000 total views. The latest Sensus Fidelium video is “The Five Levers of Change.” The video is part of the series on the book, Economic Personalism. The latest completed series on “the Great Reset” can be found on the “Playlist” for the series. The previous series of sixteen videos on socialism is 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, edging up to 150,000 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 persons 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 24 different countries and 35 states, provinces, and territories in the United States and Canada to this blog over the past week. Most visitors are from the United States, Kenya, Canada, India, and the United Kingdom. The most popular postings this past week in descending order were “The Purpose of Production,” “Social Justice, IV: The Characteristics of Social Justice,” “America’s Prince of Lunacy,” “News from the Network, Vol. 15, No., 37,” and “Did C.S. Lewis Approve of Socialism?”
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 well see that it gets into the next “issue.” Due to imprudent and intemperate language on the part of some commentators, we removed temptation and disabled comments.
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