The Age of Revolution

Today’s blog posting is adapted from the book, Economic Personalism, which you can get free from the CESJ website, or from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

To oversimplify somewhat, three revolutions have led to the alienation of most people from the institutions of the common good by stripping them of power. The first two did this almost inadvertently by limiting access to social and technological tools, while the third did it by the nature of the change itself. These were,

JTW Podcast: Mortimer Adler on Happiness

Mortimer Adler on happiness, and why it might not be exactly what you think.  How do we live, and how do we live well?

News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 15

We seem to have more than the usual numbers of contradictions in the stories in the media, but still no one considers adopting the Economic Democracy Act to get away from the nonsense and establish a sound and sustainable economy:

The Political Animal

Today’s blog posting is adapted from the book, Economic Personalism, which you can get free from the CESJ website, or from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

As we noted in the previous posting on this subject, being true to oneself means conforming to one’s human nature.  By doing so, people become more fully human by acquiring and developing virtue (“human-ness”).  If done at all, this is the work of a lifetime and the hardest path to follow.

JTW Podcast: Mortimer Adler on the U.S. Constitution

We have a real treat in store for you today: Mortimer Adler on the U.S. Constitution, which many people do not realize is in very close conformity with Aristotelian-Thomist philosophy:

News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 14

As usual, there are many problems in the world we report on this week that would either be greatly alleviated or eliminated entirely with the adoption of the Economic Democracy Act:, but the big job is convincing the powers-that-be it is a good idea and to get moving on it:

Dorothy Jean Fry Previc, R.I.P.

Dawn K Brohawn, Guest Blogger

Recently CESJ was saddened to learn of the death on March 17, 2024 of our member and long-time supporter Dorothy Jean Fry Previc.  A resident of Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, Dorothy graduated from T.C. Williams High School, Alexandria, VA, attended Mary Washington University, Fredericksburg, VA and earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Elizabethtown College, Elizabethtown, PA.

JTW Podcast: Mortimer Adler on Goodness

Today we have Mortimer Adler’s lecture on “Goodness” . . . which might not be as straightforward as it sounds . . . no, it's not an April Fool's joke:

News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 13

As usual, there are many problems in the world we report on this week that would either be greatly alleviated or eliminated entirely with the adoption of the Economic Democracy Act:, but the big job is convincing the powers-that-be it is a good idea and to get moving on it:

The Reasonable Alternative

 

Today’s blog posting is adapted from the book, Economic Personalism, which you can get free from the CESJ website, or from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

JTW Podcast: Mortimer Adler on How to Speak, How to Listen

Today we have Mortimer Adler’s lecture on “How to Speak, How to Listen,” taken from his book of the same title:

News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 12

The only thing significantly different from previous news notes is the fact that they seem to be getting weirder . . . and staying the same all the time.  Cutting to the chase, the only thing that’s going to make the situation better is to adopt the Economic Democracy Act:

Faith and Reason

Today’s blog posting is adapted from the book, Economic Personalism, which you can get free from the CESJ website, or from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

Man, as Aristotle noted in the Politics, is the rational animal. Anything that shifts the human person away from reason as the foundation of a faith or a philosophy contradicts essential human nature, that is, what it means to be human.

JTW Podcast: Mortimer Adler on the Great Ideas

Here is one of Mortimer Adler’s appearances on William F. Buckley’s Firing Line about the need for genuine education:

News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 11

It is depressing to see how strong a hold discredited economic theories have on today’s global and national economies.  All of the news items this week wouldn’t even be on the radar if the so-called experts had sound principles and a workable paradigm, as found in the Economic Democracy Act:

JTW Podcast: Mortimer Adler Gets Attacked

Frankly, we didn’t know anything about this . . . and neither do a lot of other people:

News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 10

Yes, it’s depressingly the same news items (or very nearly) week after week, but it’s what is going to continue happening until we adopt the Economic Democracy Act:

Solidarity and Personalism

Today’s blog posting is adapted from the book, Economic Personalism, which you can get free from the CESJ website, or from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

Confronted today by growing conflict and inequality between people and nations around the globe, no one can ignore any longer the universal question that will shape the future for generations to come: What is the place of the human person — each of us — in society?

JTW Podcast: The Perennial Philosophy

Given that this week marks the 750^th anniversary of the death of Thomas Aquinas, we thought we’d give you a little talk about Aquinas talking about how faith and reason go together:

News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 09

At the top of the news this week, at least from the perspective of the Just Third Way, is Norman G. Kurland being honored as an Ambassador of Peace by the Universal Peace Federation:

The Just Third Way

Today’s blog posting is adapted from the book, Economic Personalism, which you can get free from the CESJ website, or from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

The fortieth anniversary of the interfaith Center for Economic and Social Justice is coming up.  We’ll tell a little bit more about that as the anniversary itself, April 7, approaches, but today we’re looking at a major program developed by CESJ: the Just Third Way of Economic Personalism.

JTW Podcast: March on Washington, August 28, 1963

The National Archives film on the March . . . they left out private property in capital, though:

News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 08

This week’s news items are again a brief chronicle of dumb government tricks seemingly validated by failed Keynesian economics.  Again, as usual, we believe most if not all of these issues could be solved by adopting the Economic Democracy Act.

Five Levers of Change: Technology

Today’s blog posting is adapted from the book, Economic Personalism, which you can get free from the CESJ website, or from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

For centuries workers have understood that when technology advances it usually means they will lose their jobs to machines that can do the work better and cheaper. Sometimes advancing technology creates more new jobs than it displaces, although this is not always a benefit. The cotton gin created an enormous demand for labor that was filled by expanding the number of human beings owned as slaves. The Industrial Revolution largely eliminated most production by small and family-owned enterprises and turned millions of people into “employees” dependent on private employers and the State.