Chesterton and Shaw: The Lost Debate

Sometime during the evening of a long day late in the summer of 1923, George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), renowned wit and agent provocateur for Fabian socialism, had almost finished entertaining himself and other members of a party assembled at a house in Chelsea.  Having been there for about an hour, Shaw was preparing to take his leave when the arrival of Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) was announced.

Aquinas on Private Property

In the previous posting on this subject — private property in general, and under what circumstances (if any) private property ceases to exist — we examined the arguments Msgr. John A. Ryan of the Catholic University of America used to justify substituting the definitions of social justice and distributive justice used by the socialists and modernists of the 1830s and 1840s for those of the Catholic Church derived from Aristotelian-Thomist philosophy.

More Waugh on Vatican II

No, that’s not a cute way of saying we’re waling on the Second Vatican Council, which would be inappropriate for an interfaith group in any event.  It’s a way of continuing our piece on Evelyn Waugh and his take on the Council, which is somewhat different from what may have been recorded.

Just Third Way (Re)Podcast, No. 48

This week we have a special treat in store on the Just Third Way podcast: the first part of an interview with renowned binary economist and author Dr. Robert H.A. Ashford.  Dr. Ashford teaches law and binary economics at the University of Syracuse law school, and is the co-author of Binary Economics: The New Paradigm (Lanham, Maryland: The University Press of America, 1999):

News from the Network, Vol. 12, No. 19

Although we do know from the number of people viewing the blog and other indicators that word of the Just Third Way is getting around, it seems as though it ought to be faster.  Nevertheless, each day a little progress is being made, but not in a way that generates news items, unfortunately:

Evelyn Waugh on Vatican II

In the eyes of some, the Catholic Church prior to the Second Vatican Council was a cesspool of corrupt authoritarianism and abuse that insulted human dignity at the most fundamental level.  To take only one example, Monsignor George A. Kelly (1916-2004) quoted Malachi Brendan Martin (1921-1999) in his (Kelly’s) book, The Battle for the American Church (1979), giving a lengthy list of things in the Church that “do not work,” especially anything that made the Church Catholic or even religious. (Msgr. George A. Kelly, The Battle for the American Church. New York: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1979, 5-6.)

"America's Greatest Social Philosopher"

On his death in 1985, Father William J. Ferree, S.M., Ph.D. was eulogized as “the second founder” of his religious order, the Society of Mary.  Father Andrew F. Morlion, O.P., Ph.D., Belgian philosopher and founder and first president of the International University of Social Studies in Rome, referred to Father Ferree as “America’s greatest social philosopher.”  But who was he?

A Study in Contradiction

One of the things we find most consistent about socialism is its inconsistency, the ability to say one thing and do another with astonishing regularity.  This was brought forcibly home to us when we came across the writings of Robert Owen, considered the first of the British line of socialism.

Adler on the Air

DANGER, WILL ROBINSON!

WE HAVE DELETED THE PODCAST TO EDIT FURTHER.  IT WILL BE UP AGAIN AS SOON AS WE ARE FINISHED.  IN THE MEANTIME, WE PUT UP A LINK TO WALLACE'S 1959 INTERVIEW WITH ADLER

For the Just Third Way Podcast this week, we have a special treat in store: Mike Wallace’s interview of Mortimer Adler.  Adler, of course, co-authored The Capitalist Manifesto (1958) and The New Capitalists (1961) with Louis O. Kelso, but is also noted for the Great Books program and as the editor of the Syntopicon:

News from the Network, Vol. 12, No. 18

Back in the early nineteenth century, the proto-socialist and founder of “the New Christianity” Claude Henri de Rouvroy, comte de Saint-Simon (1760-1825), tried to commit suicide by shooting himself in the head.  He missed, but his followers claimed that the shock brought about his realization that he was either God’s Special Messenger or possibly even God.  Ever since, failure has been taken as proving that socialism actually works.  It only fails because people can’t seem to deal with a system that relies on them becoming God.  We, of course, just assume that people are going to keep on being people, so the Just Third Way is based on working with human nature rather than trying to change it:

Money Isn’t Everything

It’s time for another esoteric blog posting on the nature of money.  Today we’ll be looking at the difference between what is called “the Currency School” that virtually all modern economics, whether or not mainstream, accept, and “the Banking School,” on which binary economics is based.

The Four Pillars of Socialism

We’ve been doing a great deal of research for a series of books a publisher (obviously intelligent and astute) has requested that we submit “on spec” — i.e., they’d like to see a manuscript, but aren’t making any specific promises about acceptance.  Much of this has involved investigation into the roots of the “New Things,” as Pope Leo XIII referred to them in his landmark 1891 encyclical “On Capital and Labor” (the current official title).

Poverty v. Destitution

In his 2015 book, God or Nothing, Robert Cardinal Sarah made an interesting distinction between poverty and destitution.  We’re not sure we agree, but it may be something to think about.  According to Sarah, most people through history have been “poor,” which he defined as producing enough to provide decently for one’s self and one’s dependents, but nothing more.

People and Things

This week’s podcast features a repeat of the discussion about CESJ’s short (one minute and forty-seven seconds) introductory video, “People and Things.”  The reason for rerunning it so soon after the original broadcast is that on Saturday, April 27, 2019, CESJ had its first “Justice University” seminar as part of CESJ’s thirty-fifth anniversary celebration.  The seminar was well-attended, and the following workshop had a great deal of lively discussion, so we thought we’d let others join in the fun, if a trifle late and a little vicariously:

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

After many trials and tribulations of a computerized nature, here are this week’s news items:

Creating Truth for Fun and Prophet

In the previous posting on this subject, we noted that Monsignor John A. Ryan (1869-1945) had his thought formed in an environment that accepted “the democratic religion” of socialism as a given.  The idea was to reduce Christianity to its essential elements, of which the first and overriding principle is that material wellbeing of everyone, especially the poor, is the goal of existence.

Interfaith Dialogue

Although differences and disagreements between people of different faiths and philosophies are nothing particularly new, they seem to be achieving much greater depths of depravity than ever before.  True, this might be merely the fact that with modern communications and the growing hunger of the popular media for sensation and scandal to titillate and entertain people who should have much better things to do, what was under the radar in former days is now the stuff of everyday life.

The Age of Aquarius

In the previous posting on this subject we examined the source of Monsignor John A. Ryan’s understanding of social justice and distributive justice as embodied in the two books that made him famous, A Living Wage (1906) and Distributive Justice (1916).  As we discovered, Ryan’s definitions did not come from a study of Rerum Novarum, but from the utopian and religious socialist movements of the early nineteenth century that Rerum Novarum was intended to counter.

Easter Witness and a Proposal for Ireland

This week’s podcast features a panel discussion about the Easter Rising historical event in Ireland and a proposal for Ireland outlined in Easter Witness, book by Michael D. Greaney.  (BTW, Dave looked in the wrong place on Amazon; the price is $20, not $500 for an autographed presentation copy!)  The discussion relates how the ownership of Ireland mentioned in the Proclamation issued during that Easter event can be the key for economic transformation of Ireland and the world.

News from the Network, Vol. 12, No. 16

Maybe it’s the season, but the criticisms of the Just Third Way have been particularly weak lately, with critics repeating themselves more than usual and saying things that have been refuted repeatedly.  On the other hand, it might be that the ideas are starting to get into the right quarters and people are starting to pay attention.  You decide: