JTW Podcast: Fulton Sheen on Firing Line

 

This week we're putting the late Fulton Sheen on the firing line . . . or was that Fulton Sheen on Firing Line?  In either case, you're bound to see something interesting, although not, perhap, as interesting (or at least as immediate) as the Economic Democracy Act:

News from the Network, Vol. 16, No. 08

Today is the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, or (as some are putting it) Day 366 of Russia’s 10 day “special military operation.”  Given that no sane person believes claim of saving the world from gay Nazis through war crimes and atrocities, it seems reasonable to expect that the effort would have collapsed months ago.  Instead, Russia continues to push . . . well, if not forward, at least along, losing sometimes more soldiers in a week than it did in Afghanistan in ten year.  Of course, the rest of the world, locked into the economic insanity of Keynesian economics and accumulating more debt in nominal terms than the entire world did in a century before Keynesian economics came along, has nothing to brag about, as can be seen by the refusal to adopt the Economic Democracy Act, but, like Putin, people still insist on implementing failed programs that never worked in the first place:

Was Henry George a Socialist?

In a recent email, someone stated, “Henry George was definitely NOT a Socialist.  Quite the contrary.  He wanted to untax labour and capital, treat land rents as the source of public revenue and restore the mediaeval system of financing the Crown through land rents.”

JTW Podcast: Fusion Power and Kilowatt Hour

We are not nuclear scientists, but we recognize the importance of power to any civilization, especially a technologically advanced one.  We also recognize the importance of a stable measure of value for a currency for any civilization, especially (again) a technologically advanced one.

News from the Network, Vol. 16, No. 07

Again this week we see a large number of problems that could be solved by adopting the Economic Democracy Act, but people still insist on implementing failed programs that never worked in the first place:

Some Thoughts on Credit

. . . social credit, that is, the brainchild of Major C.H. Douglas.  Recently we received a question asking whether we were familiar with “the Douglas Scheme,” as the Anglican Christian apologist C.S. Lewis rather pejoratively termed it.  Yes, we are familiar with Major Douglas and his social credit plan, which has nothing to do with what the Chinese have termed “social credit,’ although both rely on intrusive government control.

JTW Podcast: Embodiment of the Human Person

Continuing the series of videos on personalism, today we have Dr. John F. Crosby on “Understanding the Embodiment of the Human Person.”  He puts it in terms of Christianity, but being based on natural law, applies across the board.  In this video he talks about what Dr. Ralph McInerny of Notre Dame called “fideism,” the opposite but equal error of materialism.  Both are forms of “modernism” that separates faith and reason.

News from the Network, Vol. 16, No. 06

As usual, we have nothing spectacularly new to report, although the special segment on Hulu airing tonight might be of great interest.  Otherwise, the list of news items is tophevy with stories about people and situations that would e much better off with the Economic Democracy Act, but we may get there eventually:

A Keynesian Contradiction

The first principle of reason is that nothing can both “be” and “not be” at the same time under the same conditions.  This law or principle of (non) contradiction simply means that something cannot both exist and not exist at the same time, e.g., nothing can be a little bit dead.  Something is either dead or alive; Schrödinger’s cat is only half dead and half alive because there’s a fifty percent chance it’s either one, which is known for certain when the box is opened.

JTW Podcast: Intro to Thomistic Personalism

This week we follow up on last week’s podcast that featured the personalism of John Paul II, with a video of the Thomistic personalism . . . of John Paul II.  Okay, so we’re in a rut, or at least we’re not finding enough videos or other shows on the rest of the Just Third Way.  Again, there is nothing in the video about economic personalism as applied in the Economic Democracy Act, but you can’t have everything:

News from the Network, Vol. 16, No. 05

It is very tempting to give the blogging equivalent of “Nothing to see here, move along,” when reporting on various events that advance the Just Third Way (rare) or actively inhibit or prevent the Just Third Way (far too common).  Sadly, too many people seem to be convinced that if we just continue to do what isn’t working and has never worked instead of adopting the Economic Democracy Act, things will be fine:

The Currency Principle

Nowhere is the pervasiveness of the “New Things” (rei novae) of modernism, socialism, and the New Age more obvious today than in the prevalence of Keynesian economic and monetary policies throughout the world.

JTW Podcast: John Paul II’s Personalism

It’s not as clear as the presentation of the personalism of Pope John Paul II in The Greater Reset, but it might help people get a better understanding through a different perspective if they’ve already read The Greater Reset.  Of course, there is nothing in the video about economic personalism as applied in the Economic Democracy Act, but you can’t have everything:

News from the Network, Vol. 16, No. 04

What is so fascinating about the world situation these days is that a great many people are convinced that Russia has lost its war of conquest in Ukraine, yet Russia (or Russia’s insane dictator Putin) refuses to admit it has lost horribly and continues to sacrifice everything to save Putin’s face and gratify his ego.  The same goes for Putin’s worshipers in other countries who simply refuse to see the writing on the wall.  Is it, however, so crazy?  After all, governments still insist on implementing Keynesian economics as if it hadn’t failed nearly a century ago.  Keep on doing what has never worked and refuse to implement the Economic Democracy Act:

Neo-Colonialist Keynes

It is common to hear about neo-colonialism these days, but not too many people are aware that it’s not just a problem in former colonies, but throughout the entire world.  This is the fault of the architect of the modern global economy, John Maynard Keynes, whose version of socialized capitalism (really an application of Fabian socialism) was intended to keep the British power elite in place at the end of the nineteenth century.

JTW Podcast: Joe Blasi on Worker Ownership

The idea of workers owning the businesses where they work is not new. In America’s early years, Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison believed that the best economic plan for the Republic was for citizens to have some ownership stake in the land, which was the main form of productive capital. This book traces the development of that share idea in American history and brings its message to

News from the Network, Vol. 16, No. 03

Not surprisingly, this week’s news items are generally focused on Ukraine’s need to get additional armaments and politicians complaining about the cost of doing so . . . without, evidently, considering the even greater cost of letting the war continue.  Our concern, of course, is how the Economic Democracy Act could help not only the rebuilding of Ukraine but assure that other countries will be paid for their aid:

Milieu Specialization

An aspect of social justice that many people overlook is what CESJ co-founder Father William J. Ferree, S.M., Ph.D. called “milieu specialization.”  This is a fancy way of saying that while human beings are generalists, they design specialized tools to carry out specific tasks.  As a rule, the more specialized the tool, the more efficient it is at performing a particular task, and the less efficient it is for performing any other task.

JTW Podcast: Aristotle on Distributive Justice

Many people today think that “distributive justice” means distribution based on need or high wages and benefits.  In Aristotelian and Thomist philosophy, however, the former is charity, while the latter falls under “commutative” or strict justice.  The idea that distributive justice means distributions based on need or is a form of “social justice” comes from nineteenth century socialism and has nothing to do with Aristotle’s concept of proportionality which governed his concept of distributive just . . . and Aristotle should know, as he invented the term.

News from the Network, Vol. 16, No. 02

Things are happening, but it seems to be a repeat of the same old thing only more so.  Despite that, the fact that things still manage to keep running in spite of the “knavish imbecility” of so many gives us hope that somebody may soon adopt the Economic Democracy Act that has any hope of being able to lay the foundation for resolving the problems: