Justice University

No, really, this is about the Just Third Way.   Back in the early twentieth century, Msgr. Robert Hugh Benson published a satirical novel (that many people have mistaken for some kind of prophecy), lambasting the “new things” of socialism, modernism, and the New Age from a “Catholic” point of view.   Despite the overtly religious nature of the novel, however, it delivers a universal message about the dangers of shifting away from the human person to the abstraction of “humanity”:

One of the things that we discovered early on in the Global Justice Movement is that there are a lot of definitions of “social justice” floating around.   A frequent problem, then, is that we often get into arguments with people who insist that social justice means one thing, when we clearly mean something completely different. . . .

Oh, no!   Not another Catholic video podcast!   You’re right, it’s not . . . at least, not very much.   You’ll notice the clever way we inserted a discussion of how Catholic social teaching and the economic justice principles of Louis Kelso and Mortimer J. Adler come together in the Just Third Way of Economic Personalism. . . . Besides, we wrote the foreword and it's almost wholly Just Third Way:

Yet again it looks as if we’re not only getting explicitly religious here, but we’re picking on Pope Francis.   Neither assumption would be correct, however.   The fact is that Pope Francis’s recent encyclical contained some statements regarding private property that appear to be at variance with the natural law, and we want to make certain His Holiness gets a chance to explain them.   Then we can pick on him. . . .

Okay, we know exactly what you’re thinking.   What is this Catholic monarchic conspiracy video doing on the Just Third Way blog?   Well . . . everything, actually.   You see, it turns out that what Pope Pius XI called “the Reign of Christ the King didn’t really have anything to do with establishing monarchy, and is a natural law concept, not really religious, per se.   It seems that Pius XI was countering the socialist idea of heaven here on earth with a somewhat different notion. . . .

Yes, we realize that it’s so much easier to tell others what they’re doing wrong and demand that they do it right, but face it.   Do you think people really want to do things wrong?   Maybe it’s just that nobody bothered to tell them there’s a right way . . . our Just Third Way. . . .

Back in 1984, two representatives of the Center for Economic and Social Justice (CESJ) testified before the Lay Commission on the Economy that attempted to advise the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops on the draft of their pastoral on the economy.   Remarkably, not one word of what was said made its way into the final document. . . .

  From the Just Third Way perspective (i.e., natural law in the Aristotelian-Thomist tradition), as a religious event, the Second Vatican Council is of no relevance.   As an application of natural law principles to counter the “new things” of socialism, modernism, and esotericism, however, it is of great importance . . . especially given the way (in our opinion) it was diverted and used to advance the very things it was intended to counter.

As a follow-up to the previous video podcast on “the Act of Social Justice,” this week we bring you “Economic Justice for All.”   Note that although this podcast has the same title as the U.S. Bishops’ pastoral on the economy, it takes a slightly different — as well as more effective and respectful of human dignity — direction.

Although in everyday usage social justice is a rather vague term (and a compliment or pejorative, depending on who is speaking), there is actually a well-developed body of thought on social justice within the framework of the philosophy of Aristotle and Aquinas:

The problem with trying to get a handle on solidarism these days is that few people who consider themselves solidarists are aware of the history of solidarism.   Without that basic knowledge of how solidarist thought developed, however, it is often impossible to discern “true” solidarism as (re)developed by Heinrich Pesch, from the other schools and distortions:

Perhaps not surprisingly, today’s video on G.K. Chesterton has proved to be one of our most popular.   Why?   Perhaps it has to do with our rather heterodox position on Chesterton and his life’s work.   We think, for example, that he was not a socialist or a capitalist, but an advocate in somewhat limited form of what we today call the Just Third Way of Economic Personalism.   It doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue as trippingly as the same old things, but judge for yourself:

Today we have the second part of a talk by Dr. Norman Kurland, president of the interfaith Center for Economic and Social Justice, on the "Economic Democracy Act" (formerly the "Capital Homestead Act").  The presentation is a good summary of how to apply the Just Third Way of Economic Personalism, which is also the subject of an upcoming book from Justice University Press:

It does seem rather astonishing at times that an individual or group can tell other people straight to their faces what they plan on doing to them, and are dismissed, brushed aside, ridiculed or ignored . . . until action is finally taken.

  Yeah, we’ve been going a “little” heavy on “Catholic” stuff in the blog and in the podcasts, but we’ve got a good excuse: that’s what we’re working on at the present time and to add more areas to write about on top of everything else is just too much.

       Everybody likes DIY (“Do It Yourself”) videos, right?   Well, not everybody can whip out a mission-style house with all the furniture (unless your name happens to be Norm Abram, that is, and you have every power tool known to man or woman), but you can join in the feeding frenzy when it comes to undermining the fundamental principles of natural law and common sense:

       How did “the new things” of socialism, modernism, and esotericism (“New Age”) manage to become part and parcel of the political and economic thought of so many people?   After all, as we define it (abolition of private property in capital), socialism is not particularly social, modernism (not modernity, but a philosophical/theological shift from the human person to the abstraction of humanity) is not really all that modern, and esotericism or the New Age is not all that new.

  Ninety years ago, the noted English writer G.K. Chesterton gave his opinion of socialism and modernism.   As he said, “ anything can be called Socialism , . . . it seems to mean Modernism ; in the sociological as distinct from the theological sense. In both senses, it is generally a euphemism for muddle-headedness .” ( “There Was a Socialist,” G.K.’s Weekly , May 10, 1930. )

  This week we have another video from the “Sensus Fidelium” YouTube channel.   Yes (as we’ve said before), it’s a “Catholic channel,” and if you search through the thousands of hours of programming on the channel, you will find a great deal of material oriented to Catholics.   There’s a bit of that in these videos, too (of course), but the primary emphasis is on the “natural law” aspect of Catholic social teaching, so you can mentally filter out the explicitly Catholic material if you’ve a mind to, and you won’t miss anything.

  This week we have another video blog from "Sensus Fidelium," hosted by Steve Cunningham.  Again, we issue the caveat that this is a "Catholic" show, but the subject (the origin of the encyclical Rerum Novarum ) has a direct bearing on the Just Third Way of economic personalism.  As you listen, you will start to realize just how the antics of politicians and economic conditions affect general understanding of such inalienable natural rights of life, liberty, and private property:

  This week we have a video blog from "Sensus Fidelium," hosted by Steve Cunningham.  Yes, it's a "Catholic" show, but don't let that fool you.  The topic — the origin of socialism — is actually a discussion of natural law that applies to everyone.  It just so happens that the origins of socialism and of Catholic social teaching are related: Catholic social teaching developed in response to the rise of socialism, and socialism was first presented as a replacement for traditional Christianity.  Anyway, here goes:

  For today's podcast (or videocast), we present the second part of Mortimer Adler's talk on Aristotle's Metaphysics.  It's not very long and you might learn something:

  In today's Just Third Way pod/videocast, we get metaphysical with Mortimer J. Adler, part one of two in which he discusses Aristotle's Metaphysics.  If all goes well, we will have part two of two next week.

“ It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good wife, must be in want of a job.”   That, of course, is the famous opening line from fictional author Gianny Austin’s apocryphal novel, Property and Prejudice , a comedy of manners in which ownership of the means of production (except for an economic or political élite ) is depicted as being not quite polite, and the characters spend all their time cleverly positioning themselves for higher wages and fixed benefits, and then wondering why prices are so high and why other people keep telling them what to do.

Misunderstanding of the development of the concept of social justice to counter the “new things” of socialism, modernism, and the New Age is pervasive in our day.   Briefly, many people confuse the act of social justice with measures directed to the good of individuals, not to the common good.   The act of social justice is not, however, a substitute or supplement for individual justice or charity, but a corrective intended to restructure institutions to make it possible for the individual virtues to function so that individuals can meet their own needs through their own efforts.

We got into a little argument a short time ago about socialism, capitalism, and Christianity.   Coming across a FaceBook placard or whatever you call ’em that proclaimed, “Capitalism causes socialism”, we made the mistake of putting our two-and-a-half cents in, although you would have thought that by now we would have learned our lesson about trying to argue with people who think assertion is argument and personal insults are proof.

What is the reason for having “core values” in the first place?  There is a link between solidarity and core values.   After all, if solidarity means accepting the principles that define a group as that group and no other, it makes sense that the principles be clearly defined or you won’t know who belongs to that group.

We need to consider the effect two key inventions, the cotton gin and the McCormick Reaper, had on society, whether for good or for ill.   The cotton gin made raising cotton profitable, while the McCormick Reaper made it possible to think about ending world hunger and famine.