Books to Read

Archbishop Charles Chaput tells us what we should be reading.

(h/t)

Filed under: Books, Catholic, Classics, Education, Entertainment, History, Philosophy, Politics, Religion, Rome

About that Catholic Clergy Sexual Abuse Crisis

Some facts about the sexual abuse crisis in the Church versus in the rest of the world.

Summary: though still horrible, the Church has less instances of sexual abuse of minors than Protestant churches, Jewish groups, and public schools.

But priests abuse kids because they can’t get married.

Filed under: Catholic, Current Events, Education, Religion, Rome

The Resilience of Western Civilization

Jeff Jacoby:

1989 exemplified with rare power the resilience of Western civilization. In our time, too, there are brutal despots who imagine that their power is unassailable: that their tanks and torturers can keep them in power forever. But the message of 1989 is that tyranny is not forever – and that the downfall of tyrants can come with world-changing speed.

So say we all.

Filed under: Democracy, Education, Europe, History, Politics

The Paradox of True Freedom

From Fr. Baker’s editorial in the latest edition of Homiletic and Pastoral Review: “The assumptions of the secular humanists, who deny the existence of God and see man as descended from the apes with no immortal soul, have taken a commanding position in our culture and are proclaimed incessantly in the media and in the public schools and universities.”

I wrote something similar a few years ago. Great minds think alike!

Filed under: Catholic, Education, History, Philosophy, Politics, Religion

The Confederate Leviathan

Was the Confederacy a libertarian paradise, facing down those evil damn yankees Union forces? Not so much.

Filed under: America, Education, History, Politics

Happy Constitution Day!

222 years ago today, the second generation of American Founders fulfilled the promises set forth in their forefathers’ Declaration of Independence. If I were still at UD, I’d be enjoying some great BBQ.

Acton has some commentary.

Filed under: Acton, America, Current Events, Democracy, Education, History, Politics, University of Dallas

Come and Take It

Best use of a $20 bill ever?

Nice.

(h/t)

ASIDE: It occurs to me that if there really is a “right” to health care, the federal government is not allowed to do anything about it. Why? The 10th Amendment: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.” Since the providing of health care is not an enumerated power of the federal government, they aren’t allowed to do it.

Filed under: Amazing, America, Current Events, Democracy, Education, First Amendment, Health Care, Hippies, History, Politics

The War That Never Ends

Terry Teachout: “the success of ‘Inglourious Basterds’ suggests that most Americans, no matter how they feel about waterboarding, gay marriage or health-care reform, pine in their secret hearts for a lost world in which everyone can agree on at least one thing: Nazis are no damn good.”

Filed under: America, Current Events, Entertainment, History, Movies, Politics

Woodstock Authoritarians

George Neumayr: “The unruly left-wing protesters of yesteryear have become the authoritarians of today, criticizing and clamping down on protests far tamer and more sober than the ones they engineered in the 1960s.”

Filed under: America, Hippies, History, Music, Politics

Is the unexamined life worth living?

Maybe:

If you think an examined life requires reading great books, you will be partly right—and partly wrong. Great books help some, for those of us who can make use of them. I have spent a good portion of my own life with them and sent my children to places that read great books. But I’m worried, as alleged experts take over more and more or our lives—and look down on anyone without proper academic credentials—that in focusing on formal education as the path to wisdom, we’re misreading several problems and losing a living human legacy.

Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: No link before, fixed now.

Filed under: Books, Classics, Education, Philosophy

Why Everything Stinks

Craig Ferguson has figured it out:

(h/t)

Filed under: Education, Entertainment, Funny, History, TV

On Saving the Earth

Fr. Schall talks about saving the earth instead of saving souls.

Filed under: Catholic, Current Events, Education, End of the World, Hippies, History, Politics, Religion

Yeah right

Apparently, NASA “accidentally” deleted the moon landing tapes.

Yeah right.

We all know it’s part of the cover-up.

I’m going to go out on a limp here and say that those tapes also contained the actual shooter of JFK from the grassy knoll as well as the missing 18-minute segment from the Watergate tapes. Finally, those tapes also had the location of Elvis within them.

It’s all part of the conspiracy folks…

Filed under: Amazing, Current Events, Education, History

Itinerarium Mentis in Deum

Happy feast of St. Bonaventure! Here’s some light reading for you.

Filed under: Books, Catholic, Education, History, Latin, Prayer, Religion, Rome

“Blessed” G.K. Chesterton?

Some are now trying to promote the cause for GK Chesteron. Interesting. He never did anything for me as a writer.

Filed under: Catholic, Current Events, Religion, Rome

The Pope on “Love in Truth”

Rev. Sirico of the Acton Institute explains the pope’s latest encyclical in the WSJ: “Caritas in Veritate is an eloquent restatement of old truths casually dismissed in modern times. The pope is pointing to a path neglected in all the talk of economic stimulus, namely a global embrace of truth-filled charity.”

Filed under: Acton, America, Catholic, Current Events, Economics, Education, Politics, Religion, Rome, The West

Is that a word?

Fr. Z has posted some encycli-bites for your edification and reflection.

Also, some other reactions to the encyclical.

Filed under: Catholic, Current Events, Economics, Education, Philosophy, Politics, Religion, Rome

“Caritas in Veritate” Released

The Pope’s newest encyclical, a social one, has been released. The opening line:

Charity in truth, to which Jesus Christ bore witness by his earthly life and especially by his death and resurrection, is the principal driving force behind the authentic development of every person and of all humanity.

Haven’t had a chance to read it yet; hopefully this afternoon.

UPDATE: Still working my way through it, it’s been a busy day. The Anchoress explains B16 and Pixar. You heard me…

Filed under: Catholic, Current Events, Economics, Education, Politics, Pro-Life, Religion, Rome

What is “Subsidiarity”?

With the pope’s new social encyclical coming any day now, here’s an explanation about one of the more important points in Catholic Social Teaching.

Filed under: Catholic, Current Events, Economics, Education, History, Politics, Religion, Rome

Hitler finds out Jackson Died

The Fuhrer was going to have the King of Pop at his birthday.

I didn’t know Adolf was a fan!

Filed under: Current Events, Entertainment, Funny, History, Movies, Music

Acton University 2009 – Day 4

Last day of the conference, and it’s a good thing too: I am soooo tired. Let’s look at what I learned today, shall we?

Again, started with Mass in the EF; Fr. Z had to leave, so we had a priest from Poland Italy pray the Mass. Wonderful.

My first class today was on the nature and function of money. Money is not imposed upon us from on high. Rather, it develops organically. All economic systems start with trade, that is, the basic bartering of goods. But this isn’t the most efficient way to trade: there needs to be a double-coincidence of need (i.e., both parties need what the other has), and the properties are usually indivisible (i.e., you can’t give a horse’s foot to get an egg). So, different common commodities began to be used, usually in the form of precious metals. Eventually, one becomes predominant (though other currencies may still exist) for reasons of the best portability, divisibility, and homogeneous quality (i.e., each piece of currency is roughly the same; cf. with bartering, where the quality of the goods must be taken into account in every transaction, while with good money it can be assumed). Furthermore, money allows for the further division of labor because price is able to quantify and objectify labor; price also helps with a more accurate determination of cost-accounting. Paper money originated as bank-notes. You would make a deposit to keep your money safe, and use the bank notes as currency. [Incidentally, this is where loans begins; bankers don't want that money just sitting around, and so they loan it out to people, which also helps the banks make more money. The problem arises, however, that very often banks cannot meet their deposits. This day, most banks keep about 5% of their total holdings on hand! Wow.] At some point, government intervenes and demands a monopoly on the printing of money. My lecturer looked at this as a bad thing, but I’m not so sure. He argued that government has no right to the ownership of money (true, strictly speaking; but there was no discussion about the benefits of such a policy). In fact, when government takes over money, they generally seek policies which decrease the value of money (i.e., mixing base metals with precious metals, clipping coins, printing more notes). Unfortunately, the lecturer ran out of time, but he also discussed how money is eventually destroyed: it becomes so under-valued that people begin to use other currencies again. And the cycle repeats (at least, I think that is what he would have got at). There was lots of depressing talk in this class; the lecturer believes that within the year, we are going to see hyper-inflation in America. All that bail-out money that went to banks to be loaned out is not now being used totally because most investors are not investing. It’s only a matter of time before investors become confident again and start borrowing, which will result in the release of that pent-up money, resulting in massive inflation (or so the argument went).

My next class was also pretty depressing, concerning the problems that arise from the social market (or what we in American call the welfare state). The lecturer was from Austria, and so is intimately familiar with these problems. America, you ain’t seen nothing yet. What problems does a massive, bureaucratic, welfare state cause? Declining fertility rates, declining moral values, increased cost of living, various price controls on goods, pay-as-you-go pension systems (i.e., Social Security), and mandatory state education. The end result: the soft despotism which Tocqueville worried over. He did note that the systems themselves were unsustainable and that they would have to change (or would simply collapse); the only question is at what cost? Yeah, nice cherry picture: think Paris in the summers of 2005 and 2006.

The final lecture was on the critiques of capitalism from the traditional-values contingent. They point to the despicable state most of modern culture is in and blame capitalism. In fact, the lecturer argued, this is due to the values supported by modernity, which has little use for the True, the Good, and the Beautiful. Capitalism is only a tool. Capitalism is not consumerism, which is the mistake most cultural critics make. Capitalism is a free market supported by the rule of law with robust property laws, which also has a certain optimism about improving the human condition through enterprise and savings. Consumerism is based on an adolescent view of freedom, where anything I want goes, lacking all restraint. Thus, the solution to the ugliness of modern culture is not to turn away from capitalism and towards government (which is what many of these critics suggest, as if government can somehow bring about a “nice” culture), but rather to return to the values which support the Good, the Beautiful, and the True. This was a pretty good lecture.

After that, we had some faculty panels, where we got to pick the brains of the various lecturers. The panel I attended had discussions on just war theory, Islamic science and rationalism, the economics of hope and change, and how to engage those who disagree with you. Very lively.

Finally, we had Fr. Sirico’s closing lecture. Most conferences see a precipitous decline by the time the last lecture rolls around; but not at Acton: Fr. Sirico’s closing lecture on piety and technique is the crown jewel of the conference. Telling us about his life, he then exhorts us to live out the principles we support and learn about at this conference. He noted that we are at a time when these values will be challenged in just about every area we will go; but we must persevere. Piety (or good intentions), though important, is not enough: if we believe that the principles and techniques we support are true, then surely we must preach them and argue for them strenuously. It was a wonderful lecture, and I can’t possibly do it justice here.

And so Acton University 2009 draws to a close. We will all leave tomorrow, hopefully a little wiser and better able to engage the current culture and offer it real change. I pray that’s the case.

Filed under: Acton, America, Current Events, Economics, Education, History, Politics, Religion

Acton University Audio

I don’t think Acton will be putting up much audio this time around (though I might be mistaken), but they have put up a few keynote lectures. Have a listen.

Filed under: Acton, Current Events, Education, History, Politics, Religion

Acton University 2009 – Day 3

Another day, and just a little bit more wisdom. Or something.

Once again, started the day with an EF Mass, this time with Fr. Z himself celebrating. He had a nice homily about the upcoming Year for Priests.

The first session today was on Virtue and Liberty in the American Founding. The general theme of the American Founding, according to the lecturer, was the tension between maximizing liberty and maintaining order. Hamilton was, as you may recall, more interested in order, and argued that one needed to use the force of law to control the passions and self-interested actions of the people. Jefferson, on the other hand, argued for a certain virtue instead of the force of law that would develop once the country became the idyllic agrarian republic he wanted it to be. Jefferson hated commerce, while Hamilton was all for it; this attitude, as well, influenced what they thought, in terms of centralized government, tariffs, allies, etc. Washington, however, disagreed with both of these positions and seemed to favor the power of morals from religion to ensure tranquility and liberty. Washington argued that the proper ordering of the union (the Constitution, and the rights enshrined within, I suppose) would lead to liberty, and both (presumably) would be maintained by religion. This isn’t exactly what the Acton Institute argues for when it calls for a free and virtuous society, but it is pretty close: a society can only survive and flourish if its values are good and true.

The next session was my first practical course. it involved the conflict that Acton has to engage in with people who favor a fair and victimless society (i.e., statists and collectivists) over a free and virtuous society. We discussed how the first group approaches the problems of social justice and also (more importantly) why they approach it in that way. Simply enough, they tend to want more government action because they have been “burned” by private individuals in the past. Our job must be to convince them that while yes, people can act in an immoral way, government cannot offer anything better and indeed will offer a solution that is worse in the long run. The lecturer was clear that we cannot approach them with high talk and disregard for how they feel, nor can we doubt their good intentions. Ultimately, however, we must remember the strength of our principles and the factual comparisons of outcomes while approaching them with humility.

I returned to theory in the third session, title “The Limits of Markets – Law and Moral Culture.” This lecture was not on the inherent limits of the market, which usually relate to problems of knowledge and supply. Instead, we focused on what can be limiting factors for the market. As you might imagine, the market can only be limited by the actors within the market. If those actors are corrupt, then the market will be corrupt. Once again, we must turn to the Natural Law and remember man’s proper end. Everything man does is for happiness; but, we must seek the highest possible happiness, which is communion with God. That is the only happiness that is eternal; all other happiness is fleeting. The ultimate end helps determine the first intention; so, if my end if off, then all of my intentions will also be off. We can know by reason what morality entails, and faith also provides a guide and illumination. We support our ultimate ends or values by forming various associations. All of these associations involve some kind of compromise concerning our values: we very rarely join an association that matches our values 100%, and so we make a determination about which values are important and thus which associations we should support. Having done that, all of these associations begin to have an effect on the culture writ large. This culture, in turn, affects each of us, and the cycle begins again. In culture, therefore, there is a tendency to devolve into the lowest common denominator (due to the compromises we make when we form associations). Because of this devolution, man becomes alienated from his own culture because he recognizes, on some level, that the culture does not promote what faith and reason tell him it should. This alienation, however, is not the fault of the market where values are “traded” and “accumulated;” rather, this is the fault of the bad values themselves. This, then, is the first limit we put on the market, by critiquing those values which we know to be bad or false and promoting those we know to be good and true. The second limit is the associations we form around those values: as we have already seen, these have a huge impact on the culture. We cannot rely on the government to limit the market for us; top-down action is always the least efficient, and also (more often than not) results in worse results. To solve the problems in the market, therefore, we must turn to natural moral law and emphasize the proper ethical and spiritual values in the culture through the associations.

The final session was on the Orthodox Christian response to globalization. I thought it was about orthodox Christians, but it turns out it was on Orthodox Christians (if you catch my meaning). Interesting review of information, but ultimately nothing I was overly concerned with.

The dinner lecture was done by Brian Wesbury. I twittered it because it was so fun, so go read it there.

All in all, another great day. I think next year I’ll take courses about which I know much less, just to keep it interesting. Anyone for a discussion on Calvinist social teaching? Hello? Anyone??

Filed under: Acton, America, Books, Current Events, Democracy, Economics, Education, History, Politics, Religion

Acton 2009 – Day 2

Well, we have finished our first full day of activities at Acton. This conference is alway such a whirl-wind, it’s hard to keep up in some sense. It always goes by very quickly. I’m noticing that for me, most of the classes aren’t as challenging to understand as they have been in years past; I hope this means I’m actually learning stuff!

We started the day with Mass in the Extraordinary Form, celebrated by a bishop from Brazil (I think). It was great. Wonderful way to start the day.

My first conference was on the the economic thought of Saints Augustine and Thomas. The lecturer explained that both men made some very important contributions to economic thinking. Their proper view of the human being as well as the importance of the rule of law were foundational for almost all later economic thinkers. They also came up with ideas about private property (private property is generally better cared for than public property, and idea that Aristotle first floated). Also, they were the first to argue that utility was what added value to goods, i.e., there is no inherent value in any object (with the exception of humans, of course). The discussed the morality of prices, profits, and interest rates (how amazingly relevant!), and promoted the basic function of money.

The next class was on the economic thought of the school of Salamanca. Salamanca was an incredibly influential school in the Late Scholastic period, especially in areas of economics and political theory. Most of the modern-period’s liberal ideas can be found in the various teachers and students of this school. This school promoted the important idea (at the time) that even those not yet baptized had rights, because rights were according to man’s nature, not his state of grace. Thus, they argued, the natives of South American had rights which needed to be respected. For these thinkers, the right to trade was of the utmost importance: if you had a surplus of one thing over here, and they had a surplus of another thing over there, government should interfere very little (if at all) in the following transactions. Some thinkers discussed the various ways governments try to debase currency, and why that should be considered a kind of theft (again, amazingly relevant!). Finally, St. Robert Bellarmine was one of the most important thinkers who floated the idea that government’s power ought to be limited.

My third lecture today was on Natural Law and Economics. As economics is only a tool, we need to look elsewhere to see how this tool ought to be used. Natural law provides the answer by explaining what we ought to aim at as humans and how one should go about achieving that aim. But, people disagree in good faith about what the natural law is, teaches, etc. Therefore, the lecturer argued, we need a system of exchange that is free, so that the exchange of ideas can happen without restriction. He noted that this very rarely happens at the modern university. In the more purely economic area, this would mean a free market, where the buying and selling of goods allows for a “debate” of sorts about what may lead to human flourishing (i.e., what you buy represents what you think will lead you to happiness, not that what you buy will make you happy; an important but subtle distinction).

The final lecture today was on Alexis de Tocqueville. If any of you know Tocqueville, you know that he was incredibly prescient about the challenges that would face America and indeed any liberal democracy. We discussed the negative effects of an expansion of equality (yes, there are some! Can you think of any? It’s challenging, but the negative effects of the expansion of equality need to be understood, as well as the negative effects of the expansion of freedom), and also the private associations (including religion) which Tocqueville argued would prevent the fall of America. In the absence of these associations (mostly because the government has assumed many of their functions, as governments are wont to do), the decline of America from the free and virtuous society to the soft despotic society continues. After that class, it became very apparent to me that I need to read more Tocqueville (in addition to St. Thomas and Aristotle).

We finished the evening with a lecture by Robert George on natural law: what it is and why we need it. Very good.

As you can imagine, I’m quite tired, so I’ll have to turn in soon. More tomorrow.

Please note: if any of the above arguments don’t make sense, do not blame the lecturers but he who is attempting to transmit their knowledge. All I can say is, it made sense when I was taking notes!

Filed under: Acton, Books, Classics, Current Events, Economics, Education, History, Philosophy, Politics, Religion

Acton University 2009

Once again, I am attending Acton University, a program sponsored by the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty (a.k.a., “The Acton Institute”). The lectures once again sound very interesting; I’ll be listening to talks about economics in the thought of the Scholastics, on the American Founding, and on social justice. I’ll try to update this blog each night with some thoughts on the days events.

Fr. Z is back again, as well, and will no doubt blog everything.

If you want, you can follow the action at the Acton Powerblog. In years past, they have put the audio of some lectures online, and I expect them to do that again.

Finally, you can also follow the action on Twitter by following the tag “#actonu”.

UPDATE: First evening is now over. Meet some great religious, a few Presbyterian seminarians (nice to know they also consider complaining about the seminary as pastime), an Anglican priest from Africa, and Fr. Z himself. Fr. Z and I were talking about the number of priests who will be celebrating Mass at various points of the conference, and that’s when he made his comment on concelebration (it should be safe, legal, and rare; I agree!).

Fr. Robert Sirico gave the opening lecture, discussing the proper anthropology needed before one can study economics and politics. Man is both spiritual and physical; errors occur when one discounts one or the other. Disregarding the spiritual part leads to the errors of statism, where control of the individual is mandated by government, treating everyone as denizens of a zoo. Disregarding the physical aspect would lead to anarchy (i.e., there would be no need of government). From the proper anthropology, we proceed to discover that only in a free and virtuous society is man truly man. This means that the power of government must be limited, and that the economy must be (mostly) free. Only in this free and virtuous society can man be allowed to act as a man. He also corrected some false views on free economics. (That’s the general outline of the talk, I missed somethings because I’m pretty tired, so if it doesn’t flow properly, that’s my fault, not his.)

Busy day tomorrow, starting with Mass at 6:30am. Later!

Filed under: Acton, America, Catholic, Current Events, Economics, Education, History, Philosophy, Politics, Religion