Aleteia: The Secret Riches of Heinrich Pesch and Solidarism by Stephen M. Krason
It's time for one of the greatest Catholic economic thinkers to be rediscovered.

Items of Interest, 18 January 2012

The Archdruid Report: Waking Up, Walking Away

It so happens that I don’t own or drive a car, and indeed I never have. Among its other benefits, that’s a good way to see the limits on the alleged freedom of choice that the consumer economy provides its inmates. In today’s America, you can live without a car, but most other choices you make are going to be sharply curtailed by that decision. When my wife and I decided a few years back to leave the west coast and settle in the Rust Belt, scores of pleasant towns we might otherwise have chosen were ruled out in advance because the only way to go from there to anywhere else was to drive a car, and our options for buying a house were just as tightly constrained by the need to be within walking distance of groceries and other necessary services. All those choices the propagandists of the consumer economy prattle about? They exist, but only if you give up your right to make any of the decisions that matter.

Peter Hitchens, One Reason Why I hate Cars, and a brief note on Lifestyle Choices

Ron Paul only GOP candidate to publicly denounce SOPA; What is SOPA and Why Won't it Work?

Fabius Maximus: Is Killing Iranian Nuclear Scientists Terrorism?
Is Killing Iranian Nuclear Scientists Terrorism?

Ron Paul: Killing of Iranian nuke scientist "an act of terrorism"
Ron Paul may have gone to an extreme claiming Michele Bachmann "hates Muslims," but those who are leaving comments at JW (and the one who operates the website?) may be irrational in their fear of them. How much of a threat do they really pose to the West, when we are armed with nuclear weapons?

Patent Nonsense
Intellectual property enforces a monopoly over the mind.

Are Intellectual Property Rights Bad for Innovation?
By Jordan Bloom

BRIAN J. TRAUTMAN, Why the NDAA is Unconstitutional

Taking Action to Fix our Debt

The High Achievement of Christopher Dawson

Economics:
Heinrich Pesch on Solidarist Economics
What Happens When a City Girl Reads Wendell Berry

Farming:
Gene Logsdon, Can a godless farmer be a good steward of the soil? (EB)

Energy:
Basking in the sun by Tom Murphy (EB)
Why Biofuels Are Not a Good Idea (EB)
Technological Progress for Dummies Part II (EB)

Catholic:
Training Leaders in Christian Virtue
Franciscan University’s Center for Leadership Has Global Outlook but Focuses on the Local

According to the director, the center’s program will promote authentic Catholic social teaching as well as an understanding of the principles of America’s founding: “The goal is toward a healthy patriotism with gratitude for all the gifts we enjoy in this country, but also with the idea to build upon what’s good in our nation and work to improve where we need to improve.”

Emm... I'd need more information to attempt an evaluation...

From last year: Center for Leadership Launched

Thomas Storck on Heinrich Pesch, S.J.

A Giant Among Catholic Economists (original)

More:
Edwin Mellen Press
Opuscula interview with Dr. Ruper J. Ederer
PRINCIPLES OF HEINRICH PESCH'S SOLIDARISM Stephen M. Krason
Rupert J. Ederer, A Principle for Economics

Solidarism, solidarity, and the common good

Transition Culture: Joanne Poyourow on Solidarity

She writes:

The missing ingredient of our communities

May East presented her biscuit story in remarks about what Transition in the developed North could learn from the global South. Within Transition we glibly say that we need to “build community,” but solidarity identifies specifically that element which we are lacking.

In our current culture of peak-individualism, we have lost “common responsibilities.” We outsource these to our government and nonprofits and expect them to handle it for us. Schooling our children, care of parklands, preservation of The Commons. It’s not working too well.

In some ways we even outsourced our common responsibilities to corporations, and we are dismayed to discover that the corporate interests haven’t upheld those commons. Hence the stumbling attempts to create corporate ethics.

In our culture of individualism and competition, we no longer understand community of purpose. In 4 years of activitsm in my SUV-intense neighborhood, I have so often heard the reaction “I’m glad somebody’s doing this.” They agree it’s an important cause but they’re happy to outsource it, and have someone else do the work. They don’t have the time, which really translates into they’re too busy competing in the workplace, competing for space on the freeway, competing that their children should have the best extracurricular activities and should get into the best colleges for the best future …

May East’s comments helped me to identify specifically what aspect is missing. We need to reawaken solidarity, that sense of common purpose.

Americans don’t understand solidarity. We don’t have a history in it. We don’t have many cultural stories or models. Perhaps our closest example was the Revolutionary War, where colonists banned together — but that same story is the source of our proud American independence.

And independence is perhaps solidarity’s polar opposite.

What is the common purpose of a political community? In our fragmented society and liberal culture, we may not even understand the question. If our luxurious lifestyles, founded as they are upon cheap energy, come to an end, and if our survival is at stake, we may have to cooperate in order to rebuild a more sustainable (and just) community. But we do not band together merely for survival, as important as that may be for a community to come into being. We also do it for the sake of higher goods. (I will be finishing my post on Patrick Deneen and Aristotle on civic friendship soon.) If we find that we cannot really get along because of significant differences in our belief systems, our mores, and we cannot avoid one another like we can now, will we separate? Or fight? In our society, individuals have the leisure and the capability to pursue their own goals without much concern for the consequences of their actions--someone else is there to clean up the mess (usually the government and its welfare programs). And as isolated as we are, we can choose with whom we can associate, so that we do not have to be around people with whom we disagree.

When a "proposition nation" begins to face severe difficulties, will its people have solidarity? Is it possible for the struggle to survive to require that sort of cooperation which will ignore the differences that exist between peoples? Or will these differences become even more pronounced and significant when basic goods are at stake? Even if tribalism is strongly rooted in the structure of the family, having common ancestors may not be enough to establish an identity -- family regulations (i.e. culture) shapes behavior and expectations of others. Those who do not adhere will either be expelled or punished; otherwise, the cohesiveness and safety of the family is put at risk. ("If you don't police your own, we will do it for you.")

Talk about solidarity naturally evokes Heinrich Pesch's solidarism because of the similarity of the words and their common etymology. "Social justice" is often thrown around, but without much explanation beyond "helping the poor." Is social justice a distinct virtue from legal or general justice? That question is for another post. But we can at least ask the question: before we can talk about a people having the virtue of legal justice, must not the people exist as a united group of subjects first? Otherwise, we are putting the cart before the horse. A community must identify itself as such and do so strongly, because its members can develop the virtue of legal justice and will the good of that community. If the existence of a community is called into question because of differences of identity and culture between people, then this question must be answered before solidarity or love of the common good can be cultivated.

More on Heinrich Pesch:
AD2000: Ethics and the National Economy, by Heinrich Pesch
Solidarist economics: the legacy of Heinrich Pesch.
PRINCIPLES OF HEINRICH PESCH'S SOLIDARISM Stephen M. Krason
My Journey into Solidarism by Rupert Ederer

Thomas Storck on Heinrich Pesch

A Giant Among Catholic Economists (published by NOR)

Papal Economics by Thomas Storck

A Just Third Political Way -- Part II: A Personal Responsibility for the Common Good (published by Social Justice Review -- quality unknown)

Solidarist economics: the legacy of Heinrich Pesch. Business ... (quality unknown)

More on Fr. Pesch here.

Heinrich Pesch, S.J.

An intro written by Dr. James Likoudis.

Reviews:
T. Storck reviews Lehrbuch der Nationalöko-nomie/Teaching Guide to Economics. By Heinrich PeschTranslated and edited by Rupert J. Ederer.

Dr. Chojnowski reviews Ethics and the National Economy. AD2000 review.

Solidarist economics by Jim Wishloff (registration required)

Other links:
Edwin Mellen Press catalog listings for Fr. Pesch
IHS Press
Heinrich Pesch House (in German; alt. url)
"The Pig Economy" by Dr. Rupert Ederer (review of his Economics as if God Mattered by T. Storck) "The Sovietization of American Women"