The difference between us is that the Professor [X] sees the ‘World’ purely in terms of those threats and those allurements which depend on money. I do not.The most ‘worldly’ society I have ever lived in is that of schoolboys: most worldly in the cruelty and arrogance of the strong, the toadyism and mutual treachery of the weak, and the unqualified snobbery of both. Nothing was so base that most members of the school proletariat would not do it, or suffer it, to win the favour of the school aristocracy: hardly any injustice too bad for the aristocracy to practise. But the class system did not in the least depend on the amount of pocket money.Who needs to care about money if most of the things he wants will be offered by cringing servility and the remainder can be taken by force?This lesson has remained with me all my life. That is one of the reasons why I cannot share [X's] exaltation at the banishment of Mammon from ‘a sixth of our planet’s surface’ [i.e. from the Soviet Union]. I have already lived in a world from which Mammon was banished: it was the most wicked and miserable I have yet known. If Mammon were the only devil, it would be another matter. But where Mammon vacates the throne, how if Moloch takes his place?As Aristotle said, ‘Men do not become tyrants in order to keep warm’. All men, of course, desire pleasure and safety. But all men also desire power and all men desire the mere sense of being ‘in the know’ or the ‘inner ring’, of not being ‘outsiders’: a passion insufficiently studied and the chief theme of my story. When the state of society is such that money is the passport to all these prizes, then of course money will be the prime temptation. But when the passport changes, the desires will remain.
And here, just for good measure (pun), is a video that impresses me every time I see it - the size of earth in context:
"In the beginning, God Created the Heavens and the Earth" --Genesis 1:1
"O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me... You both precede and follow me... If I go up to heaven, you are there... To you the night shines as bright as day..." --from Psalm 139
1. Trimming of the nails should be done on a regular and consistent basis, preferably twice a week. This will keep the quick of the nail pushed back so that the nails do not ... .2. The recommended nail length is 1/16" beyond the quick of the nail. Please note, however, that the nails should never be cut so short as to cause pain or discomfort!3. Sculpted nails, glued-on nails and the like are not allowed. Artificial nails can get caught in the ... , so they are expressly forbidden.4. The ... student has up to one week after receiving notice of this fingernail length policy to trim his or her nails according to the above guidelines. Profesional manicures are at the student's own expense.5. Failure to trim the nails may cause a student to lose up to ten points per lesson grade.
The following is a translation of a September 15, 09 news story from
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Today Leukemia patients gathered near the Parliament building, as they were asking to be awarded the funds for their medical provisions. The Health Minister Baiba Rozentale came out to speak with the protesters, and she explained to them that during the current [financial] situation it is not possible to award treatment funds to all. However, the President [of Latvia] Valdis Zatlers also came out to speak with the protestors later, telling them that leukemia is one of the diseases for which the state will always provide treatment funds for individuals.
Today leukemia patients and their supporters picketed near the Parliament building, asking the state to fid funds for treating their leukemia and lymphoma.
The picketers were at a loss because of the contradictory statements from two officials, saying that they don't know who to believe, the health minister Baiba Rozentale or President Valdis Zatlers.
Rozentale, as she was meeting with the picketers, stressed that health is an area in which the state cannot cut funding, however, she was skeptical that funding would actually be found; Zatlers on the other hand stated "There are those diseases for which the state will always provide treatment. Leukemia is one of those diseases."
Picketers asked the state to guarantee funding for the treatment of all leukemia and lymphoma victims, and also for victims of other forms of cancer, because such treatment is crucial for maintaining life, and it is critical for preventing the humiliating and life-threatening quotas on medicines, analyses, and the rest of the treatments.
"My daughter has to go to court to ensure that she will be able to get her medicines for treating leukemia," one protest participant Agra Jaunozolina explains. Her daughter needs 4800 Lati ($9000) for purchasing medicines, but the entity deciding whether she will get the medicines is the court. "And you never know in the court whether they will give her the medicines or not. So she goes on living from one court session to the next. Can you imagine - how stressful and humiliating it is at the moment when the Health Ministry asks you, 'Why do you think you need treatment more than others do?" But my daughter is not at fault for getting this disease. Why do we have to be humiliated? A person wants to live, after all."
"Mr. Zatlers said that the state has enough resources to resolve this issue, however the health minister said that this is not possible. Whom should I believe?", asked leukemia victim Irina Salova. "Behind each of their decisions there lies a life of a human being. Leukemia patients need medicines today and now, and they can't wait half a year until somebody somewhere makes a decision."
"Unfortunately nobody - no member of the government, no relative of theirs - is excluded from these types of diseases, so the society is asking now not to ignore the patients, thinking 'this will not affect us'. When the patients were healthy, they paid their taxes to the state, but now it turns out that the sickness is 'their own problem'. "
Organization of leukemia patients stresses that while the government keeps posturing with their supposedly strong position for cutting the budget, young women and even children are forced to go to court to fight for every next dose medicine for saving their lives. The neighboring countries offer dignified treatment to cancer patients even during crisis situations.
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Is this the health care future we want?
Professor Hatcher: Absolutely. What is the opposite of shalom? That's what we have.
Doctor Collins: So, what does this say about capitalism?
Hatcher: Is capitalism the opposite of shalom? I don't see the hand of God in capitalism.
Collins: It seems to me that capitalism is based on consumption, so whatever Smith says about consumption, I think should apply to capitalism, too. I agree with you Elaine. Whether capitalism is the opposite of shalom or not, it leads in that opposite direction.
Mitchell: Capitalism is such a big, magic word, that can be scary for some and miracle-working for others. I think there is much positive to be said about free markets, the production of goods, and the creativity that goes into investing capital. However, I'm fully in agreement that in the extreme consumerist version we live in, it's hard not to kiss the devil's hand and say you're only kidding.
Hatcher: I can't even imagine how a godly, Christ-like capitalist system would operate.
Mitchell: However, I certainly don't think socialist systems have proved themselves capable of producing long-term prosperity for a people. They tend to devolve into either utopian projects and/or totalitarian collectives. What capitalism offers at its best is the ability to people to use their creativity and drive in work and production of goods. Is radical consumption the natural end of all capitalism or only the kind we've developed in the West?
Hatcher: I certainly don't consider socialist systems a viable solution! The end result is much worse than our "radical consumerism." Due to the fallen nature of humankind, radical consumption is probably the natural end of all capitalism. We just can't seem to do anything right on a large scale although individuals might practice a godly form of ... Read more capitalism on a local scale. But I don't know of any society where either capitalism or socialism has ended well for all. I say back to the land! Maybe manorialism with benevolent landlords?
Here are some election questions from Cari Montgomery. Cari is a student in one of my onlne courses:
1.) How much power do the American people really have during the political elections?
2.) How much power do each divisions of the political parties really have? And what can and will they do with it in the next four years to help the American economy?
Feel free to post your thoughts. I will comment shortly.
4. It is the honour and responsibility of a
6. Through the encounter which it establishes between the unfathomable richness of the salvific message of the Gospel and the variety and immensity of the fields of knowledge in which that richness is incarnated by it, a
7. In the world today, characterized by such rapid developments in science and technology, the tasks of a
In this context, Catholic Universities are called to a continuous renewal, both as "Universities" and as "Catholic". For, "What is at stake is the very meaning of scientific and technological research, of social life and of culture, but, on an even more profound level, what is at stake is the very meaning of the human person"(10). . . .
21. A Catholic University pursues its objectives through its formation of an authentic human community animated by the spirit of Christ. The source of its unity springs from a common dedication to the truth, a common vision of the dignity of the human person and, ultimately, the person and message of Christ which gives the Institution its distinctive character. As a result of this inspiration, the community is animated by a spirit of freedom and charity; it is characterized by mutual respect, sincere dialogue, and protection of the rights of individuals. It assists each of its members to achieve wholeness as human persons; in turn, everyone in the community helps in promoting unity, and each one, according to his or her role and capacity, contributes towards decisions which affect the community, and also towards maintaining and strengthening the distinctive Catholic character of the Institution. . . .
33. A specific priority is the need to examine and evaluate the predominant values and norms of modern society and culture in a Christian perspective, and the responsibility to try to communicate to society those ethical and religious principles which give full meaning to human life. In this way a University can contribute further to the development of a true Christian anthropology, founded on the person of Christ, which will bring the dynamism of the creation and redemption to bear on reality and on the correct solution to the problems of life.
By its very nature, a University develops culture through its research, helps to transmit the local culture to each succeeding generation through its teaching, and assists cultural activities through its educational services. It is open to all human experience and is ready to dialogue with and learn from any culture. A
44. Through this dialogue a Catholic University assists the Church, enabling it to come to a better knowledge of diverse cultures, discern their positive and negative aspects, to receive their authentically human contributions, and to develop means by which it can make the faith better understood by the men and women of a particular culture(36). While it is true that the Gospel cannot be identified with any particular culture and transcends all cultures, it is also true that "the Kingdom which the Gospel proclaims is lived by men and women who are profoundly linked to a culture, and the building up of the Kingdom cannot avoid borrowing the elements of human culture or cultures(37). "A faith that places itself on the margin of what is human, of what is therefore culture, would be a faith unfaithful to the fullness of what the Word of God manifests and reveals, a decapitated faith, worse still, a faith in the process of self-annihilation"(38).
45. A Catholic University must become more attentive to the cultures of the world of today, and to the various cultural traditions existing within the Church in a way that will promote a continuous and profitable dialogue between the Gospel and modern society. Among the criteria that characterize the values of a culture are above all, the meaning of the human person, his or her liberty, dignity, sense of responsibility, and openness to the transcendent. To a respect for persons is joined the preeminent value of the family, the primary unit of every human culture.
Here's some of the juicer passages from the 1991 encylical Centesimus Annus. John Paul II clearly condemns the collectivism and state-ownership practiced by communism, and he also clearly praises the free market for many things, particular monetary ("solvent") matters. Yet he also decries a business model that sees the maximization of profits as its own reason for existence. He warns against the potential idolatry in the consumption of goods, and insists that business must be guided by moral and ethical concerns that profit the community of persons. The conditions of the workplace matter to Christians, he says, because they matter to proper human flourishing everywhere:
It would appear that, on the level of individual nations and of international relations, the free market is the most efficient instrument for utilizing resources and effectively responding to needs. But this is true only for those needs which are "solvent", insofar as they are endowed with purchasing power, and for those resources which are "marketable", insofar as they are capable of obtaining a satisfactory price. But there are many human needs which find no place on the market. It is a strict duty of justice and truth not to allow fundamental human needs to remain unsatisfied, and not to allow those burdened by such needs to perish. It is also necessary to help these needy people to acquire expertise, to enter the circle of exchange, and to develop their skills in order to make the best use of their capacities and resources. Even prior to the logic of a fair exchange of goods and the forms of justice appropriate to it, there exists something which is due to man because he is man, by reason of his lofty dignity. Inseparable from that required "something" is the possibility to survive and, at the same time, to make an active contribution to the common good of humanity. . . .
[I]t is right to speak of a struggle against an economic system, if the latter is understood as a method of upholding the absolute predominance of capital, the possession of the means of production and of the land, in contrast to the free and personal nature of human work. In the struggle against such a system, what is being proposed as an alternative is not the socialist system, which in fact turns out to be State capitalism, but rather a society of free work, of enterprise and of participation. Such a society is not directed against the market, but demands that the market be appropriately controlled by the forces of society and by the State, so as to guarantee that the basic needs of the whole of society are satisfied.
The Church acknowledges the legitimate role of profit as an indication that a business is functioning well. When a firm makes a profit, this means that productive factors have been properly employed and corresponding human needs have been duly satisfied. But profitability is not the only indicator of a firm's condition. It is possible for the financial accounts to be in order, and yet for the people — who make up the firm's most valuable asset — to be humiliated and their dignity offended. Besides being morally inadmissible, this will eventually have negative repercussions on the firm's economic efficiency. In fact, the purpose of a business firm is not simply to make a profit, but is to be found in its very existence as a community of persons who in various ways are endeavouring to satisfy their basic needs, and who form a particular group at the service of the whole of society. Profit is a regulator of the life of a business, but it is not the only one; other human and moral factors must also be considered which, in the long term, are at least equally important for the life of a business. . . .
It is the task of the State to provide for the defense and preservation of common goods such as the natural and human environments, which cannot be safeguarded simply by market forces. Just as in the time of primitive capitalism the State had the duty of defending the basic rights of workers, so now, with the new capitalism, the State and all of society have the duty of defending those collective goods which, among others, constitute the essential framework for the legitimate pursuit of personal goals on the part of each individual. . . .
Certainly the mechanisms of the market offer secure advantages: they help to utilize resources better; they promote the exchange of products; above all they give central place to the person's desires and preferences, which, in a contract, meet the desires and preferences of another person. Nevertheless, these mechanisms carry the risk of an "idolatry" of the market, an idolatry which ignores the existence of goods which by their nature are not and cannot be mere commodities.
Marxism criticized capitalist bourgeois societies, blaming them for the commercialization and alienation of human existence. This rebuke is of course based on a mistaken and inadequate idea of alienation, derived solely from the sphere of relationships of production and ownership, that is, giving them a materialistic foundation and moreover denying the legitimacy and positive value of market relationships even in their own sphere. Marxism thus ends up by affirming that only in a collective society can alienation be eliminated. However, the historical experience of socialist countries has sadly demonstrated that collectivism does not do away with alienation but rather increases it, adding to it a lack of basic necessities and economic inefficiency.
The historical experience of the West, for its part, shows that even if the Marxist analysis and its foundation of alienation are false, nevertheless alienation — and the loss of the authentic meaning of life — is a reality in Western societies too. This happens in consumerism, when people are ensnared in a web of false and superficial gratifications rather than being helped to experience their personhood in an authentic and concrete way. Alienation is found also in work, when it is organized so as to ensure maximum returns and profits with no concern whether the worker, through his own labour, grows or diminishes as a person, either through increased sharing in a genuinely supportive community or through increased isolation in a maze of relationships marked by destructive competitiveness and estrangement, in which he is considered only a means and not an end.
The concept of alienation needs to be led back to the Christian vision of reality, by recognizing in alienation a reversal of means and ends. When man does not recognize in himself and in others the value and grandeur of the human person, he effectively deprives himself of the possibility of benefitting from his humanity and of entering into that relationship of solidarity and communion with others for which God created him. Indeed, it is through the free gift of self that man truly finds himself. This gift is made possible by the human person's essential "capacity for transcendence". Man cannot give himself to a purely human plan for reality, to an abstract ideal or to a false utopia. As a person, he can give himself to another person or to other persons, and ultimately to God, who is the author of his being and who alone can fully accept his gift. A man is alienated if he refuses to transcend himself and to live the experience of selfgiving and of the formation of an authentic human community oriented towards his final destiny, which is God. A society is alienated if its forms of social organization, production and consumption make it more difficult to offer this gift of self and to establish this solidarity between people.
This selection from Laborem exercers shows John Paul II embracing the "middle way" of distributism. he argues against socialist collectivist and state control of the means of production, as well as those forms of capitalism that would deby labor the right to ownership of the means to produce. He insists on the right to private property but not on the absolute right divorced form the higher good of the common good of a society of persons. My guess is there's something here to annoy everyone:
". . . the Church, diverges radically from the programme of collectivism as proclaimed by Marxism and put into pratice in various countries in the decades following the time of Leo XIII's Encyclical. At the same time it differs from the programme of capitalism practised by liberalism and by the political systems inspired by it. In the latter case, the difference consists in the way the right to ownership or property is understood. Christian tradition has never upheld this right as absolute and untouchable. On the contrary, it has always understood this right within the broader context of the right common to all to use the goods of the whole of creation: the right to private property is subordinated to the right to common use, to the fact that goods are meant for everyone.
"Furthermore, in the Church's teaching, ownership has never been understood in a way that could constitute grounds for social conflict in labour. As mentioned above, property is acquired first of all through work in order that it may serve work. This concerns in a special way ownership of the means of production. Isolating these means as a separate property in order to set it up in the form of "capital" in opposition to "labour"-and even to practise exploitation of labour-is contrary to the very nature of these means and their possession. They cannot be possessed against labour, they cannot even be possessed for possession's sake, because the only legitimate title to their possession- whether in the form of private ownership or in the form of public or collective ownership-is that they should serve labour, and thus, by serving labour, that they should make possible the achievement of the first principle of this order, namely, the universal destination of goods and the right to common use of them. . . .
". . . The principle of respect for work demands that this right should undergo a constructive revision, both in theory and in practice. If it is true that capital, as the whole of the means of production, is at the same time the product of the work of generations, it is equally true that capital is being unceasingly created through the work done with the help of all these means of production, and these means can be seen as a great workbench at which the present generation of workers is working day after day. Obviously we are dealing here with different kinds of work, not only so-called manual labour but also the many forms of intellectual work, including white-collar work and management.
"In the light of the above, the many proposals put forward by experts in Catholic social teaching and by the highest Magisterium of the Church take on special significance -- proposals for joint ownership of the means of work, sharing by the workers in the management and/or profits of businesses, so-called shareholding by labour, etc. Whether these various proposals can or cannot be applied concretely, it is clear that recognition of the proper position of labour and the worker in the production process demands various adaptations in the sphere of the right to ownership of the means of production. This is so not only in view of older situations but also, first and foremost, in view of the whole of the situation and the problems in the second half of the present century with regard to the so-called Third World and the various new independent countries that have arisen, especially in Africa but elsewhere as well, in place of the colonial territories of the past.
"Therefore, while the position of "rigid" capitalism must undergo continual revision, in order to be reformed from the point of view of human rights, both human rights in the widest sense and those linked with man's work, it must be stated that, from the same point of view, these many deeply desired reforms cannot be achieved by an a priori elimination of private ownership of the means of production. For it must be noted that merely taking these means of production (capital) out of the hands of their private owners is not enough to ensure their satisfactory socialization. . . .
". . . A way towards that goal could be found by associating labour with the ownership of capital, as far as possible, and by producing a wide range of intermediate bodies with economic, social and cultural purposes; they would be bodies enjoying real autonomy with regard to the public powers, pursuing their specific aims in honest collaboration with each other and in subordination to the demands of the common good, and they would be living communities both in form and in substance, in the sense that the members of each body would be looked upon and treated as persons and encouraged to take an active part in the life of the body."
What would be a Christian way to 'award' scarce health interventions? Would the decision to 'award' medical services to a person be based on that person's age, gender, health status, other characteristics?
Methodology Annual pay for Bachelors graduates without higher degrees. Typical starting graduates have 2 years of experience; mid-career have 15 years. See full methodology for more. |
This is section 10 of John Paul II's encyclical Laborem exercens. It raises a number of important questions about not only the nature of work, but also what Christians should believe about the nature of the family and community:
"Work constitutes a foundation for the formation of family life, which is a natural right and something that man is called to. These two spheres of values-one linked to work and the other consequent on the family nature of human life-must be properly united and must properly permeate each other. In a way, work is a condition for making it possible to found a family, since the family requires the means of subsistence which man normally gains through work. Work and industriousness also influence the whole process of education in the family, for the very reason that everyone "becomes a human being" through, among other things, work, and becoming a human being is precisely the main purpose of the whole process of education. Obviously, two aspects of work in a sense come into play here: the one making family life and its upkeep possible, and the other making possible the achievement of the purposes of the family, especially education. Nevertheless, these two aspects of work are linked to one another and are mutually complementary in various points.
"It must be remembered and affirmed that the family constitutes one of the most important terms of reference for shaping the social and ethical order of human work. The teaching of the Church has always devoted special attention to this question, and in the present document we shall have to return to it. In fact, the family is simultaneously a community made possible by work and the first school of work, within the home, for every person.
"The third sphere of values that emerges from this point of view-that of the subject of work-concerns the great society to which man belongs on the basis of particular cultural and historical links. This society-even when it has not yet taken on the mature form of a nation-is not only the great "educator" of every man, even though an indirect one (because each individual absorbs within the family the contents and values that go to make up the culture of a given nation); it is also a great historical and social incarnation of the work of all generations. All of this brings it about that man combines his deepest human identity with membership of a nation, and intends his work also to increase the common good developed together with his compatriots, thus realizing that in this way work serves to add to the heritage of the whole human family, of all the people living in the world.
"These three spheres are always important for human work in its subjective dimension. And this dimension, that is to say, the concrete reality of the worker, takes precedence over the objective dimension. In the subjective dimension there is realized, first of all, that "dominion" over the world of nature to which man is called from the beginning according to the words of the Book of Genesis. The very process of "subduing the earth", that is to say work, is marked in the course of history, and especially in recent centuries, by an immense development of technological means. This is an advantageous and positive phenomenon, on condition that the objective dimension of work does not gain the upper hand over the subjective dimension, depriving man of his dignity and inalienable rights or reducing them."
The problem about making claims about the future is that the future hasn't happened yet. 
What can one do with a Trillion Dollars?
*Buy a $3 latte every day for ... 900 million years
OR
*Fund the military of ... all NATO countries combined
OR
I found the link at http://infosthetics.com/
