First They Ignore You, Then They Mock You

October 11, 2011 by Daniel Nichols

I mentioned yesterday how distributism’s enemies attempt to dismiss it as anachronistic. Here is a prime example, and aside from “What would Frodo do?” it isn’t even funny. But, hey, at least we have their attention. Thank you, Acton Institute: http://blog.acton.org/archives/26611-10-signs-you-may-be-a-distributist.html

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Posted in Uncategorized | 9 Comments

9 Responses

on October 11, 2011 at 9:47 am | Reply owen white

News flash:

3 Pack Frodo Failed, the Republicans have the Ring bumper sticker
on October 11, 2011 at 1:56 pm | Reply Christopher Zehnder

I recall First Things had its occasional dismissive swipe against distributism. Tom Woods has thought it worth his while to write against it. The Acton Institute’s blogger who wrote his silly attack includes links to what he calls more serious responses. They are hardly more serious. I have often wondered why these folks think it necessary to attack distrbutism. Do they think that distrbutists pose some real danger to their beloved plutocracy?
on October 11, 2011 at 2:27 pm | Reply Sam White

If folks figured out that they could support their neighbor’s right to start a business or sell farm products while at the same time opposing corporate capitalism that would be a danger to the political order. Therefore it is important to declare all protests to be commies and socialists, which most folks who might be attracted have been well trained to oppose.

To the few who notice, distributists don’t fit that frame very well, so when absoutely necessary they must be made out to be striped-pants wearing nut-jobs from Middle Earth. Everybody gets a good laugh and then can return to the capitalists/communists paradigm.
- on October 12, 2011 at 8:10 pm | Reply Edgewise
  
  “I have often wondered why these folks think it necessary to attack distributism. Do they think that distrbutists pose some real danger to their beloved plutocracy?”
  
  Well, has it ever occurred to you that *maybe* they “attack” it because
  a) it’s wrong,
  or
  b) even if *they* are wrong, they’re at least *sincerely* convinced it’s wrong, and are making a more/less goodhearted attempt at public debate?
  
  “Beloved plutocracy”…oh, come on! (Good grief… [Why don't you just "ask" whether the Acton Institute has stopped beating his wife?])
  
  Anyhow–notwithstanding the sarcastic tone, the post does seem to make some good points–particularly numbers 5 and 7.
  
  I’m still waiting for distributists to cite some actual historical work “proving” that the age of the guilds and/or the Medieval Era was some sort of utopia; it’s always being asserted that either the history is wrong or dishonest, but I’ve yet to see such arguments credibly backed-up.
  
  And as for Mondragon–first learned of them in the 80s, since them have been reading/hearing all sorts of idealists idealizing them. One doesn’t have to google far to find all sorts of American wannabes online. If that model had any real chance of taking-off… Well, who knows? Maybe all the wannabes are being sabotaged by the plutocrats and/or freemasons…OK, now I’m the one being sarcastic–could an American Mondragon really succeed? Maybe–but like it or not, we’re–overall–neither Basques nor Spaniards. American conditions and/or culture just doesn’t seem conducive for a Mondragon-style enterprise. But who knows? Maybe *some* entrepreneur(s) somewhere will find a way to pull it off….
  - on October 12, 2011 at 10:08 pm owen white
    
    Why don’t you just “ask” whether the Acton Institute has stopped beating his wife?
    
    Please, as if an accurately anthropomorphized Action Institute would be straight in its sexual orientation.
on October 11, 2011 at 7:03 pm | Reply Thomas Storck

G.K.’s Weekly, the newspaper edited by Chesterton, supported the General Strike in Great Britain in 1926.
on October 12, 2011 at 5:18 pm | Reply Thomas Storck

The comments on the Acton “power” blog for the most part seem hostile to the Acton Institute and its free-market agenda. God be praised!
on October 12, 2011 at 9:05 pm | Reply Christopher Zehnder

Mr. Edgewise,

If the Acton Institute were goodhearted and interested in a public debate on distributism, they would write serious critiques, not snide attacks on strawman positions. Mockery cannot be the basis of honest debate. Besides the fact that the Acton Institute basically supports the economic status quo as essentially sound, the little blog piece comparing distributists to the Gracchi, if we follow the analogy, suggests that as the Gracchi were foolish in their challenge of the slave-based economic system of Rome, so the distributist are foolish to challenge the finance-sector dominated order of the modern world. Or do you deny that our current economic condition can aptly be described as plutocratic?
on October 13, 2011 at 3:03 pm | Reply Sam White

As for Action’s “point” #5, if a superior system can be implemented in a society of 75,000 but not in a society of 307 million, that would more logically recommend organizing in groups of the smaller group than rejecting the superior system.