I do not often visit the Acton Institute’s website, but when I do I always find something really really stupid:
The idea that capitalism has anything to do with anything but the love of money, which St Paul says is…. well, you know, is beyond absurd. I could not endure watching more than a few minutes of this but skipping ahead I saw the part about capitalists really trying to make the world a better place and the notion that somehow greed equates Eros…
And to think that there are actonistas who find this inspiring….
And if this does not confirm the proverb ‘Never trust a man in a bowtie’ then I do not know what would.
They make the laws to chain us well
The clergy dazzle us wi’ heaven or they damn us into Hell
We will not worship the god they serve
The god of greed who feeds the rich while the poor man starves
Jeezus, Daniel, what kind of penance are you doling out to yourself, watching such bilge?
I view it as more comedy, but the sort of comedian I can only take in small doses.
Ah yes Jeffrey Tucker the flamboyant clown-jester of the Acton Institute.
It would only be funny if nobody took it seriously.
Exactly. Just like Ayn Rand. A bad joke taken seriously by many, so she cannot be ignored.
I think it is funny if no one with a modicum of understanding of CST, or for that matter, the gospels takes it seriously.
And while that is funny, it is tragic that anyone could think that this makes sense or that it is at all ‘Catholic’. Capitalism of course IS about love: love of money and love of self.
A professor at my daughter’s college, who is in every way honorable, admirable and respectable, has taken of late on his blog to stump for Acton “U.” This nauseating shtick should warn off all normals from “Acton Institute.” At the very least, this is performance art not worthy of the time. At worst, it is a corrupt distortion of Catholic teaching.
I do not see how he is honorable and admirable if he is schlepping for Acton, Respectable, certainly. They are all respectable.
I misspoke. I don’t believe the professor is a paid promoter of Acton. He is not an economist, and is admirable for his work in his chosen field. All of us are prone to lapses in judgement. Some years ago Acton had me fooled too.
This is a parody post, right?
I don’t have the time to watch more than a few minutes up front but didn’t find anything particularly nauseating in the first 3.5 minutes. Timestamps for the objectionable parts would be helpful.
Work is an essential part of dignity. I personally have a child who has been running up against the child labor laws for years. The laws are not built to accommodate a person who can sit down at a computer and genuinely create economic value in their spare time while getting good grades. They were designed to reserve factory jobs for adults, a shrinking problem as we automate that sort of repetitive labor.
As for capitalism in general, it is an economic system whose core is much the same as any other economic system, the appropriate assignment of resources to various material problems. None of these systems are perfect. Capitalism tends to do the job better than the other candidates for the job. To say that capitalism is chiefly about the love of money (and thus is sinful) is to toss to the side the biggest anti-poverty driver of economic progress we, as a species, have found. If I were writing as mean spirited as the original post, I would ask what do you have against poor people.
Hoo boy.
Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
Taking the truth is the first step to overcome any misfortune.Only when you face the fact can you get beyond it.