[GJM] #852, Steve Consilvio On The "just war theory, " In Behalf of Ron Paul.

[E. Crockett]

--- wesburt at juno.com wrote:

> Good Day Folks,
> 
> Steve's prompt response to #851 was sincerely 
> appreciated and is appended below to give my 
> audience another opinion on "Just War Theory."
> I have been fascinated by Catholic Social Teaching 
> (CST) since Rev. John A. Ryan reviewed the subject 
> in Appendix I of Richard T. Ely's 1938
> Autobiography, 
> "Ground Under Our Feet."  As I understand it, CST 
> has two vital parts.  In that respect it is much
> like 
> Binary Economics, a favorite topic on the GJM list 
> where Steve C. posted his message on "Just War 
> Theory," and left Dr. Block's other two aspects of 
> CST twisting in the wind.
> 
> The first part of CST, probably older than the Roman
> 
> Church itself, is the Catholic Principle of
> Subsidiarity; 
> which advocates that the various functions of an 
> organization should be delegated to the lowest 
> level of organization able to perform the function. 
> 
> All I know about Subsidiarity I learned between 1947
> 
> and 1955; from the General Electric Company's 
> corporate decentralization program, its advanced 
> engineering program, and its 1953 project to 
> automate the dispatching function of electric 
> power grids.  After another thirty years as an 
> employee of ten different defense contractors and 
> twenty-three years of studious retirement, I have
> discovered that in the USA all five of our Western 
> Religions; Judaism, Catholicism, Protestantism, 
> Islam, and Atheism practice "Subsidiarity" in the 
> same way:  The expense of public education is 
> funded from the public revenue while the expense 
> of subsistence and higher education is delegated 
> to the family budget at the lowest level of social 
> organization, with means-tested public welfare 
> for those who fall into debt and poverty.  Thomas
> Paine said it well in his 1792 "Rights Of Man, Part
> II," 
> "It is from the expense of raising children that
> their 
> poverty arises."  That is, from their investment in 
> the nation's human capital.  There is no other tax 
> burden that taxpayers assume without objection, 
> and Subsidiarity applied to the expense of human 
> development is The Wrong Policy (TWP),  a policy 
> which was rejected by US corporations in the 1890s.
> 
> The second part of Catholic Social Teaching, a 
> more recent addition to CST, the "Principle of 
> A Family Wage," was a response to the condition 
> of the working man in Europe, as documented 
> in Pope Leo X III's 1891 encyclical letter, Rerum 
> Novarum, and, forty years later, in Pope Pius XI's 
> 1931, Quadragesimo Anno.  Between the two 
> World Wars, Bertrand Russell also concisely 
> defined the "Family Wage" in his 1915 book, 
> "Principles Of Social Reconstruction," when 
> he wrote on page 128:
> 
>         "The expense of children aught to be borne 
>         wholly by the community.  Their food, 
>         clothing, and education aught to be
> provided, 
>         not only to the very poor as a matter of 
>         charity, but to all classes as a matter of 
>         public interest."
> 
> 
> Russell was tarred with the dirty brush of Socialism
> 
> for voicing that opinion.  But Catholic Europe
> adopted 
> that solution after World War II , while the English
> 
> speaking nations continue to sink, slowly but surly,
> 
> into debt and poverty, because they continued to 
> delegate the expense of human development to the 
> lowest level of human organization: the family.
> 
> We are well informed on the place of abortion in 
> CST.   We have reviewed CST with regard to the 
> struggle between the principle of Subsidiarity 
> and the principle of A Family Wage.  Now, folks, 
> please read Steve's views on "Just War Theory," 
> which I wholly agree with.  Below Steve's note 
> I will try again to persuade Ron Paul, the 
> Libertarians, our five Western Religions, Doug 
> Everingham, and our dedicated Monetary 
> Reformers to adopt "The Optimum Policy" (Top); 
> and there by remove the singular obstacle to the 
> achievement of their several visions of Utopia.
> That "singular obstacle," of course, is the one 
> systemic moral defect in the otherwise nearly 
> perfect Free market economy we call Capitalism.
> 
> ~~~~~~~~ Forwarded Message ~~~~~~~~~~~
> steve at behappyandfree.com>
> To: discussion at globaljusticemovement.net
> Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2008 15:46:46 -0500
> Subject: [GJM]  #851, An Open Letter to Ron Paul 
> And Lew Rockwell, In Behalf of Ron Paul.
> 
>         "For Catholics, the following points might 
>         be mentioned: Ron's views are fully 
>         comparable with Catholic just war theory."
>        (Quote from Dr. Block's statement in #851)
> 
> 
> The "just war" theory is an intellectual farce.  It
> is a 
> "just war" that Osama argues in his Letter to
> America.  
> It is a "just war" that Jefferson argues in the
> Declaration 
> of Independence.  It is a "just war" that Hitler
> argued, 
> as well as Stalin and Mao.  Fear, and the lust for
> power, 
> are the continuing rational for war, and all
> violence is 
> seen as "just" by the violent.  Even Timothy
> McVeigh, 
> Charles Manson and the Unibomber view their violence
> 
> as "just."  Every stone-thrower believes he is just.
> 
> 
> Even Kucinich, the only real peace candidate, whose 
> slogan is "Strength through Peace," repeats this
> babble 
> of a "just war."  He tries to wrap himself in the
> same 
> Constitutional hypocrisy that has governed every
> nation.  
> The blind lead the blind.  Lincoln was "just" when
> he 
> slaughtered Americans and Natives alike.  Always the
> 
> might is on the side of right.
> 
> 
> Every fascist has a gun in one hand and a piece of 
> paper in the other.  The paper gives him the right
> to 
> kill, and he either wrote it or interpreted it to
> say that 
> his killing is "just."
> 
> 
> What kind of justice is it that says one man should 
> live and another should die?
> 
> 
> Fear and pride rule the world.  Fear leads men to
> kill, 
> and pride leads men to repeat their mistakes.  The 
> thing that men are most proud of is their killing
> and 
> how they "conquered" their fears.  In fact, in
> victory 
> they fall deeper into the abyss.  Only the most 
> ruthless are victorious.
> 
> 
> Every war starts as a civil war.  The rebel and the 
> tyrant are the same person.  Men battle their 
> mirror and their own hypocrisy, not evil.
> 
> 
> The world is flowing rivers of blood from "just" 
> wars, and the only thing that will stop them is 
> mercy and compassion; the courage not to kill.  
> If men have no mercy for others, then they will 
> harvest the sword.  We reap what we sow.  
> We can live and die by the sword, or live and 
> die by the word.  Either way, hypocrisy does 
> not fit into a label.  To campaign that Ron Paul 
> is as good a hypocrite as others is hardly a 
> prescient argument.
> 
> 
> peace,
> Steve Consilvio
> www.behappyandfree.com
> ~~~~~~~~ End Steve Consilvio ~~~~~~~~
> 
> Thanks again Steve.  Please send your comments 
> also on the role of CST in forming US public policy.
>  
> 
> Now, to continue our discussion in behalf of Ron 
> Paul, consider this.  In his 6 Jan 2008 reply to
> John 
> 
=== message truncated ===>
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