This earnest and eloquent Letter to the Pope is by far the most remarkable utterance which the Encyclical of 1890 has evoked. The Pope could not have found a fitter controversialist to oppose him, for Mr. George meets him on the same basis of metaphysical theology, and appeals to the same authority of Scripture and St. Thomas of Aquino. And the whole letter seems, in its manner, curiously to echo the Pope ' s own dignified ecclesiastical – Latin style. Mr. George feels that the Encyclical is directed more strongly against his own «single tax» panacea than against what is vaguely called Socialism, which in a moderate form it favors. The Pope expressly puts property in land on the same level with property of any other kind, and expressly maintains that private property in this wide sense is a «natural right» of man, prior to the formation of any State. Mr. George, like the Pope, believes in " natural rights; "but he works out this vague and treacherous conception in his own way. «The right of property,» he says, «attaches to things produced by labor, but cannot attach to things created by God. Thus, if a man take a fish from the ocean he acquires a right of property in that fish, which exclusive right he may transfer by sale or gift. But he cannot obtain a similar right of property in the ocean, so that he may sell it, or give it, or forbid others to use it.» Does Mr. George mean that the fish was not created by God ? He can hardly expect his Holiness to believe that; nor are any of us likely to believe that it was " produced " by the fisherman in any sense in which a great deal of land has not been produced " by human labor. The antithesis of God or " Nature " to everything that is done by human effort runs through all Mr. George ' s arguments. " Socialism in all its phases, " he says, « looks on the evils of our civilization as springing from the inadequacy or inharmony of natural relations, which must be artificially organized or improved. In its idea there devolves on the State the necessity of intelligently organizing the industrial relations of men, the construction, as it were, of a great machine, whose complicated parts shall properly work together under the direction of human intelligence. This is the reason why socialism tends towards atheism. Failing to see the order and symmetry of natural law, it fails to recognize God.» Mr. George seems to think that the work of human intelligence goes on in spite of God, and is somehow outside «Nature.» This, though a very common way of thinking, is very questionable philosophy, and the Pope would hardly approve of it as theology. Mr. George undertakes a hard task when he tries to persuade the head of the Catholic Church that " interest is natural and just, " while land – owning is wrong. But he makes a very strong point when he shows that the Pope ' s argument, " that what is bought with rightful property is rightful property, " could be used to justify slave – owning as easily as to justify property in land.
First published in 1881, under the title of «The Irish Land Question,» but dealing, as it does with matters of universal and permanent importance, it still retained its value and popularity in 1893, when the title was changed. Meant as an attack on Herbert Spencer for a position taken up by him ten years ago it was rather late in its appearance.
Книга футуролога Элвина Тоффлера «Третья волна» описывает будущее с точки зрения концепции социальных волн. Каждая волна отбрасывает жизненные установки предыдущего социума. Первая волна – это общество после аграрной революции, сменившее охотников и собирателей. Вторая волна – это общество эпохи промышленной революции от начала XVII до середины ХХ века, с резко возросшим городским населением и распадом традиционных семейных связей. По Тоффлеру, общество третьей волны – мир, в котором мы живем уже сегодня. Автора интересовали типологические черты человека будущего. В 1980 году он предсказал снижение влияния рынка товаров, индивидуализацию всех сфер человеческой деятельности, падение Берлинской стены, распад СССР и возвышение Азиатско-Тихоокеанского региона. Зачем читать • Ознакомиться с идеями Элвина Тоффлера, одного из самых влиятельных западных философов. • Узнать, что такое «протребитель» и как эта бизнес-модель уже сегодня меняет все сферы человеческой жизни. • Разобраться, что такое полупрямая демократия и почему власть третьей волны – это власть меньшинства.
¿Con qué podríamos comparar al Reino de Dios? Se parece a un grano de mostaza. Cuando se lo siembra, es la más pequeñas de todas las semillas de la tierra, pero, una vez sembrada, crece y llega a ser la más grandes de todas las hortalizas, y extiende tanto sus ramas que los pájaros del cielo se cobijan a su sombra" (Mc 4, 30-32).
La parábola contada por el Señor puede acompañar muy bien el misterio de la vida, misión e historia de esta pequeña comunidad, situada en el barrio presidente Sarmiento y Carlos Gardel de la diócesis de Morón. Tal vez porque comenzó como una pequeña inspiración del Espíritu Santo en el corazón de personas que se dispusieron a vivir en comunidad su vida y su fe, asumiendo que Dios en su hacer comienza desde lo pequeño para llegar a grandes cosas.
¿Qué resaltaría de este camino?, ¿qué me gustaría acentuar? El lenguaje del Señor se manifiesta en signos que el corazón creyente necesita aprender a descubrir, interpretar y descifrar en la historia. Y quien pueda entrar en esta sintonía de comprensión, puede descubrir en este libro, narrado por muchos y contado por cuatro mujeres, una historia de salvación, una historia de Dios con esta pequeña porción de su Pueblo.
La comunidad Virgen de la Asunción, como un signo de esperanza, sembrada en un contexto rico en diversidad y muy duro en las necesidades básicas de la vida, es un signo que nos enseña precisamente que el don de la esperanza siempre se sostiene actuando, haciendo aquello que sabemos por la fe y la confianza en Dios, que tiene un potencial transformador en el amor que se hace entrega y se pone al servicio de los demás.
En un tiempo de mucha riqueza en experiencias, positivas y negativas, esta comunidad va tratando de vivir desde el Espíritu de Jesús resucitado derramado sobre ella como misión la certeza de que vivir es convivir, que es más fecundo y pleno compartir la vida, lo que somos y tenemos, antes que dejar que el sueño individualista y consumista que inspiran otros vientos nos lastime, nos entristezca y nos hagan infecundos. Gracias a cada persona que fue y es protagonista de esta historia de Esperanza.
P. Rodrigo Vega, Párroco de Virgen de la Asunción, Diócesis de Morón.
Henry George on free trade! The dismal science is being reclaimed, its swamp lands drained, its jungles cleared, sunshine and free air let in; and the cheap publishers are establishing a prosperous settlement on the bogs where the owl but lately was wont to hoot its wisdom to unlistening ears. The singular success of Mr. George is that he has made Political Economy interesting. A vast deal of heresy might well be pardoned to the author who has set the average man thinking over the urgent problems which were recently supposed to constitute the dreariest of the sciences. No writer on Political Economy has approached him in the power of clothing its dry bones with life. Those who deny him the title of a social architect cannot refuse him the claim of being an economic artist. This book has much of the charm which characterized his first great work. 'Protection or Free Trade' takes a grip of the reader such as 'Progress and Poverty' laid upon hosts of men in all walks of life. Those of us who knew that Mr. George has been for a year or more engaged on a book upon this well-handled theme have awaited its appearance with curious wonder, to see whether this threshed-out subject could take on new life at his touch. The miracle is wrought. He has written a book which, whether it convince the reader or not, cannot fail to interest him, and allure him on through its pages with a zest that never flags from title-page to finis. He is really a master of words. This, however, is because he is a master of ideas. He has his subject well in hand when he begins to write. He thinks clearly, and thus speaks clearly. He knows what he means, sees his thought vividly in the sunshine, and thus puts it upon paper so that he who runs may read. He goes straight for the point which he has in view, and strides along in a good, honest Saxon gait which leaves it easy for the plainest man of the people to keep in his footsteps.
This book by the author of 'Progress and Poverty' will doubtless be read with much interest on this side of the Atlantic. The name of Mr. Henry George is now a familiar one to both sections of the Anglo-Saxon race, and they really have no reason to be ashamed of so robust and genial a son, sadly mis guided on many points though he is. Enthusiasts there will always be with an easy method of curing social discontent – men who do not take sufficient account of the difficulties and real conditions by which life is circumscribed, and who dream that by uttering a new formula the gathering evils of the world can be charmed away. Naturally, it is to be regretted that such men have not more of the judicial faculty, which can see all the sides of a complicated question. But enthusiasm and the judicial faculty are seldom associated in the same mind ; and, as we cannot do without the enthusiast, let us be thankful for Mr. George, who is a sincere and noble man, proclaiming earnestly what he believes to be saving truth. For those who may think of reading this book, we hope it is unnecessary to state that Mr. George has no sympathy with the blood-red anarchy which seeks to overturn altar and family and all the existing institutions of civilized society. Instead of disturbing the sacred traditions, Mr. George is evidently a man of strong religious faith, who in all sincerity supports his theories of social reform with quotations from Scripture. Throughout his book there runs a vein of cheerful optimism ; of the cynicism and scepticism which mark so many of the revolutionary class there is scarcely a trace. Nor can we agree with those who think that Mr. George's pet idea, which here reappears, of the nationalization of land by the confiscation of rent is a dangerous one. In a country like ours such a proposal is so extravagant and unpractical that it may be dismissed as harmless. The real danger seems to be of a very different kind – the danger, namely, that the colossal blunder of Mr. George may hide from us the valuable truths or suggestions of truth that may undoubtedly be found in this book. 'Social Problems' consists of twenty-two chapters, each of which treats of a phase of our social condition. It is written from the American standpoint, and a number of questions are discussed which can be rightly appreciated only by those who have an intimate acquaintance with American affairs. But most of it will be quite as interesting to Englishmen as to Americans. The treatment is more popular than in Progress and Poverty ; it is less labored and controversial, and, it must be said, less sophistical. The book is marked by the same eloquence, the same sympathy with the claims of labor, and the same wide and often true insight into the great industrial movements of our time. In these qualities, and not in his theory of the land, lies the strength of Mr. George. He has evidently been a shrewd and sympathetic observer of the social condition of his own country and of ours. He is inspired with the poetry of labor, often tragic to a terrible degree; he has felt its pathos, and knows its dreary monotony, and its subjection to vast economic influences over which it has no control – all the anarchy, in short, that results from the free play of individualism and of unrestricted competition. Mr. George has watched with his own eyes the effects of the most extraordinary development of industry and population that the world has ever seen.
Las crisis rompen la normalidad, abren los tarros de las esencias y también la caja de los truenos. Traen de regreso un aroma de muerte y de peligro, y activan nuestro cerebro más antiguo. Son momentos en los que volvemos a pedir ayuda y en los que organizar la ayuda mutua vuelve a ser una posibilidad. Son momentos de expresar obediencia a quien piensas que te puede salvar, y de trenzar con tus iguales solidaridades frente a la adversidad. Las crisis son el momento de la comunidad, del grupo, del colectivo, del Estado. Con sus peligros y sus oportunidades.
Professor Fetter's 'Economic Principles' is the second half of a two-volume treatise on economics. The first half 'Economic Principles' deals with the basics. The author of this volume is one of the great American economists. His contributions to economic literature have been notable, and while it would, of course, be too much to say that they have won universal acceptance, it can safely be affirmed that they have quite generally been accorded respectful and sympathetic attention. Professor Fetter occupies a place of distinction, not only as a thinker and writer in the field of economics, but also as a university teacher. Several years ago he served also as President of the American Economic Association. Few are better qualified, therefore, to prepare a general treatise on economics. This volume constitutes the second part of a work dealing with the principles of economics which in some respects may be regarded as a revision of Professor Fetter's Principles of Economics, published as a single volume. But the treatment of the principles of value and distribution in volume I of the new work differs materially, if not radically, from that in the earlier text, and, at the same time, as Professor Fetter himself remarks, the years since have been so replete with interesting happenings in the field of practical problems that volume II represents more than a mere revision of the corresponding chapters in the earlier book. Hence, the present volumes taken together must be regarded as an essentially new contribution. Considering the variety of economic problems that Professor Fetter discusses, it seems extraordinary that he has been able to compress his treatment within the limits of a comparatively small book. His success in this direction, however, has been due to his method of treatment. While essential facts have not been neglected, he has not at tempted to give an encyclopedic description of all the elements involved in the several problems, but he has confined himself rather to a setting forth of the points of principle involved in them, suggesting in this connection, the solutions which sound analysis and a healthy for as a writer, it will appear superfluous to speak of style. But for those who may not know, let it be said that Professor Fetter writes with a nicety and clearness of expression and with a delicacy of touch and of humor that stamp him as a writer of the first class.