Monday, March 30, 2015

David F. Ruccio — Catholicism beyond capitalism


Pope Francis on trickle down and cooperatives. Francis seems to be a non-Marxist socialist. 

Occasional Links & Commentary
Catholicism beyond capitalism
David F. Ruccio | Professor of Economics University of Notre Dame Notre Dame

For a Marxian view of worker cooperatives as a viable basis for socialism:

Monthly Review
Cooperatives On the Path to Socialism?
Peter Marcuse | Professor Emeritus of Urban Planning, Columbia University

4 comments:

Magpie said...

"Francis seems to be a non-Marxist socialist."

Quite likely. The Pope himself is on the public record denying any link to Marxism.

Regardless, I doubt that will be enough to mollify his enemies: the "Marxism, Agh!" epithet is used more for the convenience of the critic than to provide a real assessment of his target.

Tom Hickey said...

In much of the "capitalist" world, "socialist" implies Marxist, which further implies totalitarian atheist. Easy to paint a pope as totalitarian, since "everyone knows" that the pope wants to resurrect Medieval Christendom with the pope in charge. But I'll be interested to see how they paint Pope Francis as an atheist and Ayn Rand as a believer. :)

Magpie said...

I think the things go the other way: historically, the irrational hatred of socialism predates the Soviet Union. In fact, it predates Marxism.

It's against the idea that the rabble may find advocates among respectable people. Socialists face the same reaction Abolitionists faced in pre-Civil War U.S. The terms "nigger" and "boorish proletariat" are perfectly interchangeable.

Stalin, Pol Pot, Mao are only convenient excuses for people who often had no problems dealing with Hitler. All the bullshit about atrocities, freedom, and this or that is only that: hypocritical bullshit.

Matt Franko said...

Francis: "Today everything comes under the laws of competition and the survival of the fittest, where the powerful feed upon the powerless. "


This is simply Darwinism 101 so (if one believes in Darwinism) then what's not to like?