In which I argue that Libertarianism is a remedy, not a panacea.
A snippet:
It seems to me that Catholics who wish to counter this compulsory charity and the growth of an overbearing state can embrace a sort of libertarian impulse in good conscience — provided they understand the danger of the atomized, radically individualistic anarchy that lies at the far end of that spectrum.
Similarly, Catholics who believe that social justice demands a certain level of statism to fill in where private charity fails must understand the danger of fascism or communism that result when we hand too much power to the government and outsource works of mercy that should voluntary to bureaucrats who trade handouts for votes.
As we strive for balance and the protection of the liberty that allows us to thrive and prosper as citizens, we must all be wary of being drawn to extremity, simply out of the feeling of a need for ideological purity or unquestioning affiliation to the political group of our choice.
Good post, Steve.
It’s interesting to see that you linked to a John Zmirak/Jason Jones article. By the way, do you happen to have any idea whatever happened to Zmirak? I remember following him on Facebook, and right around last New Year’s Eve he became extremely angry about something and then appeared to delete his Facebook account.
A few weeks later, Rod Dreher posted in his column at The American Conservative “John Zmirak Says Good-Bye to a Catholic Subculture” in which he linked to a Zmirak article at The Catholic Thing and then mentioned that he had been in contact with John, and John had told him that he had “walked firmly away from that subculture”. (However, his article at The Catholic Thing didn’t make it clear that he had).
Most of the readers of the column took it that he left behind Catholic Traditionalism; Zmirak himself never jumped into Rod’s com-boxes to confirm, deny, or clarify, and has had an article or two written by himself and published at TAC since then.
I remember the old days when you and he both wrote for the old Crisis Magazine (or I should say: InsideCatholic.com (R.I.P)) and you both agreed that the Trad Catholic subculture had it’s problems, but that they were not for the most part insurmountable obstacles. I also remember that towards the end of his time on Facebook, he had expressed strong disapproval of the SSPX and “Throne and Altar” types as well as being extremely dismayed with Pope Francis.
That being said, his “The Shame of the Catholic Subculture” article seemed to raise more questions than it answered, and veered of into an odd tangent about the fights between pro-NFP and contra-NFP Catholics. Sure, both sides had their idiots, but is that much of a reason to walk away from the TLM? Seems like thowing the baby out with the bathwater to me.
It’s pretty said; I found Zmirak to be the best all-around lay Catholic writer, especially about the history of our faith and the players and forces involved internally. Now the Mark Shea types have online Catholic world pretty much to themselves.
Here’s a link to the Rod Dreher article:
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/john-zmirak-catholic-subculture/
If you’ve got any idea what got into John, a lot of former readers would really appreciate it.
Keep up the great writing!
P.S. Next time you decide to to use music from youtube.com to make an apocalyptic point, “Bad Moon Rising” can work even better than “O Fortuna”. These days we need all the chuckles we can get, even if all that’s available is Dark Comedy!
Hmmmm…….no one home. Ah, well.
Sorry, I started to respond and I think I was interrupted and it got lost.
As far as I know, John is still TLM-friendly, but no fan of the conception of religious liberty that would allow for compulsion in matters of conscience. (That’s a really brief summary that doesn’t do his position justice.)
Also, the Catholic ghetto is a place where I think many of have languished for too long. Fighting amongst ourselves does little to inform the culture. (Again, my take, not his.) And working for the Church is a quick way to betrayal or bankruptcy in the experience of many people I know.
The bottom line is that I don’t have an answer for you. I know that John says his writing speaks for itself. Beyond that, I can’t presume to speak for him.