P
PoliSciProf
Guest
In the best selling book Liberal Fascism, author Jonah Goldberg writes (in a chapter on Liberal Fascist Economics) “Fascism is the cult of unity, within all spheres and between all spheres…fascism pragmatically sought to preserve what was good and authentic about society while bending it to the common good…It’s revealing that corporatism has many of its roots in Catholic doctrine. The 1891 papal encyclical *Rerum novarum *proposed corporatism or syndicalism in response to the dislocations of the Industrial Revolution. In 1931 an updated encyclical, Quadragesimo anno, reaffirmed the principles of Rerum novarum. The two documents formed the backbone of progressive Catholic social thought. The Church’s interest in corporatism stemmed from its belief that this was the best way to revive social arrangements that gave man a greater sense of meaning in his life. In short, corporatism was in large measure a sprititual project. Both the cold impersonal forces of Marx’s history and the unloving dogma of Adam Smith’s invisible hand would be rejected in favor of a Third Way that let the “forgotten man” feel like he had a place in the grand scheme of things. The Nazis had a word for this process: Gleichschaltung. A political word borrowed–like so many others–from the realm of engineering, it meant “coordination.” The idea was simple: All institutions needed to work together as if they were part of the same machine.” (pages 297-298)
Goldberg’s book has a lot to recommend in it and I would recommend it to CAF posters. But, is this a fair reading of the cited encyclicals? If so, your comments on this would be greatly appreciated.
Goldberg’s book has a lot to recommend in it and I would recommend it to CAF posters. But, is this a fair reading of the cited encyclicals? If so, your comments on this would be greatly appreciated.