What about “Just Government”

[peregrinus_WA]

Yes, I am at it again.

Another post from my blog:

What about “Just Government”

With all the news these days about governments (both here and in Canada) ruling against various religious activities and speech, I am just wondering if today’s governments can be considered “just” in their rule. Looking through the Catechism, the following leaps out:**1902 **Authority does not derive its moral legitimacy from itself. It must not behave in a despotic manner, but must act for the common good as a “moral force based on freedom and a sense of responsibility”.[1]

A human law has the character of law to the extent that it accords with right reason, and thus derives from the eternal law. Insofar as it falls short of right reason it is said to be an unjust law, and thus has not so much the nature of law as of a kind of violence.[2]
**1903 **Authority is exercised legitimately only when it seeks the common good of the group concerned and if it employs morally licit means to attain it. If rulers were to enact unjust laws or take measures contrary to the moral order, such arrangements would not be binding in conscience. In such a case, “authority breaks down completely and results in shameful abuse.”[3]
**1904 **“It is preferable that each power be balanced by other powers and by other spheres of responsibility which keep it within proper bounds. This is the principle of the ‘rule of law,’ in which the law is sovereign and not the arbitrary will of men.”[4]
————————————————————–
[1] GS 74 # 2.
[2] St. Thomas Aquinas, STh I-II, 93, 3, ad 2
[3] John XXIII PT 51.
[4] CA 44.
​

We are suppose to participate in government to the best of our abilities (mainly through voting). But, what if the government becomes so unjust that participation become impossible or illegal do to our following the truths of Natural Law set down by God and propagated by the Catholic Church. What is our recourse? **Violence is not an answer to the questions put forth. **

If this looks familiar, I did post about this a number of years back under another login which I unofficially retired.

 

[peregrinus_WA]

From Catholic Insight: Fascism has come to Canada By Editor

 

[GratefulDad]

Many things/issues seem to be coming to a head in North America and world wide.

 

[vern_humphrey]

It makes the skin crawl to debate with some Canadians who see this as a good thing. They do not understand where their government is taking them.

 

[peregrinus_WA]

It makes the skin crawl to debate with some Canadians who see this as a good thing. They do not understand where their government is taking them.

What makes me wonder is why some refuse to admit the Fascist (and bordering on Marxist) natures of today’s Socialism. For some odd reason, people have been blinded by revisionist history that Fascism was/is “right wing” in ideology. Yes it was right of Marxism (i.e. Communism), but it was/is still Socialist in basis.

 

[vern_humphrey]

What makes me wonder is why some refuse to admit the Fascist (and bordering on Marxist) natures of today’s Socialism. For some odd reason, people have been blinded by revisionist history that Fascism was/is “right wing” in ideology. Yes it was right of Marxism (i.e. Communism), but it was/is still Socialist in basis.

It was Socialist and if it is to the right of Stalin’s Russia, you can’t measure the distance with a micrometer
From scrapbookpages.com/DachauScrapBook/25Points.html

The 25 Points of Hitler’s Nazi Party

1 We demand the union of all Germans in a Great Germany on the basis of the principle of self-determination of all peoples.

2 We demand that the German people have rights equal to those of other nations; and that the Peace Treaties of Versailles and St. Germain shall be abrogated.

3 We demand land and territory (colonies) for the maintenance of our people and the settlement of our surplus population.

4 Only those who are our fellow countrymen can become citizens. Only those who have German blood, regardless of creed, can be our countrymen. Hence no Jew can be a countryman.

5 Those who are not citizens must live in Germany as foreigners and must be subject to the law of aliens.

6 The right to choose the government and determine the laws of the State shall belong only to citizens. We therefore demand that no public office, of whatever nature, whether in the central government, the province, or the municipality, shall be held by anyone who is not a citizen.
We wage war against the corrupt parliamentary administration whereby men are appointed to posts by favour of the party without regard to character and fitness.

7 We demand that the State shall above all undertake to ensure that every citizen shall have the possibility of living decently and earning a livelihood. If it should not be possible to feed the whole population, then aliens (non-citizens) must be expelled from the Reich.

8 Any further immigration of non-Germans must be prevented. We demand that all non-Germans who have entered Germany since August 2, 1914, shall be compelled to leave the Reich immediately.

9 All citizens must possess equal rights and duties.

10 The first duty of every citizen must be to work mentally or physically. No individual shall do any work that offends against the interest of the community to the benefit of all.
Therefore we demand:

11 That all unearned income, and all income that does not arise from work, be abolished.

12 Since every war imposes on the people fearful sacrifices in blood and treasure, all personal profit arising from the war must be regarded as treason to the people. We therefore demand the total confiscation of all war profits.

(Continued in next post)

 

[vern_humphrey]

The 25 Points of Hitler’s Nazi Party (continued from last post)

13 We demand the nationalization of all trusts.

14 We demand profit-sharing in large industries.

15 We demand a generous increase in old-age pensions.

16 We demand the creation and maintenance of a sound middle-class, the immediate communalisation of large stores which will be rented cheaply to small trades people, and the strongest consideration must be given to ensure that small traders shall deliver the supplies needed by the State, the provinces and municipalities.

17 We demand an agrarian reform in accordance with our national requirements, and the enactment of a law to expropriate the owners without compensation of any land needed for the common purpose. The abolition of ground rents, and the prohibition of all speculation in land.

18 We demand that ruthless war be waged against those who work to the injury of the common welfare. Traitors, usurers, profiteers, etc., are to be punished with death, regardless of creed or race.

19 We demand that Roman law, which serves a materialist ordering of the world, be replaced by German common law.

20 In order to make it possible for every capable and industrious German to obtain higher education, and thus the opportunity to reach into positions of leadership, the State must assume the responsibility of organizing thoroughly the entire cultural system of the people. The curricula of all educational establishments shall be adapted to practical life. The conception of the State Idea (science of citizenship) must be taught in the schools from the very beginning. We demand that specially talented children of poor parents, whatever their station or occupation, be educated at the expense of the State.

21 The State has the duty to help raise the standard of national health by providing maternity welfare centres, by prohibiting juvenile labour, by increasing physical fitness through the introduction of compulsory games and gymnastics, and by the greatest possible encouragement of associations concerned with the physical education of the young.

22 We demand the abolition of the regular army and the creation of a national (folk) army.

23 We demand that there be a legal campaign against those who propagate deliberate political lies and disseminate them through the press. In order to make possible the creation of a German press, we demand:
(a) All editors and their assistants on newspapers published in the German language shall be German citizens.
(b) Non-German newspapers shall only be published with the express permission of the State. They must not be published in the German language.
(c) All financial interests in or in any way affecting German newspapers shall be forbidden to non-Germans by law, and we demand that the punishment for transgressing this law be the immediate suppression of the newspaper and the expulsion of the non-Germans from the Reich. Newspapers transgressing against the common welfare shall be suppressed. We demand legal action against those tendencies in art and literature that have a disruptive influence upon the life of our folk, and that any organizations that offend against the foregoing demands shall be dissolved.

24 We demand freedom for all religious faiths in the state, insofar as they do not endanger its existence or offend the moral and ethical sense of the Germanic race. The party as such represents the point of view of a positive Christianity without binding itself to any one particular confession. It fights against the Jewish materialist spirit within and without, and is convinced that a lasting recovery of our folk can only come about from within on the principle: COMMON GOOD BEFORE INDIVIDUAL GOOD

25 In order to carry out this program we demand: the creation of a strong central authority in the State, the unconditional authority by the political central parliament of the whole State and all its organizations.

The formation of professional committees and of committees representing the several estates of the realm, to ensure that the laws promulgated by the central authority shall be carried out by the federal states.

The leaders of the party undertake to promote the execution of the foregoing points at all costs, if necessary at the sacrifice of their own lives.

 

[peregrinus_WA]

It was Socialist and if it is to the right of Stalin’s Russia, you can’t measure the distance with a micrometer
From scrapbookpages.com/DachauScrapBook/25Points.html

I did not say by how much. Communism is the ultimate form of Socialism. Fascism never reached that point.

BTW: That list was in a book that I just finished.

 

[vern_humphrey]

I did not say by how much. Communism is the ultimate form of Socialism. Fascism never reached that point.

BTW: That list was in a book that I just finished.

Essentially, Nazism and Communism are just opposite sides of the same coin. The key to understanding both is that they require the state have absolute power, and that the individual be subordinated to the state in all ways, thus proving Lord Acton right; “Power tends to corrupt. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

 

[peregrinus_WA]

Essentially, Nazism and Communism are just opposite sides of the same coin.

I look at it Fascism, Nazism, and Communism as sides on the same Socialist dice. However, no matter what is rolled, they all come up snake eyes.

 

[vern_humphrey]

I look at it Fascism, Nazism, and Communism as sides on the same Socialist dice. However, no matter what is rolled, they all come up snake eyes.

That would be a good analogy – those forms of government are playing with loaded dice. And the people are the marks.

 

[Holly3278]

Yes, today’s governments are becoming unjust but there is still time and a chance to change them. We are not too far gone just yet thanks be to God.