Grass-roots successes October 24, 2023 By David Leonhardt

Many Americans have come to see the political system as rigged. They worry that grass-roots political movements are powerless to overcome entrenched interests, whether those interests are self-serving politicians, large employers or dominant social media platforms. And I understand why this cynicism exists.

For most Americans, progress has slowed to a crawl in recent decades. Income and wealth inequality have both soared. The top 1 percent have pulled away from everyone else, while working-class Americans often struggle to afford the best health care and homes in good school districts.

The clearest sign of our problems is this statistic: In 1980, the U.S. had a typical life expectancy for an affluent country. Today, we have the lowest such life expectancy, worse than those of Britain, France, Germany, Canada, Japan or South Korea, as well as some less rich countries, like China or Chile. The main reason is the stagnation of life expectancy for working-class people.

Source: World Bank | By The New York Times

For nearly a half-century, our economy has failed to deliver on the basic promise of the American dream — that living standards meaningfully improve over time for most citizens.

These themes will probably sound familiar to regular readers of this newsletter. The Morning often covers them because I believe that they shape so many parts of American life, including our polarized politics and angry national dialogue. I have just written a book — my first, called “Ours Was the Shining Future: The Story of the American Dream” — that tries to explain how we got here.

(For the New York Times Audio app, I read part of the introduction, including my own family’s story.)

In today’s newsletter, I want to tell you why I nonetheless emerged from writing the book with hope about the country’s future: In short, the American political system helped create today’s problems, and only the American political system can solve them.

When inequality fell

For all the cynicism about politics today, it is worth remembering how often grass-roots political movements in the U.S. have managed to succeed. In the 1920s and 1930s, the country had a highly unequal economy and a Supreme Court that threw out most policies to reduce inequality. But activists — like A. Philip Randolph, a preacher’s son from Jacksonville, Fla., who took on a powerful railroad company — didn’t respond by giving up on the system as hopelessly rigged.

They instead used the tools of democracy to create mass prosperity. They spent decades building a labor movement that, despite many short-term defeats, ultimately changed public opinion, won elections and remade federal policy to put workers and corporations on a more equal footing. The rise of the labor movement from the 1930s through the 1950s led to incomes rising even more rapidly for the poor and middle class than for the rich, and to the white-Black wage gap shrinking.

One big lesson I took from my research was the unparalleled role of labor unions in combating inequality (a role that more Americans seem to have recognized recently).

There are plenty of other examples of grass-roots movements remaking American life. The civil-rights and women’s movements of the 1960s also overcame long odds, as did the disability-rights movement of the 1970s and the marriage-equality movement of the 2000s.

Other examples come from the political right. In the 1950s and 1960s, a group of conservatives, including Milton Friedman and Robert Bork, began trying to sell the country on the virtues of a low-tax, light-regulation economy. For years, they struggled to do so and were frustrated by their failures. Friedman kept a list of newspapers and magazines that did not even review his first major book.

But the conservatives kept trying — and the oil crisis that began 50 years ago last week eventually helped them succeed. A politician who embraced their ideas, Ronald Reagan, won the presidency and moved the U.S. closer to the laissez-faire ideal than almost any other country.

The conservatives who sold this vision promised it would lead to a new prosperity for all. They were wrong about that, of course. Since 1980, the U.S. has become a grim outlier on many indicators of human well-being. But the conservatives were right that overhauling the country’s economic policy was possible.

This history does not suggest that the political system is hopelessly broken. It instead suggests that the U.S. doesn’t have a broadly prosperous economy largely because the country has no mass movement organized around the goal of lifting living standards for the middle class and the poor. If such a movement existed, it might well succeed. It has before.

The central lesson I took from immersing myself in the past century of the American economy is that it can change, sometimes much more quickly than people expect. When it has changed in a major way, it often has been because Americans have used the political system to change it. The future can be different from the past.

A SOLUTION FOR POVERTY AND CLIMATE CHANGE

They have made it a mournful waste,                                                                                               desolate it lies before me,                                                                                                                 desolate, all the land                                                                                                                                     because no one takes it to heart.  (Jeremiah 12:11)

The industrial revolution has provided great wealth for the world, but poverty prevails and the world is being destroyed by the production of artificial wealth. Can the apocalyptic threats of poverty and climate change be transformed?

World War II seems to present capitalism as the answer.  Fascism and communism were obvious failures.  The Capitalist answer to poverty is development.(desarrollo)  Gustavo Gutierrez predicted that Capitalism wouldn’t work in his 1973 book, “A Theology of Liberation.”  Adam Smith’s liberalism with the ‘invisible hand’ didn’t work; nor did Milton Friedman’s neo-liberalism which was a disaster.  “They [social scientists] have reached the conclusion that the dynamics of world economics leads simultaneously to the creation of greater wealth for the few and greater poverty for the many.”  (A Theology of Liberation, p. 25)

Massive migration across the United States’ southern border is an example of how development (desarrollo) doesn’t work to combat poverty.  Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said recently,  “The people don’t abandon their towns because they want to, but rather out of necessity.” 

“U.N. report finds world isn’t curbing global warming.” (USA Today Network, “Way Off Track,” September 9, 2023, p. 1NN)  Poverty and destruction of the earth are related.  The poor are suffering the most in the move toward global destruction causing climate change.  Solutions abound and there is no one answer, but what is the criteria?  How do we decide on an immediate action that is individual and political?  What do we do - options, political and personal options, are available.  What is the criteria for choice?

Are we listening to our children?

Gustavo Gutierrez was influential in the historic meeting of Latin American bishops in Medellin, producing the Medellin document of 1968. They agreed with Gutierrez that solutions must be judged in so far as they move the poor from poverty.  This is referred to as the “preferential option for the Poor.”  Theologian Matthew Fox suggests a preferential (non-violent) option for the children. This is a universally accepted criterion.  Who can object to loving children?

        

Bas-relief in Saint Benedict the Moor Catholic Church, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

The current horror in Israel and Palestine reminds us of “A voice was heard in Ramah, sobbing and loud lamentation; Rachel weeping for her children, and she would not be consoled, since they were no more.” (Matthew 12:18)

Jesus in the Temple with the Elders - Grace Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, WI

Are we looking for what Jeremiah predicts or will we take the moral imperative of action?

I looked at the earth, and it was waste and void; at the heavens, and their light had gone out!

I looked at the mountains, and they were trembling, and all the hills were crumbling!

I looked and behold, there was no man; even the birds of the air had flown away!

I looked and behold, the garden land was a dessert, with all its cities destroyed before the Lord, before his blazing wrath.    (Jeremiah 4:23-26)

                                                                                                                                                              

The Working Catholic: UAW Strike by Bill Droel

  

Autoworkers are not only seeking higher pay, writes Binyamin Appelbaum in N.Y. Times (10/2/23). “They are also, audaciously, demanding the end of the standard 40-hour workweek.” This is not the first-time employees have sought fewer hours. In fact, our feast of St. Joseph the Worker/International Workers Day (May First) was inspired by an 1886 Chicago protest for shorter hours. The Federation of Trades and Labor held a May rally in our Haymarket area (now a trendy restaurant spot). Late in the evening someone threw dynamite. Eight workers were rounded up, including a lay minister, a printer and others. Seven were convicted; four were hanged. The incident gave rise to an annual, worldwide day for worker dignity. Chicago Haymarket - Struggle for the 8-hour Day Mondelez Bakery, commonly called Nabisco, has a large facility in my neighborhood. Two years ago members of Bakery, Confectionary Union were on the sidewalk or in a lot across the street, striking over pay and retirement plans. As pressing, however, was their concern about shift length and overtime. Like other companies, Mondelez addressed the side effects of Covid-19 by asking or requiring overtime. This remedy became counterproductive because it created stress among the employees and added to operating expenses. Covid-19 likewise brings attention to the topic of onsite vs. remote working hours. It also prompts experiments around the number of hours on the job per week.  The popular crowd-funding platform Kickstarter, to mention one example, is experimenting with four days per week on the job. Pay remains the same. This is not a gimmick, says Kickstarter’s CEO Aziz Hasan. Other experiments in Sweden and Great Britain have favorable outcomes so far. An experiment in Iceland among several companies and backed by unions and civic groups was a success. The employees clocked 36-hours over four weekdays. Productivity remained the same. Sick days decreased. Customers noted better quality of service. Now, 86% of Iceland employees are allowed a four-day week, reports Wall St. Journal (7/31/21).         This past January Rep. Mark Takano of California (www.takano.house.gov) introduced legislation for a nation-wide 36-hour workweek. Even during our so-called labor shortage, Takano’s proposal should get consideration, concludes Appelbaum. It “would be better for our health, better for our families and better for the employers, who would reap the benefits of a more motivated and better rested workforce.” From a Catholic perspective a 36-hour workweek has a prior requirement: the principle of a family wage. That is, one worker per household with one job should be paid enough to reasonably support the family. (A family may include other workers, but that income is extra, not a dire necessity.) Presuming a family wage is established, an employer will pay a 36-hour per week employee at the former 40-hour rate. (Some employees who can afford to do so might negotiate pro-rated pay for 36-hours, but not from a distorted sense of vocation.)  Second, Catholicism says that a shorter workweek is betrayed if it really means less time in the office while bringing more work home. This caution particularly applies to salaried employees. Further, hours gained by less time on the clock cannot be spent on unnecessary consumption or excess time using screens. In other words, a change in culture must accompany any change in work hours. A whole/holy life involves employment, but also true leisure.  It means leaving behind our culture of total labor. The true purpose of time off is to establish “the right and claims of leisure in the face of the claims of total labor,” writes Josef Pieper (1904-1997) in Leisure: the Basis of Culture (Ignatius Press, 1952). Our culture currently needs “the illusion of a life fulfilled.” But instead of genuine time off, it puts forth false leisure with “cultural tricks and traps and jokes.” True leisure, Pieper concludes, is festivity or celebration. It is the point at which “effortlessness, calm and relaxation” come together. “Have leisure and know that I am God.” –Psalm 46:11          Whatever the outcome of the autoworkers job action, their proposal for a shorter workweek should not be dismissed. Droel edits INITIATIVES (PO Box 291102, Chicago, IL 60629), a newsletter on faith and work.

The Danger of the "Introspective Conscience," a Matthew Fox Daily Meditation (September 7, 2023)

Saint Augustine, Father of Introspective Theology

Frederick Turner, in his important study of the history of the Americas from the point of view of Native Americans, Beyond Geography, points out that ours is an “introspective” and therefore dangerous civilization. 

By “introspective” he means overly focused on ourselves and living without cosmos, without myth, without ritual worthy of the name. 

No wonder we find ourselves cosmically sad, cosmically lonely, cosmically destructive in our militarist vision of creating weapons to rain death on the rest of creation.  And busy destroying Mother Earth as we know her.  With a whole political party content with denying climate change.

Inner journeys are essential to get to our true selves.  But an exclusively inward one can look only at oneself or one’s culture and ignore the rest of the world.  There lies the death of cosmic spirituality and with it the death of Mother Earth.  The world does not need more inward journeys; but there are no limits to the inner journeys we can and ought to make.

Where does this inward compulsion come from?  Biblical scholar Krister Stendahl recognizes St. Augustine as the instigator of the “introspective conscience” of the West and feels the reading of the Bible has been distorted in the process.

Augustine was a genius in writing what was probably the first autobiography of the West, but he remains oblivious of the sense of theosis, the divinizing of the cosmos, that Eastern Christianity put forward as the very meaning of salvation.  Russian Orthodox theologian Nicolas Berdyaev writes:

The central idea of the Eastern fathers was that of theosis, the divinization of all creatures, the transfiguration of the world, the idea of the cosmos, and not the idea of personal salvation.

How different would history have been if Europeans landing on the shores of Turtle Island had held that understanding of religion?  

Is it a Matter of Innate Trust?

 

It seems to be an impossible task.  People and institutions are attempting to address and solve the problem of Climate Change.  But it seems we are going nowhere.  “U.N. report finds world isn’t curbing global warming.” (USA Today Network, “Way Off Track,” September 9, 2023, p. 1NN) 

Years ago we were visiting our family in San Francisco and on a Sunday morning, we woke up to the news of the Tsunami that hit Japan.  (March 11, 2011)  We went to Mass that morning expecting to hear about the plight of the people in Japan and the need for help.  The homilist said nothing.  After Mass I asked the Superior of the religious order that serves the church why nothing was said about the Tsunami.  He explained that the homilist was older and probably wasn’t aware of what had happened, but he himself did call their community’s house in Japan and learned that the priests were all ok.  I was stunned. 

On Monday our grade school age grandson whose father is of Japanese descent, reported that his teacher asked the class about the Tsunami.  Are you afraid, she asked?  I questioned our grandson, were you afraid?  No, he said.  If it happens here, the water is only going to come up to my knees, but I am worried about the people in Japan. 

Was our grandson telling us what Julian of Norwich said in the 14^th Century?  Despite war, plague, and persecution, Julian said, ‘All is well and will be well.’

Is this the answer to our anxiety about Climate Change? 

The Working Catholic: Sacraments by Bill Droel

 

The Christian denominations vary in their list of official sacraments. But restricting God’s instruments of grace to any official list is misguided, writes Fr. Robert Lauder in The Tablet of Brooklyn. He directs his readers to Bernard Cooke (1922-2013), particularly his Sacraments and Sacramentality (Twenty Third Publication, 1983).

The word “sacrament must be understood in a much broader sense,” writes Cooke.  Properly understood, “the most basic sacrament of God’s saving presence to human life is the sacrament of human love and friendship… Our experience of being truly personal with and for one another is sacramental… The human friendships we enjoy embody God’s love for us.” Some knowledge of and experience of the divine is gained through personal relationships, Cooke continues. 

Marriage is a prime example. It is an intense relationship between two people with God in the mix. Please understand, this does not mean that a couple is constantly aware of God. Nor is a sacramental marriage coated in frosting. There is discord and disappointment in the crucible of every marriage. Mutual revelation too. And hilarity and quiet joy. And, of course, marriage is the sacramentality of sex.

 A sacramental moment occurs as two friends meet every Monday morning at the diner or as four women meet after work on Friday for drinks. God is not explicitly mentioned. The conversations go here and there from the superficial to deeply personal. But love is lurking within every genuine friendship.

The sacrament of friendship is easily lost in our culture in which relationships are utilitarian. Companies and business managers too often think of employees only as an item on the expense ledger. Employees have little loyalty to a jobsite, moving-on with but a muffled goodbye. Our dominant culture likewise encourages utilitarian marriages negotiated on a quid pro quo basis. “I did this for you, so you should do this for me.” Or, “I disclosed my innermost feelings, so now it is your turn to do the same.” Real friendship, by contrast, is a free gift that expects nothing in return, though it is often richly rewarded.

Like all sacraments, friendship is public. This necessary public dimension is seen in marriage, symbolized by the honor extended to the guests at the wedding reception. There is a public function to casual friendships among drinking buddies, in accidental friendships among neighbors, and in the friendships within extended families and more. All of these relationships build-up our social fabric and pose a counter-narrative to individualism.

Plus, there is a type of friendship that is primarily public, what Aristotle termed philia. Public friendship is different from liking someone or sharing an interest in sports or a hobby. Its sacramental component is a care for another person’s well-being and character. Therefore, public friendship is concerned about the environment or institutions that shape people. Ultimately, it cares about the public good. It is civic affection, camaraderie, trust or civic happiness.

The opposite of public friendship is, again, transactional utilitarianism. There are far too many people afflicted by agnosia—the inability to recognize the human in the person in front of them. They go about their business and miss the meaning embedded in the day. Public friendship is the result of a culture of encounter. There is no “art of the deal” associated with it.

At times the issues of the day seem most important. Or the material to be covered in that afternoon’s class. Or the arrangement of the decorations in the meeting hall. Or the diagnosis of the problem with the faulty heater in late November. Yet, all of these things come-and-go. What endures is friendship. Friendship is prior to the issues, the charts, the tangle of wires under the desk, the staff shortage for the evening shift, the stack of papers or the traffic congestion on the expressway. Be open to the sacramental grace within friendship and all these things will be given you besides.

Public Friendship by Bill Droel is obtained from National Center for the Laity (PO Box 291102, Chicago, IL 60629; $5).

The Working Catholic: Social Doctrine #14 by Bill Droel

The term social justice is regularly used but rarely defined. It often means a government program is on the way. “Social justice requires an increase in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamps).” It can mean a general concern. “The status of women is a matter of social justice.” It can describe an event. “We went to a social justice conference.” Or describe a personality type. “She’s a social justice warrior.” In many circles it is simply substituted for the word charity. “Our parish food pantry is a social justice effort.”

Social justice actually has a Catholic pedigree and refers to a type under the general term justice. There is criminal justice, distributive justice (the duty of government), individual justice or commutative justice (fair exchange either implied or in a contract) and social justice (and more).

Fr. Luigi Taparelli, SJ (1793-1862) of Italy coined the term social justice in 1845. He was rightly worried about individualistic tendencies that characterize modernity--all the more extreme in our day. Taparelli favored an organic society in which many interdependent parts added up to more than their sum. Such a society needs healthy intermediate institutions that give individuals wider agency and also buffer individuals from big forces—families, parishes, workplace units, professional associations, ethnic clubs and more. This dynamic is called subsidiarity in Catholicism.

By about 1900 Catholic philosophers were equating social justice with what St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) calls legal justice. Now, for Aquinas legal justice does not refer to what is approximated on TV shows like Chicago P.D. and Judge Judy. He means that by divine law all the parts of an organic society must be directed toward the common good, not entirely to one individual’s good. The 20^th century Ctholic philosophers thought the term social justice was better than legal justice because many people think the word legal only means what is expressly prohibited or commanded. Such people stay within minimum behavior but consider social obligations to be strictly optional. In fact, they often expect some recognition when they help out in the community.

The academic conversation continued, treating both process and outcome. Process: How does social justice come about? Outcome: What does a social justice society look like?

Fr. William Ferree, SM (1905-1985) of Ohio greatly clarified the topic—in my opinion. First in a dissertation and then in an influential 1948 booklet, Introduction to Social Justice, Ferree said the unique act of social justice is organization and its outcome is improved policies or institutions.

This means that social justice is a virtue. It is something that is done, not a fond wish. It is more than calling out a problem. Like all virtues, it must be done habitually.

This means that social justice is a collective virtue. An individual can be generous, but cannot alone practice social justice. Like-minded people must get together. Thus, mixed motives are always involved. Each participant gets something out of the effort; the group also benefits in some way; but the greater good is a primary object of the practice.

This means that the aims of social justice must stay in the practical realm, though the initial ambition can reach beyond what will be achieved. Compromise is a necessary part of social justice. It is not a virtue for purists or utopians.

This means, to paraphrase a great polka song: In heaven there is no social justice; that’s why we do it here. In heaven there is perfect love, but in our messy here-and-now domain things are incremental. There’s need for social justice today and more need tomorrow. 

This means that social justice is for insiders. Protest is often necessary to get inside, but marches and rallies are not in themselves social justice.

This means that social justice is not charity, though charity might precede or accompany social justice. Charity in itself does not change policies, though people involved in charity often turn to lobbying (social justice) in order to make charity more efficient or even less necessary.

Social justice is a specific activity done by a group within an institution to improve a policy or, if necessary, to start an alternative institution. With a better appreciation for the definition of social justice more might be accomplished. As Elvis sang in 1968, “A little less conversation, a little more action.”

Ferree’s booklet ($6) and Droel’s booklet, What Is Social Justice ($5) can be obtained from National Center for the Laity (PO Box 291102, Chicago, IL 60629).