This discussion was in response to Michael Martin’s recent essay on ‘Sophiology v. Socialism.’
To be honest, I was finding myself disagreeing with some of Martin’s recent slams on socialism, though I consider him a friend and brother. I tend to see some forms of socialism as a modern echo of pre-modern spiritual and social aspirations. Michael wasn’t quite going there.
Where we did go was enlightening and edifying. It is always great to talk with him.
I’m still going to keep my nose to the grindstone studying my Aristotle and my Marx (about the same in my mind), but I’ve got to get with the Bulgakov (which he talks about in the interview) as well. I also think we ended up agreeing on support for the actual working class (and farmers, and small businesspeople) being a good thing- Michael mentions ‘distributism’ and though the label isn’t great, maybe we also both hover in that territory.
Either way, it was a very ‘dialectical’ conversation (so, I feel vindicated).
We may have come to the conclusion that the Amish are the way to go. People outside of America or outside the eastern and mid-western states, may not be very familiar with the Amish. Here is a very brief introduction:
Really, you should check out the Amish. They probably have it together.
My wife and I regularly venture to the nearby Amish community to buy our meat.
They exist in the modern world (in, but not of it, I suppose), have a method for regulating technology (they allow more than you might think, but always evaluate it in terms of its effect on people and the community), are economically prosperous, have cohesive communities, and have a rapidly growing population. Better than the rest of us. Not that we would all become Amish, but why are we not trying to learn more lessons from them?
