Beginning a Path toward Distributism: A Brief Definition

Humanity may have made incredible progress in science and technology, it has made a big mess of the surroundings and of the social life, creating lots of inequality and creating lots of causes for battles for getting more power.

It is the imbalance in this world that is causing our relationships with creation and with God to break down and our hearts to become hardened to the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.
Many in this world have pointed their eyes to the material goods and are trying to enlarge their ‘belongings’ and power. Their egoism and greed has made many arrogant. Lots of people neglect creation, the people but also plants and animals around them.

Lots of people have forgotten what God has entrusted to our care.

We do not own the earth, but we are part of it and should create symbioses with it. With those around us we should come to live as brothers and sisters, living in unity, respecting each-other and wanting to be on equal terms, sharing all the good things of this earth.

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To remember

distributism = different expressions + slightly different emphases with different people or groups = all share a core + an origin

Distributism = about distribution of property

papal encyclical Rerum novarum written by Pope Leo XIII on 15 May 1891 = concerning woes of both capitalism + socialism

working classes desiring justice > ability to own land – to obtain property

receiving in return what is necessary for satisfaction of his needs > to acquire a right full + real

right to possess property = natural right

society exists = to help safeguard against mistreatment of working class, of family, + to help ensure that as many people as possible can become landowners

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Day, Dorothy American journalist Nov. 8, 1897 New York, N.Y., U.S. Nov. 29, 1980 New York City American journalist and reformer, cofounder of the Catholic Worker newspaper, and an important lay leader in its associated activist movement.

G. K. Chesterton + Hilaire Belloc British men + Christians sought to put the pope’s ideas into practice in turn of the century England (and elsewhere, the Catholic Workers Movement in America founded by Dorothy Day is an American example of these same ideals).

not impose distributism on people => to live it =  incrementally => begin with family

family, +/or church, ought to strive to live locally, to support local businesses, local farmers, + help local families get land on which to grow food

From family level move to local community, town or county encouraging locally owned businesses to come in and thrive, in general to encourage local-mindedness

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Preceding article: What is Social Justice?  My take on it.

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Additional reading:

May, for many a month for mothers and many celebrations

Religious celebrations in May 2016

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Letters from the Edge of Elfland

David Russell Mosley

Eastertide
Ascension Day
The Edge of Elfland
City, State/County

Dear Friends and Family,

As various previous letters of mine have indicated, I am increasingly becoming swayed by the arguments of distributism. However, so many of you my friends and family don’t quite know what I mean when I say distributism. Now, it should be stated upfront that there is often not one definition of distributism, it has different expressions and slightly different emphases with different people or groups. Yet they all share a core and an origin and it is that I want to share with you now. Hopefully, I will do it justice and perhaps convince some of you to at least spend more time reading distributists as I have been doing when taking much needed mental breaks from my thesis (like right now).

Distributism, as the name would suggest, is about distribution, but distribution of…

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