At Mirror of Justice, Rick Garnett has a good critique of my "Pope is a Liberal" piece:
No doubt, the Pope's views on many questions regarding the organization and regulation of the economy put him well to the "left" of the American political center. But, the suggestion that the overall vision of society and the person presented in the new encyclical, and the letter's premises about morality, truth, duties, anthropology, are (insert here all the reservations, expressed by other MOJ-ers, about labels) "liberal", in the way that category functions in contemporary American and European politics, seems misplaced.
Today's "liberalism" -- notwithstanding the community-and-solidary language that is trotted out for use in debates about economic regulation and taxation -- is very hard to separate, I would think, from the relativism, individualism, indifferentism, and atomism that the Pope criticizes with *at least* as much fervor as he calls for new spending programs.
My "Pope is a liberal" take was being provocative in the sense that I wanted to show the wider public (as well as cons and neo-cons, I suppose) that you can't categorize B16 or the Church as one thing or the other. And I think in the US context he and the church are generaly categorized/criticized as conservative (whatever that means in the post-Palin or pre-Palin era).
For the church, it's the great "et et," a both/and.
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That's kind of funny that Rick Garnett would define liberalism as "hard to separate from the relativism, individualism, indifferentism, and atomism" ... I mean, what the hell is he talking about?
I mean that in a funny way. Ha Ha.
Oh, I know, let me make up some words and then use them in a pejorative context to categorize someone because I'm offended that they are categorizing me.
My dad's stronger than your dad.
Nyah nyah nyah.
When do I get my turn on the swings.
Cindy, You aptly summed up many of the interactions we all have on here...thanks! Besides, we all know liberal is a swear word and you are both in trouble!
David, you are apparently expecting too much from your readship.
readership...(ironic I misspelled it, huh)
The problem is that when you "provoke" (as you admitted you were doing) simply for the sake of starting an argument among what you perceive are these warring factions you get the childish comments that are so often found on this blog...
I think that your "always political" lense distorts your point of view and weakens the interesting insights that you occasionally have, and as in this case, take the discussion of a papal encyclical to an undeservingly low level.
It's time for a real revolution! When the citizens rise up against the corruption and inside political dealings, then we will have FREEDOM again, the kind of freedom our forefathers had for a very brief period of time.
Down with LIBERALS!!
Down with CONSERVATIVES!!
If you identify with one of these groups, you are part of the problem, not part of the solution.
GET WITH THE SOLUTION!!
Liberals seek to imprison your thoughts through such fascist tactics as Political Correctness and social blackmail.
Conservatives seek to imprison your body through tactics like the ruthless perversion of our capitalist system and an over-abundance of laws that only the insiders know well enough to manipulate.
Revolution is coming.
Revolution is coming.
Revolution is coming.
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