John Medaille, Distributivism, and the "Third Way"

“(I)t is a political axiom that power follows property. But it is now a historical fact that the means of production are fast becoming the monopolistic property of Big Business and Big Government. Therefore, if you believe in democracy, make arrangements to distribute property as widely as possible…(a)ll this is obvious today and, indeed, was obvious fifty years ago. From Hilaire Belloc to Mr. Mortimer Adler, from the early apostles of co-operative credit unions to the land reformers of modern Italy and Japan, men of good will have for generations been advocating the decentralization of economic power and the widespread distribution of property.” –Aldous Huxley, from Brave New World Revisited

Hilaire Belloc, G.K. Chesterton (who, of course, goes hand in hand with Belloc), Mortimer Adler, and even, in his Dr. Jekyll moments, Aldous Huxley (who seems to be throwing his weight behind the general solution); all intellectual powerhouses and distinct societal influences who affirm another “Way, a “Third Way” from that which leads to the dominance of Big Business and Big Government. Now, in full context Huxley states that these theories are obvious, but, falling within a chapter titled What Can Be Done?, he naturally states that the problem is in their specific application. Strangely, Huxley later writes a novel called Island, which abandons the collective wisdom he’s tacitly endorsed above; or perhaps it’s not so strange, for much of Brave New World Revisited is not in line with the perennial stream of wisdom in which Belloc, Chesterton and Adler were immersed (all, by no strange coincidence, Catholic – a religion Huxley is not shy about attacking). I call this all to your attention because there is an attempt afoot to meet Huxley’s challenge of application (incidentally, with similar Huxlian eloquence and wit) by an author named John Medaille, and, to boot, he’d like to do so with the helpful input of people like you and me http://distributism.blogspot.com/2008/05/come-let-us-reason-together.html .

Mr. Medaille is writing a book for the “non-specialist”, and is, before publication, posting the book chapter by chapter for us to read and comment on. I’m going to put a heading on the right side of the page beneath which I’ll post links to each chapter as he posts them. I’d also recommend, for a good introduction, his essay Practical Distributivism (to which I also have a link on the right side, under "Links"); to me, it offered refreshing insight, which began to take up where the solid and promising parts of (Jekyll) Huxley's work left off…

Also, for “A QUICK COMPARISON OF CAPITALISM, SOCIALISM AND THE "JUST THIRD WAY", see: http://www.cesj.org/thirdway/comparison3rdway.htm