An historical view of “the common good”
November 12, 2011“We’re not into big government…we’re into reflective government that meets the minimum needs of the people,” says the Rev. Robert J. Gregorio, of the diocese of Camden, New Jersey. Quoted in an online article in Minyanville, titled: Does God Really Back Obama’s Jobs Plan?, Gregorio reminds readers of the historical view of the common good.
“In America,” says Fr. Gregorio, “we’ve got a heavily entrenched materialistic capitalism that glorifies wealth and doesn’t care about how you get it. A lot of devotees of capitalism equate ‘the common good’ with Communism. However, there was a common good for 1,800 years before Karl Marx was born.”
Advertisement
Like this:
One blogger likes this post.
Why does no one ever talk about the common good or the public realm anymore? It’s not socialist or communist to want good infrastructure, public squares and parks, public land, public art. As we get more and more gated communities, we’ll have less and less of the public realm – loss for every single one of us.
I agree. How often, when we talk about the wonders of America, do we think about our public national parks…our grand public bridges…our awe-inspiring public buildings in Washington, DC…our publicly funded and managed success of landing human beings safely on the moon and returning them to Earth again.