The Difference Between a Job and Work

Return to Order What is the Purpose of Human Life? 2

It is interesting to note the different perceptions of how people perceive what they do for a living. Finance professor Bernard Lietaer makes the distinction by noting the original meanings of the words ‘job’ and ‘work.’ He writes: The word ‘Job’ is recent; it dates from the Industrial Revolution. It was initially defined as a … Read more

Interview with Dr. Samuel Gregg: “Culture Drives History, Societies and Economic Life”

Return to Order Interview with Dr. Samuel Gregg: “Culture Drives History, Societies and Economic Life”

Dr. Samuel Gregg is director of research at the Acton Institute. He has written and spoken extensively on questions of political economy, economic history, ethics in finance, and natural law theory. He has authored several books including Becoming Europe: Economic Decline, Culture, and America’s Future, and most recently Tea Party Catholic. Dr. Gregg took some time out … Read more

Natural Law is the Same Everywhere, and Binds All Men in All Times

Return to Order What Does Saint Thomas Say About Immigration? 2

American law’s attachment to higher law dates back before independence as can be seen in this reference from renowned English jurist Sir William Blackstone: “This law of nature, being coeval with mankind, and dictated by God himself, is of course superior in obligation to any other. It is binding over all the globe, in all … Read more

Big Can Also Be Beautiful

Return to Order Big Can Also Be Beautiful

Our ability to know things beyond the local and the small leads us to affirm that there can also be proportion in bigness. We must, of course, reject monstrous proportions. Yet it cannot be denied that nature does give us as examples huge mountains, great plains, or immense oceans that convey the idea of a … Read more

Leaving Problems Behind

Return to Order Sixth Tip for Putting Technology in Its Place and Regaining Control of Your Life

“The philosopher George Santayana once observed that Americans don’t solve problems, they leave them behind. If there’s an idea they don’t like, they don’t bother refuting it, they simply talk about something else, and the original idea dies from inattention. If a situation bothers them, they leave it in the past” (David Brooks, On Paradise … Read more

How to Answer E-mail Without Going Crazy

Return to Order How to Answer E-mail Without Going Crazy

My friends often write to me about ways they have found to apply the principles of the book Return to Order. They especially mentioned the ways they avoid the “frenetic intemperance” of daily life where everything is rushed and out of balance. One friend has a special way of dealing with e-mail. I am not … Read more

Six Ways to Deal With the Abuses of Technology

Return to Order The Questionable Value of Modern Advertising

Written by Dennis Best In dealing with the abuses of technology, it is good to have an historical perspective. The abuses of technology began with the Industrial Revolution, which instilled a lust for speed into modern man, and a desire and expectation for immediate gratification. This changed the psychology of man so that people are … Read more

Fencing with Piketty

Return to Order Fencing with Piketty

As I sat down to read Thomas Piketty’s bestselling book, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, I must admit I was not well disposed toward the book. Here is a voluminous 700-page tome written by a Frenchman that has garnered scathing reviews from the conservative press and glowing praise from liberal economists. What can you expect … Read more