Trump and the Danger of Fascism (tags)
Peace is the imperative that should outweigh escalation and the unspeakable risk of global war! The constitutional state must not be confused with the security state or the emergency state as Rousseau and the social contract must not be confused with Thomas Hobbes and the punishing or fearsome state. People would fight endlessly without the state or Leviathan, he said.
Housing is a human right (tags)
To guarantee the human right to housing, a fundamental change in policy would be required at all levels. At all levels - federal, state and local - the social housing provision should be enforced against private profit interests. The non-profit status of housing must be revived. Housing must not be a commodity, it must not be the object of speculation and profit interests.
Critique of religion and market religion and Post-colonialism (tags)
Critique of religion as critique of fetishism is a critique of earthly gods, which are false gods. "Man is the highest being for man." Marx develops it further in other words and formulates his idea of the liberation of man in the Communist Manifesto.
Capitalism in the Faith Crisis (tags)
Trust in the "invisible hand" is a religious exercise ensuring a rule over people that is destructive and fatal. Christians and Marxists wage a common struggle against the spirit, logic, and praxis of the false money-god and its servants.
Democracy and the Social State (tags)
Finance capitalism and Citizens United turn life, language and democracy upside down as the $150 million given by Wall Street to Hillary Clinton fall under the rubric "social engagement." With these theses, Franz Segbers emphasizes the social state as the foundation of democracy.
Capitalism as a Religion (tags)
"Capital is the only god that the whole world knows, sees, touches, smells, tastes and excites all our senses. It is the only god that doesn't encounter any atheists" (Paul Lafargue's little known genial satire "Religion of Capital" from 1887.
Reduced working hours is the only logically and historically consistent answer to the annual productivity increases that are above the real growth rates of the economy and without reduced working hours lead to a decline of work volume and unemployment.
The civilization made and guided by men seriously threatens survival on the earth. The song of Christmas is not a sweet lullaby but a feminine rebellion against the world of death worshipers. The gifts of this earth do not belong to us.
Epilogue to a Life: Dorothee Soelle (tags)
Dorothee Soelle combined political activism and mysticism, unconventional thinking and passion for life. This epilogue written by her partner, the theologian and former Benedictine monk Fulbert Steffensky, reveals the feistyness and childlikeness of the liberation theologian.
We live on credit, shift costs and risks into the future and make possible a prosperity with the help of a policy of cheap money that is paid for by others. An interest-free money system would be a counter model to the growth pressure inherent in the present system.
Jesus' way is a third way, not the warrior cult or indifference but nonviolent resistance. Jesus himself is the auto-basileia and auto-aletheia of God, the fulfillment of the land promise to Israel. Jesus did not stop at words but drove out the moneychangers and traders.
Biblical Sabbath Economy (tags)
Franz Segbers insists the Biblical Sabbath economy cares for the oikos, not speculation and accumulation When the right of speculation trumps the right of housing, we end up protecting the sharks from the sardines (cf "Housing as a Human Right")