Transcript of interview with Francis Dubois about his experience in the U.S. Army Air Service (later the United States Army Air Corps) during World War I. He discusses his experiences during basic training, the war, being shipped to England and Ireland, and problems after the war with re-assimilation. He also discusses his opinions on subsequent wars and treatment of veterans. ; WWI Transcriptions Francis Dubois Transcriber: John Pino Date Started: 2/28/18 (Interview Begins) Fred Holder (Interviewer): This interview is taking place in the home of Mr. Francis Dubois, and I was wondering how old were you when you entered the service? Francis Dubois (Interviewee): 21 years old. Holder: And did you live in Fitchburg? Dubois: In Fitchburg, I lived on 48 Main St. at the time. Holder: What branch of service did you enter? The Army? Dubois: I was in the signal corps, forerunner of the air corps. I was in the aviation section of the signal corps. Holder: You live in Fitchburg all your life? Dubois: Born and brought up here. Holder: Were you drafted or did you volunteer? Dubois: I volunteered. Holder: When you entered the service, what did you think, you know, did it turn out to be what you expected? Dubois: Well I didn't know what to expect so I wasn't disappointed or disillusioned either. Either way, I just accepted it as it came. Holder: What was your family's attitude what was your parents' feelings about you going off to the war? Dubois: To be frank with you I don't know what their attitude might have been, I did not consult with them. I merely enlisted and that was it. Holder: Where'd you do your basic training? Dubois: Basic training was down in Waco, Texas, 3 months down there. Holder: What kind of- what did it consist of mostly? Dubois: Well drilling, that was entirely drilling. In the mud fields down there. Holder: What'd you do before the war? Dubois: I was in business at 748 Main St. as a photographer. Holder: And when you came back did you go back into photography? Dubois: I went back into photography. Holder: When you were um, when you went into the service, you went in as a private obviously, what was the pay like then? (Dubois and a person in the background start laughing) Dubois: Well I was fortunate, I got in when the pay was raised from 15 to 30$ for private. Holder: Is that a month? Dubois: That's a month, and there was a 10% increase if you served overseas. Holder: Did you serve overseas? Dubois: I did. Holder: Where sir? Dubois: From April to December, I went to England and Ireland. I did not get to France. Holder: When you went overseas, did you go over in the big transports? Dubois: I went over in an English ship, the Armadale Cassilan. It was a converted cruiser. Holder: When you um, when you were in England, what was the feelings of the people towards you? Dubois: When we got there it was very poor. They complained that we came over there after the war had been lost (intense depression and nihilism felt in England?). Holder: When was that? Dubois: In April (1917?). Holder: As you were there, over time did peoples' impressions improve? Dubois: What I told these people is "just wait a few months and see!" (Laughter) Dubois: "And by August things will turn and change." Holder: What rank were you by the time you were overseas, were you still a private? Dubois: No I was a corporal, that was as high as I got. Holder: That's as high as you got. How long were you in the service? Dubois: A year and 3 days. Holder: What type of food did you have when you were overseas? Dubois: In England well… not too hot, not too good. Our best meal over there was New Zealand rabbits. (Laughter) Dubois: And this may sound corny to you but uh, we would scrape the maggots off of them before we ate them. Holder: (Disgusted groan) (Man laughing in background) Dubois: Well, before we cooked them and ate them let me put it that way. In their raw state we scraped them first. Holder (somewhat bewildered by the previous conversation): Umm… The equipment that you were supplied with was it good? Dubois: Uhh, the "equipment?" What do you mean the "equipment?" Holder: Umm, well, like during your basic training were the rifles more or less new or were they old or the uniforms? Things of this nature. Dubois: The uniforms were alright, they were woolen uniforms. But as far as equipment or rifles and armaments go, I had a gun strapped to my waist for 48 hours. Two 24 hour stretches and I handled a rifle for about 30 seconds. Never drilled with a rifle. Holder: Now umm, your officers, how did they treat you? Dubois: Hm? Holder: The officers, how did they treat you sir? Dubois: We had American officers, they were alright. Holder: How did you feel towards them? Dubois: They were there and they used me alright so I can't complain. (Chuckles in background) Holder (chortling): You were one of the lucky ones I guess. Before you went overseas and you didn't enlist in the war what did you think you were going to fight for? Dubois: Well to put down the Kaiser (Kaiser Wilhelm II, emperor of Imperial Germany). And that was about it. To put an end to his uhh, well his aggressiveness. Holder: What was your view, well, how did you feel towards the German people? Was there animosity built up or? Dubois: Well, I can't say that I held any animosity toward them. Any more than I suppose they held for the American people. Holder: Now how about um… you said you didn't make it to France, did you meet any French officers maybe in England or any in Ireland? Dubois: No, I didn't meet any of em', but I was informed that had it lasted two weeks longer; I would have been in France. Holder: Um, when you came back- Dubois: I went to Ireland before I came back I went to Ireland from England. Holder: Did you like the Irish people better than the English? Dubois: Oh it was great over there! We could do anything and get away with anything! (Laughter) Dubois: The food was great over there! Good meat and everything else! Holder: What'd you do in Ireland? Dubois: I was training there also, continued training they tried to make and airplane mechanic out of me. But I am not mechanically inclined, but they said "You're a mechanic," so I was a mechanic! Of sorts… (Laughter) Holder: Were you married during this time? Dubois: No I was single. I wasn't married until 2 years after I got back. Holder: Did you know the missus before you married here? Dubois: This is the missus (gestures over to his wife, who starts chuckling), she was a lady friend at that time. Holder: What was her feelings towards you being overseas? Dubois: I dunno, she never told me! (Dubois and his wife laugh) She could answer that for herself! Holder: Um, when you came back, what was the attitude of people upon your return? Were you a conquering hero or were they just happy to see you back or? Dubois: We received a nice welcome in New York harbor. They had all the fireboats squirtin' water up, I dunno how high but uh, a great welcome back. The only thing is that when you try to get back to where you were when you left. Assume the role that you have been in when you left, it was not so nice. You were a great guy when you went, but you were one of those fellas when you come back. Try to assume your place. Holder: Did you have trouble getting back to your photographer's job when you got back or things of this nature? Dubois: Uhh, slightly. Slightly. Holder: How about when you came back uhh, to Fitchburg and tried to set up your photography and- Dubois: Well that's what I'm talking about. Holder: Did the veterans' office help you at all? Dubois: The veterans were alright towards me but the uhh, competition I had left behind, they weren't so nice. They expected me to stay over there. Holder: So um, when you did come back though, the veterans' office at that time did they help you out in perhaps- Dubois: Well in WWI, the veterans didn't get much help from the government (important point) or anything else. Holder: You didn't receive your bonuses, how did you feel about that? Dubois: I uhh, I received a bonus… uhh. I forget how many years it was after I was discharged. But I did get a bonus. Holder: At the time you were supposed to get it, I dunno, very soon afterwards. How did you feel when you didn't get them, like a number of veterans didn't when they marched on Washington? (reference to the Bonus Army, when 4,000 disgruntled WWI veterans marched on Washington in 1932 to get their promised bonus in the immediate aftermath of the war) Dubois: We didn't anticipate we were gonna get em' so we weren't disappointed. Holder: So you weren't very surprised when you didn't get it after all. Dubois: No. Holder: What other benefits did you receive from the service? Dubois: What benefits? Holder: Yeah. Dubois: Well I dunno I think it toughened my body a little bit. It taught me a lot of things, I met a lot of different people. And I think that uhh, that's about what I got out of it. Holder: Now what kind of benefits did you get from say umm, in a monetary way from the government after you got out? Dubois: Oh I didn't… (Dubois thinks for a moment) I think we were given on discharge a ticket home and $60. Now I won't swear to the $60, I'm not too sure about it now. But afterwards I did get $950 when they paid the bonus. Holder: Um, in World War II did you see any service there sir? Dubois: World War II I was on the draft board in Fitchburg. Holder (sarcastically): Ehh that must have been a fun job. (Dubois wife laughs) Dubois: It was a good job. Holder: Was that more difficult than actually going over? Dubois: Much more, much more abuse too. And, it was an expense to anybody that was on the draft board. You paid for your own expenses, your own transportation. They gave you about a gallon of gas a month which you had to pay for, to get to and from the meetings. And that's about it. Holder: Now your chapter of the local legion, when did you join that organization? Dubois: I joined the American legion in 1919. And in 1948 I started the Cloygon(?) post 429. As first commander, I have been in office for quite a few years. I've been on the executive board, I've been the finance officer. Then I've pulled out for a while and now I'm back in again. Holder: What's the role of your organization now? Dubois: Well they try to uhh, induce patriotism. Watch out for the benefits of the veterans, their wives and children, the widows. It's a service organization. (Holder adjusts the microphone) Holder: Um, when you look back on the war, when you went over and everything, did you think it did you a lot of good going overseas like that? Dubois: Going overseas? Holder: Right. Dubois: Well it broadened my perspective of the world and its people. Cause' I met people on their own standing ground so to speak. I met the English in England, I was at camp Naughtyash. And I was at Sheffield airdromes. Holder: Would you ever go overseas again? Dubois: No. Holder: No? Huh. Did you ever meet any of those people overseas, did they come over to the United States? Dubois: There was one couple I met over there and they came to Boston. And I met them in Boston. And they came to Fitchburg once, that's the extent of it. Holder: Now um, when you look back on World War I, and you look back at World War II do you think that World War I really accomplished what you set out to do? Dubois: It's very evident we did not, World War I was supposed to be "the war to end all wars" (very popular phrase at the time of the war, coined by H.G. Wells), and I don't have to tell you any more of what's happened since. Holder: Now does it leave you disillusioned or disheartened or anything of that nature? Dubois: Oh no, that's life, that's the world. We're not all of the same mind so where's there a difference of opinion… sometimes it gets a little. well. a little "belligerent" if you wish. Holder: Umm, when you look back again at World War I, what experience sticks out most in your mind? Dubois: Nothing in particular now, not at this time. It's all in the dim past now all the edges have worn off, there's nothing that stands out now. Holder: When you came back to Fitchburg ya know, the general people, not the competition you said you were having trouble with, the average people, where they very helpful to you? Dubois: They were all nice to me. Except the competition. Holder: Right. Dubois: I can't complain about them. Holder: You're retired now I assume? Dubois: Yes. Holder: Umm, you've lived in Fitchburg all your life, you ever thought you'd like to, go over again? Dubois: Well I have had that thought but uhh, I dunno I like to stay at home now. My traveling days I feel are all behind me. The desire to travel has left me. Holder: Now, again, you know, when you look back at World War I and it was the "war to end all wars" and it failed and then World War II, um, when you look at World War I compared to World War II, does anything stick out in your mind there? Anything at all that you were thinking of? Dubois: Well one thing that does uhh, is the comparison of the treatment of the boys, what they get and what we got. When we got out, you're on your own and that's about it. When the World War II come along, they get all kinds of compensation, they get the education. They want to buy a house, they're helped to do that. Those are the things, the contrast that stands out in my mind. And as yet, the World War I veteran has not got a bonafide pension! You get a disability pension but not a right pension, they never gave it! And 20 years after the Spanish-American War, the Spanish-American War veterans got a pension (interesting, why no pensions for WWI vets? Can't be an issue of time period as pensions existed even before the Great War). An outright pension! World War I are the ones that the government forgot. Holder: Is that- now, Woodrow Wilson was president then and do you hold it against the Democrats that you never got a pension? Dubois: Well I can't say that the Democrats or the Republicans if one is as bad as the other. When it comes to giving it to the veterans, one is as bad as the other. Although I think the Democrats have been a little more liberal. But they've put the lid on too. Holder: Do you think that the American Legion should campaign more actively to get their- Dubois: It's pretty hard I think for them to campaign more actively than they are doing. Holder: What type of things are they doing to try and get it for em'? Dubois: Well they have a lobby in Washington and then there's a lot of literature that's spread around. A lot of the articles you read in the newspaper originate with the American Legion. And also with other veterans' organizations. We're not alone in this. Holder: Now, what do you think about other organizations? Why did you join the American Legion instead of one of the other ones? Dubois: It was the first one that I was able to join when I got out of the service. I did not join the veterans of foreign wars for, well… particular reasons that I didn't like at the time when it was available. But I have since joined the DAV, and I am a member of the Veterans of World War I. I belong to 3 organizations. Holder: Now, are you active in all 3? Dubois: No. Holder: Just the American Legion? Dubois: Just the Legion. Holder: The American Legion is famous for sponsoring things like baseball and baseball teams and what not and things like Flag Day and things of this nature, what other types of things do they do? Dubois: Well there are a lot of things that are not shown on the surface. We sponsor a lot of things, we've got 3 Eagle Scouts coming up, that we sponsor. We pay for their badges and so forth. A school needs a flag, we give it to them. Any new troop that starts, they come to the Legion for a flag or whatever they need. There's donations made to all these… call em' charities if you wish, the Christmas Seals, Easter Seals, you name em' all those things. We contribute to them and we sponsor different things. We have the Sally League coming up in Fitchburg. Where the Cloygon post is going to sponsor the entire league! Not just a part of it. We have sponsored the uhh, Little League at times. But we've discontinued that. We did have a team in the Legion baseball, but due to lack of interest by the players we've discontinued that. Holder: When you were overseas, did any of your friends get sent over into France and actually get wounded? Dubois: Yes, some of them got killed. Holder: Besides the obvious pain and loss, what was your reaction to that? Did it give you any doubts of why you should be there? Dubois: I never gave it any thought. Holder: You never gave it any thought? Dubois: No, I never gave a thought about it. Holder: Were any friends of yours or anybody you happened to know highly decorated? Dubois: Yes, there is one, here in Fitchburg. A fella by the name of Bouchet. He'd been highly decorated. Holder: Now you were not with him when he got the decorations obviously? Dubois: No I was not with him at all in the service. Holder: What was your reaction when you see him compared to you, when he got into the action, did you want to get into the action? Dubois: Its uhh, it's one of the things that you hanker for a little bit when you're in the service. You feel that you're being left out of the show. But, that's the way it was. I never wanted to be in the infantry, that's for sure. And this fella was in the infantry. I was in the aviation part, I had hoped to be an aerial photographer. But, that's the army you know, they put you where they feel like it. So many names down the list and you're that, regardless of what you were doing before, unless you had a lot of political influence, you just went where they sent you. Holder: Now what about when you were being transported overseas on the British ship there, were you worried about the U-boats? Dubois: You always looked out for them but during the last 2 days they were right with us. 2 days out from England, there were 2 U-boats in the pack of transport ships of 13 boats, and we were in the center, and there was a U-boat on each side. On each side of the boat, now at that particular time I had been on watch all night, so I was sleeping down at the bottom of the boat, until they started to throw out depth charges. Then I got up in a hurry like everybody else. We got up on deck hoping to see some action but all we saw was when they throw over the depth charges.
Issue 22.5 of the Review for Religious, 1963. ; THOMAS DUBAY, S.M. Personal Integrity and Intellectual Obedience If only through what we may term'a nebulous feeling of supernatural discomfort, no thoughtful religious long escapes the knotty problems implied in his reasoned re-actions to his superior's directives. Sooner or later he wonders how the perfection of obedience could possibly and honorably require that he judge to be wise and prudent what he may on occasion strongly feel to be un-wise and imprudent. Some of the implications of this complex question we have explored in two previous articles.1 The interest shown in these questions together with the oral and epistolary discussions consequent on them have prompted us to propose several additional problems and to seek suitable solutions to them. The Problems Religious superiors, like the rest of humankind, usu-ally do not know what we may call the content of the divine will. As I type this sentence I cannot be certain that objectively speaking this is what God prefers me to be doing at this moment. When a major superior as-signs a religious to teach the tenth grade, he cannot be sure that such is precisely the divine preference for this particular religious. In both of these cases all we can know is that our action, and our intentions are good. At times we may be reasonably assured that the action we contemplate is in its concrete circumstances better than some other, but even then we do not see how God judges the situation. Does not our inability to know the content of God's will render pointless the whole concept of intellectual obedience? Is the subject supposed to conform his judg- 1"Psychological Possibility of Intellectual Obedience," R~w~w FOR RrLtO~OOS, v. 19 (1960), pp. 67-76, and "The Superior's Precept and God's Will," REVIEW FOR RELmXOOS, v. 20 (1961), pp. 435--41. 4, 4" Thomas Dubay, S.M., is the spiritua director at Notr. Dame Seminary' 2901 South Carroll ton Avenue; Ne~ Orleans 18~ Louisi aria. VOLUME 22, 196~ 49~ ÷ + ÷ Thomas Dubay, $.M. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 4:9,1 ment to the superior's judgment because the latter is somehow expressing the thought of God when he com-mands? And if the superior is not expressing the divine mind, why should one try to think as he thinks? Meaning of Intellectual Obedience Before we wrestle with these questions, we should per. haps review the fundamental principles involved. And among them we may recall first of all that intellectual obedience implies the attempt of a subject to see the wisdom of his superior's decision. While it does not re-quire a man to call black white when his superior is manifestly wrong, yet it is more than an assent to the mere proposition that God wills the non-sinful act of compliance. This latter assent plainly is not a conformity to the thought of the superior (as the classical concept of intellectual obedience would have it) or even an at-tempt at conformity (with which the classical concept would be content when more is not possible). Agreeing that God wills execution of a given command is nothing more than an assent to a universally received principle of Catholic theology: God wills obedience to legitimately constituted authority. Intellectual obedience according to the formulation of St. Ignatius .Loyola in his well known letter (from which Pius XII said we may not depart) requires that the subject "think the same, submitting his own judg-ment to the Superior's, so far as a devout will can incline the understanding." And hence in the many matters in which evidence is not coercive, "every obedient man should bring his thought into conformity with the thought of the Superior" (America Press edition, ;~ 9). This doctrine presents no problem when the subject possesses a founded certitude that his superior is either right or wrong. In the first case his judgment is con-formed by the very seein~ that the direction is correct, and in the second there is no need to try to conform to what is obviously false. The problem arises in debatable matters, matters in which an honest and objective man will agree that there may be something to be said for each of two or more opposing views. Since the evidence in these cases.is not coercive, a religious practices in-tellectual obedience when he makes a serious attempt to see reasons ~or the superior's view as well as for his own. We spont.aneously conjure up reasons for our own opinions, and so intellectual honesty hardly requires much effort regarding this half of the situation. But we do not spontaneously think up reasons for an opposing opinion, and so effort is requisite if we are to be co~n-pletely open. While this effort should be made in our disagreements with any man, it is especially needful in the relationship of the subject to his superior. Because of the position the latter holds as a representative of divine authority and because we may presume that this representafive re-ceives divine help in the exercise of his office (not, how-ever, a help that makes him infallible), the ftillriess of religious obedience bespeaks an especial effort to agree with his thought insofar as honesty permits and a devout will can bring it about. When a good religious, therefore, receives an unpalatable directive, this third and highest degree of obedience suggests that he make an earnest at-tempt to see his superior's point of view whenever the matter is important enough to consider motives at all. Man's Knowledge of the Divine Will From the point of view of the divine will, we may re-call to what extent a conformity is possible and in what sense a superior may be said to manifest that will. A man's will is materially conformed to God's when he wills precisely what God wills. If God were to give him a pri-vate revelation indicating exactly what He wished done at a given time and if the recipient of the revelation carried out the command, there would be a material con-formity. In this case the person's activity would corre-spond exactly with what we have called the content of the divine will. On a moment's reflection one can easily see that a material conformity known to be such is usu-ally impossible. A man simply does not know as a ,rule precisely what God knows to be the preferable course of action together with the circumstances that should sur-round the action. A religious superior is no exception to this limitation on our knowledge of the divine intellect and will. Frequently the superior cannot know that this directive or that is exactly what God would like done at this time and in these circumstances. And if the superior cannot know, neither can the subject. Formal conformity, however, is another matter. It re-fers to the motives one has in doing whatever he does. A man conforms his will to God's when he refers what he does to the divine good. Such is the conformity that St. Paul taught when he enunciated the command that we do all for the motive of God's glory: "Whether you eat or drink, or do anything else, do all for the glory of God" (1 Cor 10:31). While we often cannot know the content of the divine good pleasure and therefore cannot be sure whether or not we possess a material conformity to it, we can always know the motive with which we are to act, and thus we can be sure that we possess a formal con-formity. Hence, even thongh I cannot be sure that my proposal to give ten dollars to this particular poor man is the best thing I could do with the money (God may 4- 4- 4- Intellectual Obedience VOLUME 22, 196.,1 495 ÷ ÷ ÷ Thomas Dubay, $.M. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 496 well know some other better way in which I could use it) and even though as a consequence I do not know whether my will is materially conformed to His, yet if a~ a matter of fact I do give the gift out of love for God I am sure that my will is formally harmonized with His. And this is all that I am commanded to do in the situa-tion. I am bound to have the right motive for whatever good act I perform. When all this, then, is applied to religious obedience, it means that a superior usually does not know the con-tent of the divine will and consequently may or may not be commanding-, in material accord with it. From the point of view of the subject obeying, this does not matter. God does will that he carry out the precept as long as there is no evil in it. (We must notice that in this prac-tical execution of the command material conformity is always possible and commendable, that is, conformity to that content of the divine will which has revealed that it wants men to obey their superiors.) Furthermore, the subject should possess the formal element, the proper motive for obeying, which proximately is the authority of the superior and ultimately the ordering of his obedi-ence to the divine goodness by charity: Suggested Solutions We are now prepared for the first of our problems. Why should a religious try to make his judgment regard-ing some precept conform to his superior's judgment when he is not even sure that the latter's represents the content of the divine will? How can the constitutions of some religious congregations admonish members that they should make their superior's judgements their own, that they should "obey" even the superior's thought inso-far as such is possible? In answering these questions several principles must be borne in mind. First of all, any man is bound by mere natural honesty to conform his mind to the truth insofar as he is able. No one has a right to entertain error. He may have a right to immunity from attack because he is in error, but this is not to say that he has a right to cling to the error. There can be no right to what is unreal. Secondly, in a'genuine difference of opinion between two persons in which difference the truth is not definitely established with 'an objective certitude, honesty demands that any man make a sincere effort to see the reasons for the other's view. Any man is bound to weigh the other man's reasons as well as his own. Any other procedure is mere prejudice. Hence, the demand of intellectual obedi-ence that a subject try to see that his superior's directive is wise is no intrusion on his human dignity or intel-lectual integrity. On the contrary, this perfection of obedience is protective both of intellectual humility and of integrity since it aids a man in divorcing himself from his often inordinate attachment to his own opinion. It opens his mind to other views and other opinions. Hence, this fundamental honesty by which we give a sympathetic consideration to the intellectual position of another is common both to the subject-superior relationship and to the ordinary man-to-man relationship. Yet there is a difference. There must be a difference. Otherwise, we could hardly speak of the attempt a re-ligious makes to conform his judgment to that of his superior as a distinct degree of obedience. But what is the difference? What is the difference between Brother X and Sister Y trying to look sympathetically upon their superiors' decisions and these same two persons attempt-ing to discuss a question of politics or philosophy in an unprejudiced manner? In both situations there is a pursuance of truth, an effort to maintain intellectual in-tegrity. The solution to this problem is difficult, admittedly difficult. And we frankly confess that we are not at all sure that our solution is adequate. We think that it is correct as far as it goes, but we are not sure that it says all that needs to be said. We believe that there are two reasons why a religious' attempt to see his superior's decision as feasible and cor-rect is something over and above this same religious' ef-fort to see a differing view in an ordinary discussion. The first "something over and above" is the supernatural posi-tion of the superior. While he remains a weak, imperfect, and entirely fallible human being, an ecclesiastical su-perior does occupy in the supernatural society which is the Church a position which is ultimately derived from God Himself. As Pope Pius XII rightly observed, the authority by which religious superiors rule is a participa-tion in the divinely received authority possessed by the Roman Pontiff. Therefore, while the religious superior does remain fallible, and sometimes sadly fallible, yet his dispositions and directions enjoy an ontological rank that other dispositions and directions do not enjoy. This basis and rank are the foundation for a new reason over and above intellectual humility and integrity why a sub-ject should seek to view his superior's disposition sym-pathetically and seek, if possible, to conform his judg-ment to it. A second reason is based on the relationship between the first and second degrees of obedience with the third, that is, the relationship between execution of the com-mand (first degree) and conformity of will (second de-gree) with the submission of intellect (third degree). A mere reflection on the psychology of obedience indicates ÷ + Intellectual Obedience VOLUME 22, 1963 ÷ ÷ ÷ Thoma~ Dubay, S.M. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 498 that the perfection with which a man executes a directive and with which he conforms his intention to that of his superior will ordinarily be dependent on his intellecttial agreement or disagreement with the judgment implied in the directive. Our point is not that the typical religious will not execute a command unless he sees its wisdom but that he often will not execute it as per[ectly when he believes it to be unwise or foolish. Our point is also that he will find conformity of the will, that is, really wanting to carry out this command, much more difficult when the precept appears to him unfeasible. A religious priest whose superior directs him to teach a course which he judges to be of flimsy value hardly throws himself ir, to the task of doing an excellent job with it. He teaches the course, yes. But unless he is a man of rare virtue, he cuts at least some minor corners with it. A sister who is asked to organize a testing program that seems to her ineffectual is an unusual person if she does not experi-ence difficulty in wanting to organize it. Because there is a lack of intellectual harmony between these religious and their superiors, harm is done to the first and second degrees of their obedience. This fact affords us another reason over and above mere open-mindedness why a subject should seek to see the wisdom of his superior's decisions and to conform his judgment to them. If our analysis is correct, it seems to follow that intel-lectual obedience is rooted in the will. The conformity on this third level is, of course, found in the intellect; but the force moving the intellect toward it is the will. This observation is not surprising when we consider that the "moving-moved" relationship is the case even with the execution of a command. The actual operation of teach-ing or sweeping is executed by the other faculties, while the moving role is that of the will. We may speak, there-fore, of obedience of the intellect because it is the in-tellect in the third degree of obedience that is harmo-nized with the intellect of the superior, even though it is the will that moves it to the harmony. There remains another facet to this problem, or, if one prefers, another problem. Granted that we have in-dicated two reasons over and above mere intellectual honesty why a subject should attempt to see his superior's view, we must yet discover what guarantee of truth can be offered that will justify the subject's conformity. After all, is not evidence the fundamental criterion of truth; and if we are going to ask a religious to hold a precept as prudent or feasible, do we not have to assure him of its validity on the basis of objective evidence? And if a religious superior has no divine guarantee that his di-rections conform to the objective truth of things, how can one rightly ask another to harmonize his intellect with them? This is no easy problem. In answer to it ~ve must first, remark that no one is asking a subject to extend the value of his intellectual assent beyond available evidence. We do not suggest that a religious ought to make a certain judgment that his superior is correct ~vhen there simply is no irrefragable evidence that he is correct, nor do we feel that the sub-ject should entertain a judgment of higher value than his superior entertains. If the superior only thinks that this course of action is feasible, surely the subject is not re-quired by intellectual obedience to be sure that it is such. As a matter of fact, the latter would be a difformity, not a conformity. We may observe, likewise, that in many of the disposi-tions made in a religious community neither the superior nor the subject can be prudently sure that a particular course of action is the most feasible. An autocratic su-perior may act as though he is certain that his decisions are the only reasonable ones; but this does not, of course, mean that they are. How often can one know with complete certitude that a given sister should teach the third grade rather than the fifth or that a brother should specialize in history rather than in political sci-ence or that a priest should serve on the mission band rather than on a parish staff? Many of us may entertain strong opinions in such matters, but few could offer in most cases objective evidence that one decision alone is reasonable or even the best possible. It would seem, then, that intellectual obedience frequently does not require a certain assent. But we think that it often requires an opinionative assent, that is, an assent that holds a proposition to be probably true because based on one or more solid mo-tives. Two reasons suggest this statement. First, when an intelligent man or woman (we refer to the superior) decides on a course of action, one may usually presume that there is at least one solid motive behind it that would found at least an opinionative judg-ment that the decision is a prudent one. Secondly, the superior himself usually judges his directive as at least probably correct; and so il~ he can find some good reason for it, the subject of good will should frequently be able to find it also. The first reason bears on extrinsic evidence (authority), the second on intrinsic. Is a guarantee required for the objective truth or wis-dom of the command? Must the superior in looking for intellectnal obedience in his subjects offer them some guarantee that he is at least probably if not certainly right in his dispositions? Although the two questions ÷ ÷ ÷ Intellectual Obedience VOLUME 22, 1963 499 4. 4. + Thomas Dubay, $.M. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 500 may look equivalent, we would answer yes to the first and no to the second. No man can rightly give an intellectual assent to a proposition unless he has some motive pro-portioned to the quality of his assent. I do not proceed in an orderly fashion when I judge to be certain an as-sertion for which I have only probable evidence or when I hold an opinion with not even probable evidence. Hence, a religious need not judge his superior to be surely correct when he can see only probable reasons in favor of the command. When the subject can see no intrinsic reason in favor of the precept's feasibility (and such is rare, indeed), he should either refrain from judg-ing it altogether or base his opinionative judgment that it is feasible on the mere fact that his superior thinks, it so. In this second case he rests on extrinsic authority or evidence. His intellectual honesty is preserved in that he has not made a certain assent, and his obedience is per-fect in that he has made every reasonable effort to bring his judgment into accord with that of his superior. A superior is not ordinarily bound to offer the guar-antee for the assent his subject is to give to his disposi-tions. It would be unreasonable to expect one in author-ity to explain his reasons every time he decides upon some course of action. And it happens occasionally that natural secrecy prevents him from disclosing why he acts as he does. Yet at the same time we feel that often, if not usually, a superior should spontaneously offer reasons for his directives when they are out of the ordinary or when they are especially susceptible to misunderstanding. would even say that unless secrecy forbids it, a superior ordinarily does well to let the reasons for his commands be known whenever an intelligent subject could not l easily conclude to them and when the matter is impor-tant enough to go into them at all. Otherwise, it is dif-ficult to see how the subject could give an intelligentl assent or bring his judgment into line with that of hisJ superior except perhaps by a sheer act of will. As we have just hinted in the preceding paragraph,, all of our above attempts to give a reasonable account the roots of intellectual obedience as it bears on the ob-jective order of things are directed toward cases in whichl an agreement with the superior's mind is called for. There are many cases in the ordinary living of the re ligious life in which the directions given are not impor tant enough even to concern oneself about a conformity~ of judgment. In these it is rather blind obediertce thai is indicated: the willed execution without any thoughi as to why the command is given. We hardly think tha, a sister who has been asked by her superior to serve a.~ companion for another on a trip to town should bothei about trying to discover the rightness of the request o~ why it was made. Such scrutiny too easily lends itself to pettiness. Our above discussion rather envisions more important matters in which a religious should know his superior's mind that he may all the better carry it out. How, then, may we answer the questions with which we began? Does our inability to know the content of the divine will render meaningless the whole concept of in-tellectual obedience? It the superior is perhaps not ex-pressing the divine mind when he commands, is there any point in the subject trying to conform his judgment to that of his superior? Man's inability to know the divine mind in many of the practical details of human lille does not render mean-ingless the widely received principles of intellectual obe-dience. The religious is not assenting to his superior's direction as though it were an infallible oracle, nor is he judging that it is the only possibly reasonable disposition of the matter. Precisely because we reject the notion that a superior is revealing the content of the divine mind do we dissolve at the same stroke that other mistaken notion that in intellectual obedience the subject is assenting to a certain proposition known as such by God. Rather is the subject merely trying to put his whole being, intellect as well as will and body, into a harmony with his su-perior, a man who takes the place of God for him. And this attempt at harmonization implies no violence to in-tellectual integrity for the simple reason that it rests on evidence, either intrinsic or extrinsic. We may conclude, then, that the religious who prac-tices perfectly all three degrees of obedience integrates rather than disintegrates his personality. He executes di-rectives promptly and wholly, and thus establishes a new contact with God who has parceled out some of His supreme authority to men. He wants to carry out the precept because he sees the divine authority in a human instrument, and thus he places himself in the genuine stream of what is. He attempts to set his intellect in ac-cord with his superior's, and thus he simultaneously maintains intellectual integrity and submits his supreme faculty to the divine order. And all this is done through supernatural charity. This is sanctity because it is reality. ÷ ÷ ÷ In~ellectual Obedience VOLUME 22, 1963 501 PAUL HINNEBUSCH, O.P. Requesting in Charity ÷ ÷ ÷ Paul Hinnebusch, O.P., is the chaplain at Rosaryville; Pon-chatoula, Louisiana. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS ~02 We are all very conscious that charity inspires us .to give help to others, but have we ever realized that char-ity also inspires us to ask for help? St. Thomas Aquinas was well aware of this. He writes, for example, to a prince: "Your charity has asked me to reply in writing to your question. It is not proper that the requests which charity faithfully offers be refused by a friend.'u Thomas realized so well that charity seeks help as well as gives it, because he knew from experience what unity in lively charity can be. Living in the golden age of the Order of Preachers, when community life was fully synonymous with life in charity, when mutual charity penetrated everything, Thomas daily experienced char- ~ty at its best. Charity was a mutual give and take in per-fect spontaneity. Those early friars knew well the spirit behind St. Augustine's command in their rule: "Call nothing your own, but let all things be held in common among you." In the thinking of Augustine, this statement applied not only to material goods but to whatever the Christian has, whether material or spiritual, whether gifts of grace or talents of nature. Augustine was remarkably conscious of the unity of all Christians in Christ, of how all live one same life together in Him. For example, constrasting his own intensely active life as a bishop with the leisurely contemplation of a monk to whom he is wri(ing, Augustine says: "We are one body under one head, so that you are busy in me, and I am at leisure in you" (PL 33:187). Because I am one with Christ, what Christ is doing in you He is doing for me. And because you are one with Christ, what Christ is do-ing in me He is doing for you. We are one body with many functions of one life. We are one mystical person in Christ. Elsewhere Augustine writes: "Whatever my brother has, is mine, if I do not envy and if I love. I do not have it in myself, but I have it in him. It would not be mine, if we were not in one body under one Head." x Martin Orabmann, The Interior Lile o] St. Thomas Aquinas (Milwaukee: Bruce, 1951), p. 9. In this unity of life in Christ, this one life in love, the mutual sharing of spiritual and material goods is love in action. Love receives as well as gives, love asks as well as grants. If the bond of love makes us consider that our brother's needs are our own and inspires us to supply him with what he needs, that same bond of love does not hesitate in appealing to our brother's love for help. Our appeal is based upon our love for him and his love for us. It is only right that what we expect him to grant in char-itY should be requested in that same charity so that both the asking and the giving are an exercise and a strength-ening of the bond of love. Our blessed Savior sets a beautiful example of these things in dealing with the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well. In His love for the woman, He desires to do her a service; but good psychologist that He is, He knows that her pride will resent His offer of help. And not merely because in her particular case pride will resent the un-veiling of her sin but because human beings in general like to be independent and do not care to admit that they need others. Their pride instinctively resents anyone who tries to help them. We have all experienced at one time or another the pain of having our charity rebuffed. And therefore when Jesus wishes to do this woman a service, instead of immediately offering help to her, He begins by requesting help from her. He knows how valu-able a request for help can be in establishing good rela-tions among people. Rather than give her pride an op-portunity to resent His help, He appeals to what is best in her human nature. Human nature was made for love. But love's proper act is to give. To win the woman's good will and love, Jesus gives her the opportunity to give to Him. He asks her to do Him a service: "Give me to drink" (Jn 4:10). His humble request and His need immediately wins her sympathy and benevolence. Upon the initial good will which she thus manifests, Jesus proceeds to build an eternal friendship. By humbly accepting the service of her love, He leads her humbly to accept His love in re-turn, His love with its gift of "living water" springing up into a divine love, binding her to Him in an everlast-ing friendship. This is the apostolic technique which Jesus teaches to His apostles. Christian charity has to be mutual, love has to be a response to love. From the prospective convert the apostle must draw forth some sort of love, even if it is only an act of natural benevolence towards him. Grace, seizing upon this, can transform it into some-thing divine. Since man was made for love and love's proper act is to give, if we would set up a bond of love between our-÷ ÷ Requesting in Charity ÷ ÷ Paul Hinnebusch, O.P. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 504 selves and our fellow we must give him the opportunity to give to us. We must win his benevolence and sym-pathy by humbling ourselves before him in need. Love knows how to receive as well as give. Is not the recogn:i-tion of another's need a natural incentive to sympathy and love? Is not then the humble recognition of our mu-tual need of one another the best soil for mutual low:? For charity is mutual giving. Almighty God has deliber-ately created us mutually dependent upon one another that we may have an opportunity to love by giving ar, d to love by receiving, that thus the bond of love may 'be perfect. Therefore our blessed Lord instructed His apostles to receive even while they gave: they were to accept the hospitality of those to whom they wished to preach, they were to eat what was placed before them, they were to sleep on what was prepared for them (Lk 10:7-9). They were to be humbly dependent for material things upon the people upon whom they wished to shower super-natural gifts. Thus there would be established a balance and the mutual interchange which is charity in action. St. Paul's words describe the situation well: "There is a just bal-ancing- your abundance at the present time supplying their need, that their abundance may in turn supply your need, thus making for an equality" (2 Cor 8:14). Christ used this same technique with the disciples on the road to Emmaus. Though it was getting towards evening and the day was far spent, He acted as though He were going on, giving them the opportunity to urge their hospitality upon Him, so that by their love in giv-ing to Him their hearts would be prepared to receive His greater gifts (Lk 24:28 f.). Christ our Lord sent forth His disciples two by two so that they could mutually give and receive as they trav-elled to their missions, upholding one another in love. For in Christianity there is no room for the proud inde-pendent spirit which rejects others as though he does not need them, spurning their help as though he can get along without them, refusing to accept from others lest a debt of gratitude make him dependent upon them, carefully hoarding his own resources in fear that giving to others will impoverish him and make him dependent. How tremendously more fruitful all of our labors would be if all of us would work together in this humble charity which recognizes our need of one another! True charity is ever humbly aware of our mutual dependence upon one another in Christ and of our solidarity in Him; and therefore it is willing not only to give help but humbly to accept it and to give again in grateful return. For Christians must never give to others with an air of condescending superiority but must always humble them-selves to the level of the needy, in genuine compassion. "Be minded as was Christ Jesus," says st. Paul. "Though he was divine by nature, he did not consider his being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped, bi~t on the contrary he emptied himself, taking the nature of a slave, and was made like to men" (Phil 2:5-6). For the gifts of God, whether spiritual or material, are never given to us in order to exalt us above our fellowmen but rather to give us the means of serving Him in humble love. "Freely ~have you received, freely give" (Mr 10:8). If St. Thomas Aquinas always looked upon requests for his help as proceeding from humble charity, in humility he considered himself the servant of all in that same charity. For example, a young Dominican lecturer of Venice once wrote to him a list of thirty-six questions and asked for the answers within four days! Though this may seem to be an inconsiderate abuse of the generosity of an extremely busy man like Thomas, especially since the questions were vaguely phrased, nevertheless in sending back all the answers Thomas gently replied: "Although I h~ave been very busy, I have put aside for a time the things that I should do, and have decided to answer in-dividually the qusetions which you proposed, so as not to be lacking to the request of your charity." We must beware, then, of setting self-sufficient bound-aries about ourselves, saying, as it were, "This is my sphere of influence in the community, this is the work I will do. I can do this and no more, and I will accept no help in doing it, for I am self-sufficient within these lim-its. I want no help, because I wish to be independent of the need of helping another in return. So let us all de-marcate our spheres of influence, let us carefully portion out the common resources of our community life. This portion shall be mine, that portion shall be yours, and let us not trespass upon one anotherl You may not borrow my help or my equipment or my resources even in time of need, for at all costs we must avoid trespassing the 'rights' of one another. In short, let us kill all the spon-taneity of community life in charity." Religious who by vow have renounced everything, even their own wilI, are the last people in the world who should be insisting upon their rights. Is not charity a higher law than rights, does not charity break down the wails of proprietorship? Does not charity concede to others that to which they have no strict right? For whenever we have something and our neighbor is in true need of it, then it is no longer our own but his. It is not his in justice, but in charity. He cannot demand it of us--unless he is in dire necessity--but he can humbly ask it in love, and we grant it in love. We owe it to him + + + Requesting in Charity VOLUME 22, 1963 505 Paul Hinn~bu~ch, O.P. REVIEW FOR REL|G~OU$ in the charity which makes all of us one body under one Head. And yet, there is order in charity. For though what I~ have is given me by God not just for myself but for the service of others in Christ, yet I must use and distribute what I have in an orderly way, using it for the appointed purposes in community life. If I am called upon to de-vote some of my time or my resources in giving emer-geny help to another so that my appointed tasks may seem thereby to suffer, rather than stifle charity's eager-hess to help I entrust my own affairs to divine providence while I attend to the immediate needs of my neighbor. On the other hand, the common ownership of all things in community life, in this one body under one Head in charity, does not justify any one member or group of members o[ the religious community in appro-priating an unjust share of the common resources, taking more than should be alloted when distribution is made to each according to his need. If resources are unjustly appropriated in this way, even the charity of those who are unjustly deprived cannot approve of the injustice, though they may have to endure it in patience. Even charity cannot approve of the injustice, for charity is obliged to love the common good and cannot permit this harmful swelling of one member at the expense of an-other. We cannot appeal, then, to the fact that we are one body under one Head to justify any highhanded appro-priating of the common resources. What my neighbor has is mine, what the community has is mine, but only in the friendship of charity. I have only love's rights to these things. And therefore only in humble charity may !1. re-quest more than is already allotted to me. Only mutual charity makes what is his mine and what is mine his. Charity never demands, charity humbly asks. And when she has received, in due course she makes a grateful re-turn. Everyone who is generous in fulfilling the law of char-ity and is ever eager to be at the service of others sooner or later runs into those who abuse his generosity by mak-ing, in the name of charity, requests which charity has no right to make. There will be those who will use the main point of this article as an excuse for imposing upon others, saying, "I request this in charity, so in charity you may not refuse me." Are there situations when we may refuse requests for help without violating charity? At first sight it would seem not, for our Lord says, "Give to everyone who asks of you" (Lk 6:30). However, our Lord never asks the im-possible. There are times when one is so laden with other duties of justice and charity that he cannot possibly ful-fill a request for help. But in a case like this, charity must know how to say "No." "There is always a way of refus-ing so graciously," says the Little Flower, "that the re-fusal affords as much pleasure as the gift itself would have." Lest we abuse charity's rigl~t to ask help, we must al-ways be very considerate of those of whom we ask help. We should not ask a generous person for his help when we could do the things ourselves easily enough. For if the one we ask is really charitable and generous, then we can be sure he already has more than enough to do, for every-one is asking his help. We must take care never to ask un-necessarily or selfishly. If we really do not need help and the person we ask sees that this is so, then he is not uncharitable in refusing us. In this case a work of charity is not called for, since by definition a work of mercy is aid given to one who has true need. Furthermore, a busy religious has to be dis-criminating in the works of charity he undertakes. Since it is impossible for him to do everything, he does not violate charity if he makes a prudent choice about whom he is to help or about the type of aid he is to give; for as we have said, there is an order of charity. No one is obliged to sacrifice the greater works of charity and jus-tice to aid someone who would abuse his charity. Even in refusing a request which charity has no right to make, we must be charitable in our manner of refus-ing. One must patiently bear with the fault of the one who seeks to impose upon him. Likewise, we must be careful in judging whether or not a person really is abus-ing charity's rights to ask. Ordinarily we ought to pre-sume that the bond of charity lies at the basis of all re-quests for our help. If we may refuse help to those who are uncharitably inconsiderate in the requests they make of us, on the other hand we should anticipate the needs of those whose charity is so considerate of us that they hesitate to ask our help lest they unduly burden us. If, when necessary, charity knows how to refuse help in a gracious way, true charity is also always gracious in its manner of giving help. If our consent to help another is grudging and ungracious, we deal him an uncharitable blow even as we help him, for we humiliate him by our attitude. My son, to your charity add no reproach, nor spoil any gift by harsh words! Like clew that abates a burning so does a word improve a gift. ÷ ÷ + Requesting in Charity VOLUME 22~ 1965 5O7 Sometimes the word means more than the gift; both are offered by a kindly man. Only a fool upbraids before giving: a grudging gift wears out the expectant eyes (Sir 18:14-17). "The word means more than the gift" because the gen-uine charity behind the asking and the giving, the giving and the receiving, is the one thing precious above all else. 4- 4- 4- Paul Hinnebusch, O.P. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS ANTONIO ROSMINI Three Q estions on the Spiritual Life [Antonio Rosmini, 1797-1855, was one of the great figures of the Church in the nineteenth century. Besides founding the Rosminian Fathers (the Institute of Charity), he also founded the Sisters of Providence (the Rosminian Sisters). As the founder of the sisters, he was naturally solicitous for their spiritual progress and advancement. The Review is happy to present here a translation of a letter :from Father Rosmini to the members of the Sisters of Providence in England on three important matters of the spiritual life. The translation has been made by the Reverend Denis Cleary, I.C.; Saint Mary's; Derrys Wood; Wonersh; Guildford, Surrey; England.] Stresa~ September 24, 1850 Dear Daughters in Christ, I would not wish you to judge my charity towards you by the number of letters which you receive from me. The Lord knows that I have you in my heart and that I offer you to Him every day on the altar. If I write infrequently, attribute this to my weakness and to the fact that I know you have a superior who is full of zeal for your growth in Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, now that this superior of yours, and my dear brother in Christ, is returning to you after his journey to Italy, I cannot but send with him a letter which will serve to thank you for the gifts which you have sent me in your charity as a sign of your devo-tion and in which I shall answer those three important questions which you sent to me. I answer these questions because, although I know that you could have the same answers from your immediate superior who is full of wisdom and the spirit of God, I think that hearing the same things from me, as you desire and ask, will give you consolation and strength in doing good because of that affection and obedience which you grant me in Christ Jesus. It is for this reason that I write, not necessarily for your greater instruction. The first question which you ask me is this: "How can one use a spirit of intelligence without falling away from simple and blind obedience?" ÷ Three Questions VOLUME 22, 1963 + 4. ÷ ¯ 4ntonlo Rosmini REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS This question and the other two which follow show your spiritual discernment becau.se they manifest your de-sire for instruction in the most perfect things. Perfec-tion demands that we know how to join and harmonize in our daily actions those virtues which, at first sight., seem opposed and even, perhaps, to exclude one another reciprocally. In fact, although no virtue can ever truly be opposed to another, just as no truth can be opposed to another truth, there is an art in uniting harmoniously those virtues which belong to faculties and passions which have contrary tendencies. When possessed by a per-fect man these faculties and passions come together in an orderly way. Knowing how to bring them together, there-fore, belongs to the study of that perfection to which we are consecrated. The person who seeks for perfection is rather like a composer who knows how to blend the voices of contralto, baritone, and bass. Coming now to your que.,stion, I say that simple and blind obedience can be joined with a spirit of intelli-gence and that this can be done in various ways. The First Way. It must be realised that the higher and the more universal the reason which governs our actions, the greater the use we make of a spirit of intelligence. Acting with a spirit of intelligence only means acting ~c-cording to reason without allowing ourselves to be moved or disturbed by any passion whatsoever. Now the highest and most universal of all reasons for acting is that of doing in everything the will of God (I expect you have seen what I have written on this matter and have also read it). But he who obeys with simplicity and purity is certain of doing the will of God who has said concerning ecclesiastical superiors: "He who hears you hears me." This is a simple but efficacious and sublime reason for acting. It contains so much good in itself that, when it is present, it renders every other reason superfluous. So you see that although obedience is called blind this is not because it is without light but because it has so much light that it does not need to take it from elsewhere. It is as though a man is said to be without light because he does not light candles when the sun shines. The Second Way. Besides this, he who obeys blindly and simply can use his spirit of intelligence in the way in which he carries out what he has been commanded. Two persons carry out a command of their superior: one of them does it without reflection, without attention, without putting his heart into the work, without think-ing of what he has been told, without endeavoring to understand what has been commanded; the other does the same work trying to know, first of all, what his supe-riot's intention was, then endeavoring to carry out that intention in the best way possible as if it were his very own. The former, you see, acts without conviction and almost in spite of himself. The other performs his duty willingly; he desires to succeed; he finds his happiness in this work since he is certain of pleasing God. The latter obeys both with simplicity and with a spirit of intelli-gence, like a living and intelligent person, not like a machine. It is obviously impossible for the superior, when he commands, to mention in detail all those things which concern the way in which the order, is to be carried out. He gives the command and then leaves the subject to carry it out. The subject who has the greater spirit of intelligence can be known immediately through observa-tion of the manner in which he carries out his duty. The Third Way. It often happens that the command is more or less general and that many things are left to the common sense of the one who receives it. In this case, the subject must be careful to note the sphere of action de-termined for him by the command of his stiperior. Within that sphere he is obliged by obedience itself to work in a personal manner, not capriciously, 9[ course, but according to sound judgment, that is to say, with a spirit of intelligence. If you consider the different members of a religious congregation, you will see that they all act through obe-dience, even the general of the order because he is subject to the pope at least. Nevertheless, obedience leaves a more or less free field to the details of their obedience. .Superiors have greater scope in this respect than subjects. According to his position, each one can .and must make use of his spirit of intelligence. In your own house, you begin from the central superior and you go down through all the other offices, each of which is subordinate to the one above and so directed by obedience. Nevertheless, all the work has to be carried out with a spirit of intelli-gence. Everyone has to use this spirit in so far as obedi-ence leaves the matter to her discretion. Take another example, a teacher or a nurse, for in-stance. Obedience imposes this work, and so the merit of obedience is present. But what a great deal of intelligent application is needed to carry it out perfectlyl And if you consider even particular commands, you will find that the greater part of them leaves some liberty where one's own intelligence can be used. For instance, you have to write a letter and have even been told in general what to write. Is it not still necessary to think carefully about the way in which the matter is to be expressed? Obedience, therefore, never determines all the actions which a person does--that would be impossible. Many commands give scope, and great scope, to the exercise of personal initia-tive. + + + Three Questions VOLUME 22~ 196~ ~ntonlo Rosmini REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS The Fourth Way. This concerns the observations which we make respectfully to our superiors about the commands they give us. These observations are perfectly lawful, but in order to make them with a true spirit of intelligence three conditions are required: first, that these observations spring simply from zeal for good and t.he glory of God, not from any self-interest; second, that they are not made lightly--in a word, that we do not say the first thing that comes into our head without having re-flected upon the matter; third, that they are made in spirit of submission so that if the superior insists upon his command the subject does not sulk but does what he is told with alacrity and joy. If the matter has great importance for the glory of God and it seems that what is commanded by the superior is not the right course, one can have recourse to a higher superior. This is not contrary to the simplicity of obedi-ence provided that the three conditions mentioned are put Jr;to practice. Superiors like to hear the observations of their subjects provided that these are offered in a spirit of charity and humility. If after all this it happens that what has to be done and what is done for obedience leads to some harmful effect (provided, of course, one is not treating of sin), the one who obeys has lost nothing. On the contrary, he gains because his act of obedience con-tains a mortification which is most pleasing to God. The man who mortifies himself in order to obey has taken great step forward on the road to sanctity both because he has denied his own will and because he has sacrificed his selblove and submitted his reason to a greater reason, God's very own, from which the command comes. That is suflacient for the first question. The second question is this: "How can one unite prac-tically the spirit of contemplation to an active life en-gaged in works of charity?" Since the union of holy contemplation with the exer-cise of works of charity is the aim of our congregation, follows that we must not be satisfied until we have ob-tained from God the light to join these two things in our-selves. I say that we must obtain from God the power of uniting contemplation and action in our life because the' only master who can teach us such a sublime science is, Jesus Christ Himself who gave us a most perfect example' of it. You see, this science consists in nothing else but' union, and the closest possible union, with Jesus Christ. In His mercy He has already prepared in His Church the' means necessary for this union. Even before we were born or knew how to desire them, these means were made' ready for us. What are these means, then, which enablel us to obtain this intimate and continually actuated union~ with Jesus Christ, this union which does not distract us from works of external charity but, on the contrary, im-pels us towards them and helps us to implement them? The first among them is the pure and simple intention of seeking Jesus Christ alone in all our thoughts, works, and actions. This uprightness of intention is harmed to a greater or less degree by any other affection which influ-ences our actions. It follows that our intention of seeking in everything Jesus Christ alone is not perfect if we have not given up self-love and sensuality entirely. I said, how-ever, that that intention which seeks Jesus Christ alone in everything is hurt by every affection which influences our internal or external actions because an affection or sensation which has no influence on our voluntary thoughts or words or actions (in which case the affection or sensation is entirely opposed by our will) in no way diminishes the purity of our intention. On the contrary, it gives it scope and increases it according to those words of God to St. Paul: "Virtue is made perfect in tribula-tion." The second means, which serves to help the first, con-sists in carrying out all our exercises of piety, and espe-cially our reception of the sacraments and our assistance at Mass, with the greatest possible fervor, tenderness, gratitude, sincerity, and intelligence. It is especially in these two acts of devotion that there is loving union be-tween Jesus Christ and the devout soul. The third means is that of endeavoring continually to keep alive the love of Jesus Christ in our hearts by hold-ing Him present, painted, as it were, before the eyes of the soul. We have to hear His words as they are recorded in the Gospel; we have to consider the actions which He performed during His mortal life and at the moment of His precious death (all these actions should be familiar to a spiritual person); we must apply His words and His example to ourselves and to all that we have to do; we must ask how He would act in our case and how He wishes us to act; when we are in doubt we should take advice, desiring sincerely to know and to do what is most perfect and is most pleasing to Him; we must listen to His voice with reverence and love when He speaks within US. The fourth means is that of beholding Jesus Christ in our neighbor. Whenever we have contact with our neigh-bor, we must endeavor to be of use to him in Jesus Christ and receive from him edification for ourselves. If we have a great zeal for the salvation of souls, we shall do every-thing in our power to win them and to bringlthem close to Jesus Christ. At the same time, we will wage war on useless and idle words and upon superfluous conversa-tioHnso awnedv vear,i nin c uorridoesrit yto. direct our every wo|rd/and work + 4. 4. Three Questions VOLUME 22, 1963 Antonio Rosrnini REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS to the betterment of others and of ourselves, and so to bring forth fruits of eternal life, two things are necessary: primarily and principally, charity should always be ou.r guiding star; secondly, we must ask from Jesus Christ the light of His prudence which multiplies the fruits of charity. A soul that always proposes to itself the good of souls in everything that it says or does will always be recollected even in the midst of many external works be-cause its spirit is always intent on charity; and he who thinks always of the charity of Jesus Christ and has noth-ing else in his heart is always recollected in Jesus Christ and in God because the Scripture says: "God is charity." To acquire the habit which enables these four means to fructify in a constant recollection of spirit even in the midst of external occupations, it is necessary to make great efforts in the beginning and mortify oneself reso-lutely with regard to everything that distracts the mind and is opposed" to this state of recollection and of the presence of God. We must ask this grace of Jesus Christ with great constancy. Only by persevering in intense prayer can the soul be established in that permanent con-dition of quiet in God which is never lost through any' external action provided the will does not give itself to evil. Here you must realise that the power which communi-cates with God and is joined to God is different from those other powers with which we work externally. When, therefore, man has come to a certain state of con-templation and union, he works with those powers which regard external actions without placing any obstacle to that supreme power which gives him quiet and rest in God. So it is that we read of certain holy persons who, while they seemed completely taken up externally, were speaking internally with their God and Creator. And this conversation of theirs, instead of impeding them, helped them to do their external works better, just as outward actions did not turn them away from their interior~ union with God. Such a desirable state is usually obtained by those faithful and constant souls who, at the beginning, suffer much and mortify themselves greatly and pray with in-tensity and wholeheartedness. This is the state which the Sisters of Providence must strive to obtain during the time of the novitiate when they have every opportunity, if only they will use it, of binding themselves indissolubly to God, the spouse of their souls. The union begt, n then must last for the whole of their life. Those sisters who have not obtained it completely during their novitiate must strive to gain it as soon as possible, But let us pass to the third question. The third question was, then: "How can one unite per- fect zeal and an ardent desire for the perfection of charity with perfect detachment from the esteem~ of others and a sincere desire for contempt and ill use." This question is no less difficult to dea,1 with than the preceding two--to answer in practice, ,I mean, not in words. But what is difficult to Jesus Christ and to those who hope in Him and pray to Him . ?~t In order to reply to this last question~of yours, I say that it is necessary to suppose in a person h foundation of solid humility. This consists in not attributing to oneself that which belongs to God alone or to other men. Humil-ity, in fact, is only justice. It is just that m~{n should think himself nothing (because he really is such) and that he should think God everything; it is just tl~at man should recognise that glory does not appertain to !nothing but to that which is everything. Therefore he should wish for no glory for himself but the greatest possible ~glory for God. When a man knows these things, it is just ~hat he should feel a certain uneasiness when he is praised by men be-cause he who is nothing cannot desire to b~ praised with-out usurping what is not proper to him. IOn the other hand, he should be joyful when he sees that men glorify God. Man however is not only nothing. He is something worse: he is a sinner (not only because of the sins which he has committed but also because of th~se which he could have committed and would commit con. tinually if God did not have compassion on him). It lis just there-fore that he should desire to be despised[and that he should rejoice when he is ill treated by mefl. Sentiments of this nature must be unshakeable and deeply implanted in the soul of a religious person. Nevertheless, this per-son must realise also that although man is a, lnothing and moreover subject to every sin, Jesus Christ lias redeemed him through His mercy freely given; He h~s saved him and clothed him with Himself in such a maqner that the Christian bears the adornments of Jesus Christ. These are more or less rich and precious according io the abun-dance of virtues, of merits, and of grace poss,essed by the Christian. A man who finds himself adorned in this man-ner is indeed mad if this causes pride in him. On the other hand, if he realises that all these treasures are given to him freely and through no merit of his own, he will humble himself and attribute to God alone dhe glory of them without usurping for himself even the sdaallest part of that glory. Yet, just as God has given to man theset'reasures of v~rtue and of grace through a wholly gratmtous love, so also He makes h~m a paruc~pator of H~s own glory. Once more, though, man must not consider this glo',ry which is g~ven to him as his own but as belonging to Jisus Christ 4, Three Questions VOLUMF 22~ 1963 4. 4. ÷ Antonio Rosmini REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS who, through His mercy, has wished to pour it out upon those who believe in Him, and to allow them a share it. With all this well understood, we can formulate certain rules which enable us to unite a desire of perfecting onr works of charity with detachment from self-esteem and, moreover, with a sincere desire of contempt (a most pre-cious thing). The rules are the following. First Rule. Generally speaking we must not give any occasion for contempt, at least through our own fault. When, despite this, we are belittled~ we must receive our humiliation with joy as something precious; we must thank God for it without fearing that it will damage our works of charity because, even if some damage does re-sult from it, this is desired by the Lord for His own ends. We ought not to turn away from it but trust in Provi-dence which will know how to obtain greater good h'om the immediate evil. Second Rule. We must never do anything whatever to gain praise from men. To do so is a most despicable act. When praise doescome of its own accord, we must at-tribute it to Jesus Christ to whom alone it belongs; we must, for our part, fear it as a danger and take precau-tions against it by internal acts of humility and contempt of ourselves; we must protest that we do not want to re-ceive it as a part of our reward. After this, if we find that praise is useful towards the perfection of our works of charity, we can take pleasure in it provided that this pleasure concerns the perfection of charity. We must not refer it simply to ourselves and we must be careful that no feeling of vanity or pride arise from it. On the con-trary, after we have received praise we should prepare ourselves for greater humiliation, persuaded that praise has made us no better than we were before. Third Rule. When we realise that the praise has been exaggerated, we should be displeased because this is con-trary to truth and justice. We should attribute it to the large heart of the one who gives it. Fourth Rule. In order to know whether we are really detached ourselves, we must see if we are glad when others are praised. You especially must ask yourselves whether you rejoice when praise is given to your sisters. Even the very smallest dislike or jealousy on this account would be a very great defect. You must be generous with others but especially with your sisters; you must consider their virtues far more than their vices; and you must try to maintain, by just means always, the esteem which others give them. Everyone must be ready to turn praise away from herself and see that it goes instead to her sis-ters. Each one must wish to be first with the work in hand and the last to be praised. This is not a dit~icult thing when a person considers his own defects and the virtues of others; when he no longer judges or condemns the defects of others; when he leaves ~ll judgment to God to whom alone it belongs; when he puts into prac-tice the lesson which Jes.us Christ tau :ht with these words: "Do not judge and you will not be judged. In fact, exposing oneself to the danger of j, " " one's brethern is the same as doing tlztdging wrongly ¯Therefore, in order not to be in danger o~ em an injury. lnj"us ¯uce against them, one must abstain [croom mevitetrinyg d aen-finitive judgment which may harm them. tions as the answers occurred to me. I hope that, if you meditate and do all this, you ever more dear to God and assure for your mortal crown. Your most affectionate fat~ Filth Rule. We must never speak of th ings for which we can be praised-~even the world considers this wrong. Moreover, although we ought not to bl'ame ourselves without good motives, nevertheless we ought to strive to cover up our virtues as far as we can andI to speak con-temptuously of ourselves sometimes provided so with sincerity This i . ¯ ~ .we can do you are speaking with yo~u rp rsaislsteewrso orrm wy iethspl et~cmerlsloyn ws h"en wh.om you are friendly, provided, once mo~, that itwl~tahs a s~ncere foundation. My dear sisters in Christ, I have replied t.o your ques- ,n our Lord will become seives an lin-er in Christ, A.R. ÷ Three Questions VOLU~ ~:,, SISTER JEAN DE MILAN, S.G.C. Toward Greater Maturity ÷ ÷ Sister Jean de Mi-lan, S.G.C., teaches psychology at Rivier College; Nashua, New Hampshire. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 518 The compatibility of neurosis and religion has re-ceived considerable attention in the psychological litera-ture of the last. thirty years. It is argued that sanctity re-quires a certain integrity in the psychic order,1 that man's struggle for perfection is directly proportionate to his mental equilibrium.2 There is no doubt, then, as to the importance of mental health in religious life where men and women consecrate themselves to God by vows to practice the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Religious commit themselves to community living and they depend mostly on one another for the works of the community and for companionship. It takes only elemental charity to prompt one to look into the dynamics of a neurosis in search of the elements incom-patible with a religious life. It is now an accepted fact that without being diagnosed psychoneurotics everyone exhibits neurotic symptoms at irregular intervals. It will be the purpose of this paper to identify these neurotic traits and to suggest measures within the framework of a religious life which can help to attenuate if not to eradicate the troublesome symptoms. The paper will be developed along twelve characteris-tics listed by Schneiders as typical of neurotic person-alities: immaturity and sensitivity, self-centeredness, un-realistic ego ideal, rigidity and anxiety, isolation, ag-gression against self, mental conflict, lack of control, sug-gestibility, irresponsibility, lack of sense of humor, and emotional instability,s These traits can be found in many people including religious; it is only when they become x Jordan Aumann, "Can Neurotics Be Saints?" Cross and Crown, v. 5 (1953), pp. 458-59. s Robert Meskunas, "Sanity and Sanctity: An Inquiry into the Compatibility of Neurosis and Sanctity," Bulletin o] the Guild o] Catholic Psychiatrists, v. 7 (October, 1960), p. 248. s Alexander A. Schneiders, Personal Adjustment and Mental Health (New York: Rinehart, 1955), pp. 390-95. a consistent and persistent pattern that/one speaks of a neurotic personality. As a type of adjustment, it is in-adequate and it represents an meffioent and unwhole-some effort to meet the demands and rdsponsibilities of daily living. / 1. Immaturity,and Sensitivity The neurotics immaturity makes allI problems and frustrations loom large and menacing, IThis tendency, often paired with regression, connotes not only loss mature habits of behavior but a consequ~ent progressive inadequacy of response. The neurotic be.comes decreas-ingly able to meet the ordinary demands for social living and begins to withdraw from acuve part~opauon, m group acuwty. He does not master hfe ~ut expects life to look after him. He is unusually sensitive to comments concerning himself and cannot tolerate/any form criticism. His sensitivity makes the stresses~ and threats of reality almost unbearable¯ Religious life favors the cultivation of a/Christianper-sonality through the development of a perfect life---~ne exquisitely balanced, of noble service to ohe's neighbor, a life most happily modeled on Christ Hi~aself. In lead-ing to spiritual maturity, religious life de~aands of one constant and close personal contacts in theI common life which comprises factors capable of actualizing the po-tentialities of the individual. To be a constructive and mature power, the individual personality ]nust exercise itself through activity upon others. Religious who can be characterized by "immaturity and sensitivity" are likely to be living in a sElf-contained world. They have refused to walk through the doors swinging outward where the self can be ektended and actualized. 2. Self-Centeredness Neuroticism is characterized by a life which is, in some respects, self-centered. It is ~mmatunty s firs.t ally. The neurotic makes his ego the center of the universe; good is what is good for the ego, bad only what unpleasant to it. Menninger, a renowned psychiatrist, b~lieves that Christ Himself laid down one of the pnnople~s of mental health that is now recognized as of paramo,unt impor-tance. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all quoted Christ when they said: "For whosoever will save his life s~all lose it, but whosoever will lose his life for my sake will save it." What better can condense the attributes of a mature per-sonality? "Some men can love others enough~ to derive ¯ more satisfaction from that than from being lo~ved them-selves. It is still a magnificent precept. If you can follow VOLUME 22, 1963 ,519 it, you will never have to make a date with a psychia-trist." 4 Religious life, because of its theocentric plan, teaches a person to surmount his egocentricity. It also provides a basis for satisfactory interpersonal relations and cha:r-ity toward fellow men in the fatherhood of God instead of in changing human sentiments.5 The spirit of self-abnegation and self-denial is fundamental to the re-ligious life. Religious are called to share one mind, one heart, one life, one love in Christ. Their social service is motivated by the love of God in the neighbor. Self-love, then, tends to decrease as a function of one's love. for others. The paradox of a self-centered religious be-comes a serious indictment. + + + Sister Jean de Milan, S.G.C. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 3. Unrealistic Ego Ideal The neurotic harbors an almost pathological ego ideal which prevents him from achieving a realistic attitude toward the issues and problems of daily life. His goal is a purely idealized and often artificial one. The ego ideal, the self one wants to become, may take the form of an ideal of personal conduct or it may be identified with certain desired accomplishments. The purpose of the ideal is to bring about identification with it in view of self-actualization. It emphasizes the forward movement or activity that is characteristic of living or-ganisms. The personal pattern of tendencies is projected into the future. This orientation toward future goals is commonly accepted by psychologists as a mark of matu-rity. Obviously, it reaches its highest perfection in re-ligion where man is oriented toward his ultimate goal.e Religion aims primarily at bringing persons closer to God, and by doing so it may secondarily promote their mental health. When a person believes that God assists him in a very personal way, life's perplexities and emo-tional crises become relatively unimportant. With such a clear-eyed notion of God, of His claims on the indi-vidual and His plans for him, the religious has a reliable and stable framework upon which to build a plan of life. Religion is the supreme moral virtue dominating his interior life and his relations to other human beings, and the religious view of life becomes the philosophy which dominates both thought and conduct.7 Such a man is strengthened by the sense of his own personal dignity. ' Schneiders, Personal Adjustment, p. 160. ~ James H. VanderVeldt and Robert P. Odenwald, Psychiatry and Catholicism (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1952), p. 185. e James E. Royce, Personality and Mental Health (Milwaukee: Bruce, 1955), p. 277. ~ Thomas Verner Moore, Personal Mental Hygiene (New York: Grune and Stratton, 1944), p. 236. A religious has only to gauge his serentty to evaluate himself on this trait. 4. Rigidity and Anxiety The neurotic's rigidity and anxiety d, not allow ~him to adapt to changing situations. Flexibility, suppleness, and malleability are the signs of life. I Rigidity, rigor mortis, is the sign of death. Such is the sta'te of the person who lacks malleability, whose personali~,y is excessively rigid'S Fear and anxiety, the very core of neurosis, are emo-tions which generally assume a rather egoistic character. It is well known and readily accepted thatldiffuasnexiety is reduced in the neurotic by the development of somatic symptomatology, exther phys~ogentc or psychogemc ~n nature. The physical symptoms then bdcome ways of structuring the anxiety¯ Anxiety may result from dejection flowing from one's inabilityto realize his ambitions; it maylbe due to in-jured vanity. There are surprisingly few neurotics' among people who are genuinely humble. Real Ihumil!ty is a prophylaxis against the anxieties one encounters ~n every day human interaction, for the truly huml~le person not only recognizes his own weaknesses and limperfections but he remains peaceful when his deficiencies are recog-nized by others also.9 One who has consecrated himself to God by religious vows is officially the spouse of Christ. Bu~ one can be officially the bride of Christ without having made in reality a complete sacrifice of himself in which his will is identified with and absorbed in the will of God, or without having attained to that psychologtcal state that St. John of the Cross designates as "spiritual ,matrimony." This state results in a cessation of all anxiety and a men-tal state of peace and delightA0 It is quitd remarkable how religious experiences tend to the moral perfectton of the one who has them. They give him a be~ter mode of adjustment in his relations to other humanl beings and a spiritualized conception of the nature of t~ials. 5. Isolation There is a certain amount of hostility in .he neurotic make-up coupled wtth tnabthty to get along w~th others. The psychoneurotm ts essenually a maladjusted personal- 8 Charles J. D. Corcoran, "Types Suited or Unsuited for Religious Vocation," Proceedings o] the Eighth Annual Convocation o[ the Vocation Institute (Notre Dame: Notre Dame Press, 1955), p. 33. 0 Raphael C. McCarthy, Sa]eguarding Mental Health! (Milwaukee: Bruce, 1937), p. 253. lOThomas Verner Moore, The Driving Forces o[ H~man Nature (New York: Grune and Stratton, 1948), pp. 421-22. ÷ ÷ ÷ Maturity VOLUME 22, 1963 521 4. Sister lean de Milan, REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS ity and the victim of a bad system of mental habits. isolation results from a group of defense reactions, in-cluding primarily the fundamental biological reactions of defense and avoidance. The neurotic withdraws from his social group and becomes a nuisance even unto him-self. Man is a social being whose ultimate destiny is bound up with his observance of the great commandment dual charity. His perfection as a person is analogous to that of a seed which, to bear fruit, must grow outside of of itself. Religious growth in perfection can be measured in terms of one's serviceability to and influence on others. A life in the service of God and man, a wholehearted de-votion to the ideal of religious life, appears as the realiza-tion of our friendship with God. The profound feeling of loneliness and sense of isolation one experiences oc-casionally can be cured by a sincere trust in God, our friend. 6. Aggression Against Sell Neurotics are characterized by a great deal of petulance, annoyance with others, sensitivity to their at-titudes and behavior, readiness to quarrel and to find fault, and so on. Self-hatred as well as hatred of reality underlies both the spiritual and emotional disturbance. Aggression against self flows from conceited pride which has a twofold weakening effect: one of walling up its victim from reality and the other of making him super-sensitive to anything that might be construed to indicate a belittling attitude on the part of others,ix Running through all these neurotic ups and downs is a thread of chronic dissatisfaction and hopelessness which pre:;ents the eternal problem of "to be or not to be." The neurotic tries to evade the problem but no evasion is possible. He goes on unhappy and feeling offended and disregarded while it is within his power to modify, change, develop, and perfect his attitudes of mind, his emotional reac-tions, and the habits that fall under the competence of the will. It may call for the adoption of a new plan of life. Religious life, by having one strive towards the per-fection of a Christian personality, calls for a conscious development along the lines of private and social con-duct. Weekly confession is productive of a healthy ac-ceptance of one's shortcomings without introspective brooding. One is helped to come to a realistic acknowl-edgement of one's place, one's assets and liabilities, and one's dignity and dependence on God. Meditation is also a great promoter of insight. n James A. Magner, Personality and $uccessIul Living (Milwaukee: Bruce, 1945), p. 44. Mental Conflict Since it is the nature of conflict to pull the organism in different directions at the same time, deep-seated neurotic conflict is bound to disrupt the organization of personality. In the concept of. conflictI the conscience principle is of supreme importance; for it often happens that there is no real conflict between desire and its mere physical fulfillment, or between desire a~d one's sense of expediency, but that it is mainly and al~ove all between desire and the sense of duty. When impulse and fear are in conflict, the neurotic tries to resolve the conflict not by cont.trolling the im-pulse but instead by evasion and decep, uon. The fear results in behavior which seeks grauficauon while trying to keep punishment from occurring; thits strategy com-monly involves secrecy and falsehood. Th~ neurotic seeks to avoid social disapproval, but his conscle, nce hurts him. Attempts at repression may be unsuccessful and the in-dividual may resort to neurotic symptoms. Rehg~on, by reason of its experiences, behefs, and prac-uces, ~s eminently stated to the reducuon of damagxng conflict, feelings, and frustrations. It constantly reminds one of the intrinsic value and dignity of man, and of the fact that he is created to the image and likeness of God; there is no better way to offset the traumatic effects of in-feriority and the feeling of personal worthl~essness. There can be no more solid anchor than trust in! divine provi-dence and in the belief of His personal interest in each of His creatures. Conformity to the will of th~ all-wise God makes life's sorrows and fears bearable. Whlen a religious weakens under the burden of mental conflitcts, it will be wise for him to work out the debits and credits of his conduct in terms of self-will and will of G~d. 8. Lack of Control When the emotions are chronically ou~[ of control, some degree of neurosis exists. There is no neurosis with-out some evidence of failure in control an~t integrative functions. Integration presupposes wisdom ~in the intel-lect and character in the will--a scale of lvalues, self-knowledge, and habits of self-control. Most o,[ the neurot-ics are recruited among those whose will power is undeveloped. Stability amid the ups and downs of emotional moods is essential to both physical and mental heal~.h. Here the virtues of fortitude and temperance play their part. Re-ligion gives moral principles with a bac,king which makes them easier to hold onto when the going is hard. Meditation, a daily spiritual exercise for all religious, Moore, Mental Hygiene, p. 306. 4. Maturity VOLUME 22, 1963 ÷ ÷ $i~tet lean d~ Milan, $.G.C. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 524 readjusts their thinking to a proper sense of values. Be-sides, one is not allowed to elude the dynamics of grace for any considerable time when one truly lives his re. ligious life. 9. Suggestibility Suggestibility is closely linked with emotional im-maturity and harmful dependency. The suggestible neu-rotic is controlled by an idea or by someone else rather than by himself. His want of self-confidence makes him dependent upon others so that he leans on their judg-ments and readily yields to suggestion. He is vacillating in his purposes, uncertain in his opinions, fearful of re-sponsibility, and reluctant to assume the initiative in any activity. Such feelings batter at a person's mental in-tegrity until it is weakened or destroyed.13 Suggestibility resembles "lack of control" inasmuch as it implies lack of integration. The greater one's erno-tional vulnerability, the greater will be the predisposition to neurotic reactions. No doubt the neurotic is happier with his neurosis than he would be without it in view of all the circumstances external and internal as he per-ceives them; however, he lacks the happiness of an inte-grated personality. What VanderVeldt said of religion can be said of re-ligious life: "The condition for the mental health value of religion is that people truly live their religion.TM Perhaps not all people who are supposed to be religious and become neurotic have made their religious convic-tions an integral part of their lives. 10. Irresponsibility Sense of responsibility is the realization that one has certain duties and obligations to fulfill and the deter-mination to fulfill them to the best of one's abilities. Sense of responsibility and the willingness to accept obli-gations are dependent to a great extent on maturity. The comparison is often made of a neurosis being a closed door that bars dyn~imic development for the neu-rotic. If the doors of the neurotic hell are locked from the inside, the psychotherapist can only help the patient find the key. This is not an easy task as the neurotic pa-tient clings to his symptoms even though he is disturbed by them and seeks psychiatric help. The neurosis is a way of life that is pleasant to the neurotic, especially when he is able to manipulate the environment to meet his selfish needs. The ability to assume responsibility is in large part a McCarthy, SaIeguarding Mental Health, p. 266. VanderVeldt and Odenwald. Psychiatry and Catholicism, p. 193. matter of moral courage¯ One who has honest religious convicuons feels obhged to do something worthwhile for God and for man. He turns aside from the unwholesome pursuit of selfish pleasures. Religious Iprinciples direct his mind to the purpose of life, and in/so doing they do not deprive him of pleasure but' give it i~ abundance and permanence as he attains the great purp, ose of life in the service of God and man. If he has adopted the religious ideal with enthusiasm, then it become~ a powerful in-hibitory force against the development of unwholesome mental conditions.15 11. Lack ol Sense of Humor A good sense of humor is one of the c iteria of mental health and adjustment. It is not found in the neurotic whose life is humorless, a drab affair d~ minated by ill-ness, conflict, frustration, dissatisfaction, ~and discourage-ment. Humor is based on the perception of incongruities; it is a feeling of surprise, the joyous shock Iof discovery in our appreciation of life's incongruities. To find these con-trasts we must be self-detached,.account ourselves of little ¯ importance, look outwards and not rewards, feel drawn to people and to th~ngs ~n thanksgxwng; for humor ~s the reward o1: a wxll-to-commumty. "Wlll-to-cornmumty ~s not to be understood as a fixed determ~nauon to hve with the community but rather the will td live in a com-munity as a grateful member of a crowd,°r group. Hu-mor should be the natural endowment oflall thowsheo seek to live in religion. The test of a true sense of humor is the capacity to laugh with others at one's self; but that i~ not all. One must discover the reason for such laughter. One must learn to discover in the laughter of others s~omething like a comphment. True humor ~s akin to brotlierly love and sympathy; ~t brads us closer together and relaxes all un- ! due tensions. There is nothing so effecuve in checking the ingrowing pains of pride as a sense of h~umor. People who take themselves too seriously need the ~antidote of a good laugh to reduce values to their true llevel and to declare a permanent moratorium on manyI of their pet grievances and frustrated ambitions.17 A sense of humor combats anxiety, which is a blight on the ~ehg~ous life, by exercising the mind in a way which develops a living, vibrant suppleness. Cheerfulness is the siga which ac-companies sacrifices made out of true love, the love of God. Gloom and sadness are the signs of s~lcrifice made ~ Moore, Mental Hygiene, pp. 244-45. xo Ferdinand Valentine, The Apostolate o[ Chastity (Westminster: Newman, 1954), p. 15. x7 Magner, Personality and Success]ul Living, p. 48. ÷ Maturity VOLUME 22~ 1963 out of self-love, out of vainglory. A" sense of humor enables one to behd without breaking under the weight: of the cross, to see the proportion between the suffering,; of this life and the glory of the next, and to see oneself in the humble relationship of creature to Creator. 12. Emotional Instability Emotional instability is a dominant feature of the neurotic personality and a primary determinant of the neurotic's difficulties. Along with his emotional change-ability and high general emotionality, he exhibits be-havior that is characteristic of a spoiled child. There is an intimate connection between mental and moral health. Wholesome effective living and mental stability require an adequate scale of values, or philos-ophy of life, and a set of worthwhile attitudes and habits. These qualities can be provided more efficaciously and more abundantly by religion than anything else in one's life. Only moral virtue can give a healthy, integrated personality. The virtues moderate one's emotions and temperament, bringing them into balance. A virtuous life will result in unity and integration of personality. Summary and Conclusion Religious are not immune to neurotic behavior; at one time or another, a religious is likely to exhibit neu-rotic traits. But by its very nature, the religious life can help one counteract the possible neurotic tendencies. A brief discussion of the positive contributions of religious life to mental health was introduced with the discussion of each neurotic trait. The religious man or woman of humble faith in God, of daily prayer and consultation with God, of devotion to his or her religious duties as God has given light to see them has the assurance of a full perspective on life, health of mind, peace of soul, and a view of time in the light of eternity,is ~s James A. Magner, Mental Health in a Mad World (Milwaukee: Bruce, 1953), p. 298. 4. Sister Jean de Milan, S.G.C. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 526 ROBERT j. KRUSE, C.S.C. Au in Religio 'From a supernatural point of view, th, exercise of re-ligious authority and the practice of ehg~ous obedience are meaningful only when conceived as~ participations in the authority and in the obedience of Christ our Lord. eAd::a°~n:r~ ~Vreo~tern~p. t to understand authority and obedi- . ~ a ~nrist-centered way of ~ife, we become gud~ of gloss misunderstanding In such }a situ . - gardless ot the reasonableness "a n d t h et ingenudittlyO oIlf~ oreu-r solutions to the problems which religiouslauthority and religious obedience pose, such solutions remain void of genuine supernatural worth. In discussing authority and obedience, therefore, our first and constant care must be to associate them with our life in Christ. ~therwise our discussion will remain purely human and natural and a ~. consequence sterile Attempts ,~ ~-~ - ~-,. ¯ s. hfe~as ~,s Christian a"nd relig~io tu~s x lcifaett~ ~m Uu~lvt lbnee wanaal~zffd in divine terms. To confront supernatural reality with purely natural reflections betokens a wand of reverence ~r~he g~dly way of life with which we ~re ~a . ~st our Lord. ~ ceu ~n In this article we will speak of authority in the r - ligious life. In a subsequent article we will ~er some r~ flections on religious obedience. Of the t~o topics the latter is the more all,cult. Both are intimately connected. Afith~rity and obedience are relative terms so that what-ever ,s said o~ the one necessarily contains implications for the other. In our discussion of authority ~e ~ill group our considerations about three focal poiqts: first, re-ligious authority and the mystery o[ the ~ncarnation; second, religious authority and the imitation of Christ our Lord; and third, religious authority and] the mystery o~ the Redemption. Divine life flows to the souI through many channels. Ultimately, however, all of those channels drink at a sole spring and that spring is Christ. It is He who gives ÷ ÷ Robert J. Kruse, C.S.C;, is a faculty member ot? Holy Cross Fathers Semi-nary; North Easton, Massachusetts. VOLUME 22, 1965 Robert CK,~.Ce., REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 528 to the soul living water, "a fountain of water, springing up unto life everlasting" (Jn 4:14). What is it that the Christian and that the religious seeks? He seeks a share in the life of God. For without a share in the life of the eternal God, man is deprived of all eternal significance. Unless a man looks outside of himself to a higher order, to the transcendent order, to God, in search of an ex-planation for his own existence, unless a man looks be-yond self to Another for the fulfillment of his own noblest hopes, he remains imprisoned without hope in the finite, in the created, in the temporal order--with no more persona/significance than that of any other transi-tory phenomenon. Ultimately, all religious questions re-duce themselves to this sole question: the nature of man's relationship to God, the possibility of man's sharing in the life of God. For apart from such a possibility man becomes merely a moment in time. And self is incapable, totally incompetent to satisfy its own profoundest aspira-tions. So that man seeks a way out of the maze of human, created, and limited reality, finite love, imperfect good-ness and truth, a way which will lead him to the enjoy-ment eternally of unlimited reality, infinite love, perfect truth. That way is Christ. Christ is the sole way. There is no other way. Among all communications of divine life, none re-motely approaches that enjoyed by the holy humanity of Christ our Lord. For in all truth the human intellect, the human will, and the human body of our Savior are the intellect, will, and body of a divine person. No created being save the holy humanity of Christ, that hu-manity f.ull of grace and of truth, enjoys this personal union with God. Truly in the womb of the Virgin Mary are celebrated the nuptials of God and of man. In the mystery of the Incarnation, we witness the wedding of the divine and the human in the person of the Word made flesh. And in virtue of His holy humanity, the Son may be said to render perfect obedience to His Father and our Father. "Therefore in coming into the world, he says., a body thou hast fitted to me .B.ehold, I come., to do thy will, O God" (Heb 10:5-7). It is indeed significant that because of His obedience our Savior is glorified and exalted. "Appearing in the form of man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even to death on a cross. Therefore God also has exalted him" (Phil 2:7-9). It is equally significant that because of His obedience our Savior lays claim to His Mystical Body, the Church, and wins authority over that Body. "Christ is head of the Church, being himself savior of the body," so that, "the Church is subject to Christ" (Eph 5:23-24). God has made all things "subject under hwihsi cfhe eint,d eaendd i sh hiims b hodey ""a (vEepn hea a2so: 2 'o2-v--e2 r-~ ,a) . r/t t,h, e_ C h u r c h., indeed would onlyY g uruhdrigsitn. gOlyn athssee ontth teor lhthaen dw, imll aon y." sup.eriors. The obvious explanatiofi is a~t hand: ~h:uir. Perxor" ,s not Chtr. iIsn d e e d , t h e s u p e./rior ma n be conspicuously Christlike T~;o ~.2, .y ot. even. course, irrelevant. For the. s.u. p,~er-i~olras naauttlhoonr iat s", .ot authority of Christ even if tbo . ¯ ,~ - y as the --- ~uperaor § conauct is far t~oro gmr ~asnpr itshtlei kper.o Tfohuen rdo osti gonf itfhicea pnrcoeb olefm.~/tihiees I innc aa rfnaailtuioren. God has willed to use human channels fo~" the communi-cation of divine life. First and foremost, t~e holy human-ity of the Word Incarnate. That humani,ty is, of course, "tried as we are in all things except sin" ~Heb 4:15). But in His Mystical Body the Incarnation ~1of the eternal Word is extended through all the centuries of man's pilgrimage in exile. And to His Body C~rist has com-municated His authority. In the Church~.~which is the prolongation through history of the mystery of th c,.,arn.auo.n--davme life is communicated ;,,! ,.~" .~__ t, oa. lhe Church can do this only becaus~ Christ is her Head; and in Christ human nature has lald claim on the divine, on the life of God. So that in th~ Church, the Body of Christ, the perfection and humanity receives truly divine gifts, fduilflfneess of Chri.~t's There is, of course, this crucial our Savior's fence between is --' r-. ,., r~.er ~s holy, perfectly sinl,~ss; the latter str~lYesP:~t~ut~iYn "fer~n'wnghi21.y. In the lmeantime it ~vL~.rot~uide of the holiness of its Hena ~dt. sBeuetk ws rite.~h:daelm Cphtriiosnt oin r - h.as c,o,.mmumcate.d to His Mystical B.bdy a arti~i- ~m,~e, ~sni.n ~f.un ltnaless osw on[ a tuhttaato Mrit"ys, tai c~aa]r-t i_cri, ~.,.;.~ i ~soay cann~o, ~t msucbnv eevretn. t~r,~a, ~,~,,.e~ m_t_ynstee.rry l nofta t}hlie. bIlnec naronra itmm.np ercecmabalien si m~ plliivciirt~lyg aty today and everyday. Such religious are ~unwilling to admit that divine life can be communicated to them through human channels---channels ¯ frailties which the very term "humans"u ibmjepclite tso. Talhlu tsh ien our treatment of authority, perhaps our basic need is to emphasize more the "humanness" of it~that it is the ex- ÷ tension and continuation of the mystery of ~he Incarna-tion, the m)stery of God's making His own a human ÷ nature in order thereby to redeem human nature. y our Loro resid " ~mperfect and sinful human bein¢~. . I , ~ an --~, we mUSt also alIlrm ~ut~i~y VOLUME 22t 1963 5,?,9 4" 4" Robert Kru~e, C£.C. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 53O that it is a duty incumbent upon those in authority to become increasingly perfect and sinless. In this effort those in authority have a sure guide: our Lord's exercise of authority. We have here a question not of what author-ity might be but of what authority must be. That is to say, there is an obligation for those in authority to ad-minister their trust in a Christlike manner. It is not, therefore, a question of some vague, elusive ideal but rather a question of serious moral obligation. Of cour:;e, as in every creaturely .undertaking, perfection is never totally realized. That does not, however, render its quest any less imperative. What, in more concrete .terms, does the Christlike exercise of authority involve? Fundamental, it seems to us, is the sense of service. "But Jesus called them (the apostles) to him and said, 'You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. Not so is it .among you. On the contrary, whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant; and whoever wishes to be first among you, shall be your slave; even as the Son of Man has not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many' " (Mt 20:25-28). In the last analysis it is the functidn of those in authority in the religious life to contribute by their direction to "building up the Body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the deep knowledge of the Son of God, to perfect manhood, to the mature measure of the fullness of Christ" (Eph 4:12--13). Religious authority, then, stands in service of Christ's Mystical Body. The superior must never forget that his commands are addressed to a subject in whom the Spirit of Christ dwells. Let those commands never grieve that Spirit. Authority's commands must come from Christ: and be directed to Christ. That is, the superior must speak words which are sensitive to the Spirit of Christ within himself--words which the Spirit of Christ within the subject recognizes as springing from a kindred Spirit. It is the same Christ who both commands and obeys. Con-siderations of a purely human kind, attitudes which re-flect a purely natural assessment of the nature of author-ity-- these are entirely out of place and constitute a degradation of religious authority. Fundamentally, the superior's role is to act as an instrument for the more per-fect rule of the Spirit of Christ over the hearts and over the conduct of those vowed to religious obedience. In the fulfillment of this role, external trappings de-signed to enhance authority's position are of dubious value. One of the most gifted theoIogians in the Church today writes in connection with this point: In the life of the cloister there are still to be found age-old rituals governing the etiquette of superiors, involving demands of respect from subjects, secretiveness, ma ifestations of su-periority, appeals of superiors to a hi her wi ¯ 5°.? escens,o etc. All hould m' ,hs?lay . or w.Juter away. ~UDerlors s .,~a o ~ ~ permitted to me worm aroudd ,~.~ cast a long ~nd quiet lance at fluential, who re~e~'L~ff?c, . w~o ~re truly ]powerfu~ and in- ¯ ~ a ~reat ~ea/ ot unquestioning obedience pompous front. Superiors should oyu, inetflly i andsmeciut trhitayt ibne cheirntadi na Circumstances their subjecu know ~ore than ' matter at hand? ~ey do about displays of condescension "ro~w st o:- these ourel x , . y e 3ernal competence of the superi8or m proDort~on to ¯ . The truly l~r--- the ~n recognizes spontaneously the 7 ~ cat superior speaking, of all these trappings.i nInsi gthniisf ircea~nacred, ist pisir situuraelllyy salutary to read and meditate upon our Eord's r " . sh~p w~th H~s apostles. Nowhere in the ,ospelse~a~'°~e find our Lord making a fuss over SUch trivia, "You me Master and Lord, and you say well, fqr so call therefore, I the Lord and Master have wasOed yIo aumr f~e eIft,, you also ought to wash the feet of one a,nother. ~i~ ~u ]~ ~x~le, that as I hav~ done t~J ~ ~ ~noum oo (in 13:13-15). Regarding the matter of superiors' see~I i'ng coun~s e' l, some reflections are in order. Today, perha~ps more than at any time in the past, given 'the comolekit o tieth-cent . t Y f twen- . ury apostohc activity, it ~s'urgent ~hat superiors tsheeek i nadspviicrae.t iHonolsy o Mf oththee Hr tohle. ,C ch~ur:c_h:, .e v e ~ .s-e ~ns .i t~"ve to necessity in th~ ~-:-~'o- u s y r ~uVle-s- tw~,h picrohw sohees dd oto~tr tohvise ~ve ~rv 5nao-tt -t.hueg amd- vo¯rice es eorniol ubsu -ot uestions t-h.~ ~,k,u .~. .~ o tfLter n r~e" ulres y the consent of councId.ors asq well. Superiors should gladly reco~ize the Chu ~ch's w" -~d-~ta_g ~ersd taoi nojne gg aai~nde dw firlolimng sleye akvina~il ctohue-m~s :e1l~v,e_s7 o.~'-t~sff~ any reason w ,, the., .k_. ,. ,o . ,,o~,. l~or is there sistance and ehn~l i,g~hyt e~n-mouelnat ctoo nthnonsee t /o~eciria sl~l,a arpcpho fionrt eads-for this task. To put the matter very frankl ~: the Holy Spirit is perfectly capable of inspiring eact and every religious in a community with both a supern ttural view-point and useful practical suggestions re. arding the apostolic work entrusted to the communit, blu.n gtin the s " ' . , Far from + we!gh carefullyu tbhjee cstusp mernmaatut~ravl em, ethrieto s u- e~-'m--r sh,ou!d courage the religious to appropriate ~aoc otit oa n~ wtophoesnal ,p eon-s-sible, and in every case welcome the subject's interest and enthusiasm. It is false to suppose that ;vorthwhile l0 t0 K9~ar0l )R, aph,n 3e~r,4 S. .J . , " R e f l e c t i o n s o n O b c, dience," Crc Currents v. Authority VOLUM~ 22, 1963 Robert K~,r~u.~se,., REVIEW FOR REL)GIOUS ideas can emanate exclusively from those in authority. Such an attitude is an affront to the Holy Spirit. Related to the matter of seeking counsel is the matter of openness. Some superiors, regrettably, are excessively secretive even regarding insignificant daily directives. Many of their undertakings are shrouded with an aura.of mystery. The real mystery is what advantage they think derives from such a procedure. It is small wonder that subjects fail to display much enthusiasm for the su-perior's proposals when they are rarely invited to share in the superior's confidence. We would recommend to such superiors prayerful reflection on the words of our Lord spoken in the intimacy of the Last Supper. "No longer do I call you servants, because the servant does not know what his master does. But I have called you friends, because all things that I have heard from my Father I have made.known to you" On 15:15). What a contrast between the conduct of our Lord towards iHis apostles and the conduct of some superiors towards their religious. In this connection it is most helpful for supe-riors to cultivate within their communities a family spirit and that holy familiarity which the term "family" suggests. Nothing is to be gained by remaining aloof and distant. How can one who is aloof and distant touch and quicken the hearts of his subjects with the Spirit.of Christ? We might consider many other practical questions re-garding the Christlike exercise of authority. More im-portant, though, than coming to grips with parti(:ular problems is grasping the ideal which will serve as a guide for the resolution of every problem. That ideal is at once easy to understand and difficult to practice. What would our Lord do if He were in my place? How would He handle this problem? How would He win to Himself this person? To be a good superior demands intimate knowl-edge of our Lord and constant docility to the inspirations of His Spirit. Finally, some comments regarding authority and the mystery of the Redemption. The religious life, as all Christian life, is at the same time both incarnational and eschatological in character. It looks beyond the temporal order to the creation of new hea,~ens and a new earth. Indeed, the mystery of the Incarnation is itself the prin-ciple of this transformation. God makes Himself a sharer in our humanity only that we in turn might: share in His divinity. And ultimately our divinization will be accomplished solely by our personal sharing in the mys-tery of the Redemption. We must make our own the mys-tery of Christ's passover from death to life. With Christ, the great wayfarer, we journey each day through ter-restrial exile and affliction to our celestial dwelling and resurrection. "Wherefore we do not los! heart. On the contrary, even though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by d~y. For our pres-ent light affliction, which is for the moment, prepares for us an eternal weight of glory that is beyond all measure (2 Cor 4:16-17). Every Christian in the fulfillment of h, is vocation en-counters the cross of Christ. Justly does Saint Paul declare that we are ' always beanng about ~n our Ibody the dying of Jesus, so that the life also of Jesus maylbe made mani-fest in our bodily frame" (2 Cor 4:10). Certainly the re-hg~ ous superior ~s no exception to th~s rule. The exercise of authority is a cross. The superior shoul~l willingly em-brace that cross recognizing that only by Isharing in the mystery of the cross is self-love subject to passion and to death and the love of God to renewal and ~o resurrection. "This saying is true: If we have died withI him, we shall also live with him; if we endure, we shall rilso reign with him" (2 Tim 2:11-12). To exercise authority with anxious care is the supe-riot's cross. It requires no small self-sacnfic,e. On the con-trary, thanks to the constant demands of all kinds made ¯ upon his time, his energies, and his interest, the superior is truly "poured out in sacrifice" (2 Tim 4:8). A continu-ing death to self-love attends the wgflant superior s com-mitment to his holy trust. In this context welmust address ourselves to one problem in particular--a problem which occasions the deepest suffering for the conscientious su-perior. Stated in the broadest possible term~s, that prob-lem is one simply of remaining faithful t~o the super-natural order m the face of the pressures wli~ch a purely natural wewpo~nt bnngs to bear on rehgmus hfe and the apostolate. How many superiors are d~str, essed by the disintegration of spiritual values with which they are periodically confronted? How are they to res~pond to this challenge? Doubtless, the question is a vexifi~.g one. In such cases what is clear is that the super!or must re-main faithful to supernatural values. Spec~ous as the temptation to compromise may be, such compromise un-dermines. the very structure of religious life. S~metimes it may appear that only by making concessions to man's innate self-indulgence can harmony be maintained. Are not such concessions a mistake? Has not our ILord Him-self declared: "Do not think that I have come to send peace upon the earth; I have come to bring alsword, not peace., and a man's enemies will be those of his own household" (Mr 10:34-36). Obviously we are not sug-gesung that the superior pounce upon every trifling de-parture from regular &sc~phne. Shortcomings of this kind are usually nothing more than manifestations of our common frailty in persons of genuine goo~,d will. To ÷ ÷ ÷ Authority VOLUME 22, 1963 533 ÷ Robert Krt~e, .S.C. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 534 tax the subject's good will over every peccadillo is hardly a Christlike manner of exercising authority. The situ;t-tion we envisage is far different. We have in mind the case of the religious who deliberately and systematically by his actions and attitudes exhibits practical contempt for the religious life. Cost what it may the superior mtlst courageously resist such a betrayal of religious values. To permit flagrant disregard for the supernatural order to go unchecked is intolerable. It proves demoralizing for those religious honestly striving to fulfill their vows and scan-dalizing for the faithful who almost inevitably become acquainted with such a state of affairs. Certainly in all such cases those in authority must dis-play arl exquisite kindness and sympathy, tempering the rmness of their decisions with tangible benevolence, t,ut I firm tliey must be--for the sake of the religious life it-self. Let St. Paul's exercise of authority be their model: "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not make war according to the flesh; for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but powerful before God to the demolishing of strongholds, the destroying of reasonings--yes, of every lofty thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every mind into captivity to the .obedience of Christ" (2 Cor 10:3-6). Surely no cross burdens the zeal-ous superior with more anguish than the recalcitrant subject. It taxes both his prudence and his courage to the utmost. Only let him recognize in tiffs cross an instrument for his personal sanctification. For the realization of God's will let him sacrifice his own popularity. To act with firmness and decision seems temperamentally almost impossible for many superiors. Nevertheless, their voca-tion demands just such firmness. In their weakness let them surrender to the Spirit of Christ their Lord, the Spirit of fortitude, who has been poured forth in their hearts. By so doing they will purify their own souls and will contribute significantly to the sanctification of their subjects. For their course of action is self-crucifying and so redeeming. Regarding positive steps to be taken in such situations, it is extremely difficult to generalize. Two suggestions come to mind which may prove of some utility. First, when dealing with such cases it would seem particularly desirable for the superior to work in close harmony with his councilors. Such collaboration contributes signifi-cantly to an objective evaluation of the problem at hand, minimizing the danger of the superior's being prompted by merely human considerations in his analysis of the situation. In addition, one or another councilor may be in a much more advantageous position to cope with the problem than the superior himself. Second, it would seem a duty incumbent upon the superior to neutralize and even to turn to the spiritual advantage of the corn .any d!sedification or scandal ar;~;n~ t_AJ_ ,mun"l.ty ject's behavior Cann~, -~-- .o,,:~ ~,ul~ an unruly sun- ,,L L.c superior exploit this oppor- ~t~rn2~aYn~n~?Cf~lrC~etaer:nnce~hn:ne~ elli:k,gelo,u as s~ ;wttiteuldle sa osf tuon- encourage prayer and sacrifice 'both for dheir delino confrere and for their own . : ¯ v,--o~vc,ance ~n noeiity. This ~uh~ULnb7 odn°noe;~of_ co,urse: ,m. a spirit of h~mility. Passinl~ tiit-~rS snoulo. I~e SCFU U ' " violatioofn - - . e rChh ri.s.t.h. kpe sIpoiruit swlhyi cahv ~ohoiduled dan aimsa ate ! the entire community. Rather, a sense of cornorate re-sponsibility and an awareness of man's Inborn weakness should be developed. In some such anner as this can the superior offset the harm done y th problem reli-b ! gtous in his community. In this article we have attempted to relate the exercise of religious authorit,, to the fun-'- our faith¯ the Incar~nation a--~ -u~a-m- e,~n t-a tt m. ysteries ot ¯ .tt ttte l~eclemDtlon A from such a vision of .~-^-: . t : 2 part dn~,.~.~u ,.~.,. ,~.~. . -,,~:,~,tLty mere e, XlStS tlae real ,at purely natural attitudes will invade our minds and shape our thinking along lihes devoid supernatural dimensio¯ns Such in~r,,o:~-- l_ . - of dured. That is why, practically "s -n~e,a~k,-isn c,~an .nt.o_t _o e, en- ,- ~,,I t,e sole tr .bmee Cashurrt.set s0 ,of wthne eCxherirsctiisaen oe¯xf eirtc ~ioo^,~-- u^-t', -a.".u.[ni o, r¯ltv can onu.e devoted some attention to ¯ xoi tHIS reason we also ¯ authori"ty and ~th e ~¯m~¯ tation of Christ. In closing, we would recommend to all who seek more knowled,,e on the su~-:- - -- ,~ d- ivine Lord¯ For l~ove of Him iosj cbcotr nm oatf t~,~kenyo wstuleadyg oeu orf Him,. and out of love shall grow likeness. And ultimate that ~s all Christian authority needs: to be ~hristlike. ly + + ÷ Authority VOLUME 22~ 196~ BROTHER PHILIP HARRIS, O.S.F. The Parent's Role in Guidance 4. Brother Philip Harris, O.S.F., is the vice president of development of St. Francis College; Brooklyn, New York. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS One area of formal guidance1 in the schools today which has been most neglected but which holds the great-est promise for the future is parent guidance. Although extensive training is now provided for a profession or an occupation, little assistance is offered to the newly-mar-ried couple facing one of the most challenging human responsibilities--the rearing and education of children. The average parents want to do a good job of raising their offspring as useful citizens. But they need the~ as-sistance of educators who are willing to share the fruit of their own special knowledge and experience. Such a partnership with parents can be a.great aid to the over-burdened and under-staffed guidance department as it seeks to help a maximum number of youth in adjusting to a confusing and complex twentieth-century world. By right, and in fact, the parent is the child's principal counselor. Jusot as parents have the primary duty to edu-cate their children, so they have the basic obligation of providing sound guidance to them. Any guidance en-deavors of the school should be based on this premise, for educators only supplement the counsel given to students by their parents. The influence of parents on a child's life decisions is formidable. It is the task of the school also to aid the parent so that the young person makes the correct decisions and attains optimum personal development. It is understandable that in this age of rapid techno-logical changes, vocational opportunity, and personal challenge parents would look to the guidance specialist to help them discover, develop, and direct all of the God-given potentialities of the child. The theme of this con-ference is "The Adjustment of Young People to a World in Accelerated Technical and Economic Evolution." Par-ents possess the opportunity to assist today's youth to be- 1 This is the text of a paper delivered to the International Con-ference on School and Vocational Guidance, Paris, July 16-22, 1962. come tomorrow's successful adults. Ho!ever, the faculty in general and the guidance worker in[particular must help parents to understand the child of tl~ television and the space age, to project themselves into the future so as to determine educational and vocational possibilities for their children in the decades ahead, to appreciate the school and the guidance department's objectives and practices, to utilize good principles of met tal hygiene and right living in their families. Such a plan for cooperative and compiementary child formation by parents and educators must be~in with the pre-school youngster and continue throul~h ~aigher stud-ies. How to accomplish this will be the Isubject of this paper. Before examining the methods for peiping parents to fulfill their natural role as guides, it is ~seful to realize the advantages of such emphasis through t ae student per. sonnel services of the school. Values o[ Parent Guidance A parental guidance program strengthms a schooI's guidance efforts in the following ways: l) Teachers are limited in the amoun~ of time and energy they can devote to helping pupils so~ve their prob-lems and meet life's challenges. Trained counselors, even on the high school level, are few in nurhber and can guide only a fraction of the student bod~. Any sound guidance practices, therefore, that parents can utilize with their offspring will lessen the educator's load and permit school counselors to do more effectiv~ worL 2) Prevention of more serious problems ~hould be the aim of .any. paren.tal gu¯idance effort. If p~rents can be alerted to signs ot emotional disturbances, .to the effects of broken homes or rejection, to their children,s needs especially psychological), to the acceptance Iof their chil- ~tgi~srd.less ,of speci.a.1 talent or limitation~, then many 3) Througinh stchheoiro cl ownitlalc bt ew riethd upcaerden otsr ,a evdouicdaetdo.rs may gain insight into the family background ofttheir pupils and are better able to understand each child! 4) Parents gain a greater appreciation of]the school's program and the teacher's efforts. As a resuh, they may give increased support to school activities, fcr they truly appreciate every endeavor made for their chil ~l's improve-ment. Some of the means for translating these calues into realities through the school's guidance effor follow: Parent Clubs Teachers are familiar with various home-sc/~ ol groups, such as the Parent Teacher Association and Fathers' or Mothers' Guild approach. Such or~anization~. o ]. however, ÷ ÷ ~Pmarde Gntusidance VOLUME 22, 1963 4" 4" 4" Phili~ HaOr.Sr.iFs,. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS should have a two-way effect. The parents may raise funds for special school projects and assist in other ways; the school should provide, in turn, programs that help the members do a better job in their role as parents. Par-ents with exceptional training and skills may be willilxg to aid pupils and other parents with special knowledge and experience. For example, speakers for a career day can be recruited from a parents' guild; or parents who are doctors, nurses, or psychologists, can be called upon to address the parent group. Volunteer workers of all types from among the pupils' parents may offer free service to the school. A well-functioning parent club can be a deterrent to juvenile delinquency and offer good leisure time activ-ities for both parents and children. It not only will bring the school and home into closer cooperation but also may promote greater harmony and understanding between parent and child. Parent Forums Any aspect of child development or improvement serves as a good topic for a parent forum. It is best ithat parents be invited together who represent children of distinct grade or age levels, such as the upper, middle, or primary grades, or the pre-adolescent or adolescent pe-riod. Thus, there will be some common meeting ground for discussion. The student's intellectual, vocational, so-cial, or moral development can serve as the basis for a number of group conferences. This type of affair can be conducted in various ways. One is to have a guest or faculty speaker whose address is followed by questions from the floor. Another procedure brings in a specialist whose talk is discussed by a panel of parents with a faculty member as moderator. Parents of the graduating or senior class often profit from an educational forum to which representatives of high schools (or colleges) which the graduates will likely attend are invited for individual questioning or group discussion. These general meetings of parents are most effective when they do not take more than two hours for the total program. They may be preceded by some type of audio-visual aid while the assembly hall is slowly filling up. Sometimes films on adolescence or family mental hygiene may be projected and then followed by a discussion led by one of the faculty. Usually parent forums are held in the evening, but a week end or holiday afternoon may prove appropriate. Refreshments served after such events help teachers to meet the parents in a relaxed, social atmosphere. Parent Group Conferences These conferences are small group me~etings of parents and a teacher. If a guidance counselor or~ school l~sychol-ogist is available, these conferences may be arranged with him. These group interviews run'from ~fteen to twenty ~tin.utes and ,gi.ve the parents an. opport,~nity to present ae~r parental ~mpressions and experiences and to hear the educator's evaluation of their child. ~uch interviews have great potential for "preventive" ~ ¯ cational, vocational, or social areas. Tclo{uen tseechhn~n iinq ueed uis, most effecti.ve when these conferences a~e arranged parents a common problem, rot ex!mple, ents of students failing the sam~ two school subjects or the parents of pupils who are truant or.l.the parents of students who are withdrawn and antisocial or the parents of "exceptional" children--such natural groupings will permit the process of multiple counselin~ to take place. The teache~-counselor must prepare for ~he conferences by studying the family background anbdeI t¯horoughly fwahmosilei apra rwenitths mthaek ec uump tuhlea tgirvoeu pre. cords of the studbnts ,u. oSno motm tet~ i.sn p.terorecsetidnugr ree sbeya rPcrho hfaess sboeresn Sreapwo r~tnedd Mona ah vlearr iaa-t Chico State College in the United States. Their gr0ut~ counseling approach included botfi parents and student~. It centered a~0und underachieving pupils and involved a series of eight sessions where freedom of e~xpression was uppermost. First, students were asked to sit in a circle of six with a counselor, while the parents Isat off to the side as observers. Then, after personal introductions stu-dents were asked to express their feelings a~s to why ,they were ,u.nderach.ieving. The sessions were structured aproos.tut~.moan sK weye rteo ps,w cist cohre qdu, ewstiitohn tsh. eA pfaterre nthtsir itn3 ~th mei ncuirtcesle the and the youth as observers. Prior to such meetings~, it is helpful if both parents and students fill out an inventory of their attitudes toward each other and sc[ ool. Gradually, parent and offspring will gain insight into their own personal relationships and uriders~ anding as to why the child is not obtaining better grade.,. A plan for improvement can be developed, and a gap of time be-tween the fifth and the last two sessions will )ermit them to try out these ideas in practice. Then, th~ final guid-ance periods can be devoted to reports of success or fail-ure as well as a realistic review with implications for the future. The initial results of this technique i adicate that such family counseling can become a useful part of the school guidance program. Parents and Guidance + + ÷ Philip Harris, O .S.F. REVIEW FOR REL]G|OUS 540 Individual Parent Guidance Teachers and administrators have long met with par-ents on an individual basis to discuss their mutual con.- cern--the student. Frequently, such meetings were con-cerned with an analysis of the pupil's problems, abilitiet~, potential, and plans. However, this old technique can be made more effective by the use of some modern ap-proaches. For example, with the student's permission, his autobiography, anecdotal records, test results and ventories may be interpreted and discussed with parents. Another useful procedure is role-playing--the teacher switching to the role of the parent or the child and pos-sibly the parent switching to the role of the student. Or, the youth may be invited to attend the session to explain his feelings or position, or to "role-play" his parents. Parent Bulletins and Reports In addition to the written reports commonly given to parents by schools, bulletins which interpret standard-ized test results may be prepared to help parents gain greater insight into their child's abilities, aptitudes, and interests. A newsletter can be issued by the guidance de-partment, principal, or parent organization on: com-munity guidance and psychological resources; suggested means of helping a child with specific physical, psycho-logical, or social problems; a bibliography of free or in-expensive publications useful in the guidance of youth, of use to parents; scholarship or student aid opportuni-ties; entrance requirements of local institutions of higher education; projects for family group recreation; adoles-cent needs and conflicts; and principles of good human relations in the home. In working with modern parents, it is wise to consider the changes that have taken place in parental attitudes toward education and their goals as parents. The Chang-ing American Parent by Daniel R. Miller and Guy E. Swanson (New York: Wiley, 1959) is but one example of published reports that provide much light on the sub-ject. Many guidance books for teachers contain a chapter or two on working with parents. A recent volume, for example, Guidance in the Elementary Classroom by Gerald and Norma Kowitz (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1959) devotes the last chapter to "Counseling with Par-ents." Another recommended work is Adlerian Family Counseling edited by Dreikurs-Corsini-Lowe-Sonstegard (University of Oregon Press). The school's attempt to aid the parents to fulfill their God-given responsibilities as guides to their own children will undoubtedly prove fruitful in the good accomplished attaining the objectives of the school guidance service, in saving on teacher time and energy, and in the, good public relations thus promoted. SISTER TERESA MARY, C.S.CI Religious 0 ce and Critical Thinking It is often said that we are living in a critical t.he people of the present tim . L . a.ge,. T, hat mose of the ,~, o,~L- _, ~- ,~-,: naor,e critical t~aa consc.musne~s s. .o.f. t~h,e,, ~co, mat pteIeaxstl tmy opfa rtth, efr uon~i tvheerisre g. eMateenr recognize that they must constantly adapt [their thinking to manifold new discoveries being made.~ While it is not necessary to doubt the existence of absolutes as some of I our contemporaries do, the need. to recq~ze relative aspects of man's being and knowledge o~ the world is much more apparent today than ever b~fore A new manifestation of the evolutionary ~rocess in th ha,s . ~coe ab?y~ largely because ot t~he ~e~t ro e world ~twy esncthioetlhar cs einnt uthreiesse Mpeoriroedosv eisr, bethe ~ i"nng o cw o¯~m ~em,~ u g -ne i c a a a.te c~ea~ath m content and method to large masses of or " ~eople. The spread of scientifi- -~ . ,-- , dreary the development of the crit~ic ~a-lu supginrti tn eacmespsnargil ym menea. nIss this critical spirit a good or an evil for them? than e a s g ~re Although the wordc .n.t~.osm,, often e a to break down some existing structurec ownintohtoeus ta desire apprec~atmn of facts~ ~t need not have th:~ 1 . ~rop~r meamng As a genuine intellectual effort, ~,t~s ure-sfuolrttsu nmaatye more often be presupposed as good and ~onstructive. Criticism is usually offered out o~ a sincere ~ntent'on to better the existing structure, not to destroy i~, and~is the m~ural product o~ a creative mind. Without seein~ the ~ ly as the values which he holds have been critically examined, Sister Teresa ra~"mnally acceet~d,.an~ then u~e Mary, 5 as general guides to behavior is in-ra~ her than as ng~d mvmlable principles can the perso~ be character- structor in theolo~ ~zed ~ liberally educated." Paul L. Dressel, "'The Role of Critical at St. Mary's Col-Thinking in Acquiring Enduring Attitudes and lege; Notre Dame, w~th Revolutionary Chan~es ~ . Know'ledge to Deal Indiana. National Con er~ . ~. ?~.u, a paper presente~ to a. 19 .~ f . u n~gner Education in Ch'cz£. ~ ~' v0~v~ ~, ÷ + ÷ Sister Teresa Mary, C.S.C. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS deficiencies in the current state of our existence, individ-ually and within a group, we cannot even maintain our present good, much less acquire all the good that is po:~- sible for us.2 The tendency of the modern age to be critical can, if rightly exercised, open up wider oppo:r-tunities for full human existence. Having recognized the value of the critical process in human activity, we come to the problem of this article, to consider the relationship of criticism to the virtue o[ obedience in the religious life. While attachment to per-sonal judgment has always been the crucial issue in the question of obedience, this matter takes on added dimen-sions in an age which emphasizes the value of a good, free, critical personal judgment. When a subject has been educated to think for himself, there is bound to be a se-vere adjustment for his personality if he is obliged to give this up in the interest of religious obedience. Part of our problem will be to determine whether the subject of obe-dience is obliged to give up personal judgment in any way and, if not, how he is to coordinate a conflicting judgment with the will of the superior. The following examples from current articles should suffice to show that there are a variety of answers to the problem of obedience. These answers have seldom been compared so that some sharp differences among them could be properly noted. It will be well to look at them first before trying to answer whether religious obedience and critical thinking are compatible. All authors, of course, agree on two points: the supe-rior's will is to be obeyed in all commands which are not sinful, and this obedience must be more than a mere external execution of the command; as a genuine human act it must flow from self-determination to the goodness of the act of obedience. The religious subject recognizes in the light of faith that the superior has been invested with authority in a congregation estab
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A whole generation goes by, and nothing changes for Bossier Parish apparently playing fast and loose with the law when it comes to squeezing money from the citizenry.
The Bossier Watch transmission of Apr. 16 contained a couple of minutes of commentary and video of a sign reading "VOTE SATURDAY, APRIL 27, 2024 BOSSIER PARISH LIBRARIES" planted near a roadway. The hosts recounted they had seen some around, although the exact location of this one was unknown. On that date is the spring municipal runoff elections in Louisiana, where a 7.43 mils property tax renewal to fund Bossier Parish libraries reengaging in 2026 for 10 years is the one item that will appear on ballots parish-wide.
What follows is a reprint of a post I made at my Louisiana-centric blog site, Between the Lines, on Dec. 30, 2010 that reviewed events of four years previous. (Keep in mind nearly 18 years ago that the Arthur Ray Teague Parkway stopped at the southern end of the now-Brookshire Grocery Arena). It's amazing how little things (and people involved) change:
As 2011 approaches and observing that Bossier Parish seems to have no difficulty, even in trying economic times, in finding money to service road construction, as well as reviewing the past year and digesting the renewed enthusiasm that the people have acquired courtesy of over-reaching national government to monitor the activities of government, it makes me think back some years ago about an object lesson concerning how government operates. The specific example is Bossier Parish's, and the apparent whimsy of situation might amuse save for the unsettling consequences implied had things turned out differently.
Perhaps somebody remembers in the days leading up to the 2006 fall elections that a sign touting an affirmative vote for Bossier Parish raising property taxes essentially threefold, at what was then the southern end of the Arthur Ray Teague Parkway, was moved a short distance away only a few days before that election. Blame me for the consternation.
I first noticed the sign on Sep. 21 and became simultaneously curious and concerned. It didn't state who sponsored it, and it was in a spot I thought might be part of the public right-of-way, and certainly was on public property (Bossier City's). Obviously, it was an attempt to encourage passage of the measure which should bring pause to anyone who believes in fairness by government: Bossier City was permitting a pro-vote sign, supporting a Bossier Parish measure which would enrich the parish coffers by $2 million a year, to be placed on its property, regardless of whether its citizens supported such a measure.
According to the Unified Development Code for both the city and parish, this is permissible under certain circumstances. Article 9 Section 10 states: "Temporary signs containing no commercial message and related to an election or other event or matter of public interest may be erected in any zoning district of the city or parish but not within the public right-of-way." Note, however, that the Code does not mention placement on government property.
After a couple of phone calls I got hold of Parish Engineer Joe "Butch" Ford, who said a private entity had put up the sign (and a similar one elsewhere). At least no government was using taxpayer dollars to try to influence its citizens voting behavior. Still, apparently it was on city property and the right-of-way question he couldn't answer, so on I called the Bossier City engineer to find out the answer to the latter.
He took time out of his busy day to relay to me that the public right-of-way extended to the back side of the barricade blocking the end of the pavement (about 25 feet from the roadway). However, the sign was located on the front side of the barricade, meaning it was in the public right-of-way and therefore illegally placed.
I then placed another call to the Metropolitan Planning Commission (I had placed one the day before but, like the call to Ford, had been close to the end of the workday and, unlike the one to him, was not answered). The employee there said they would deal with the situation, once I informed him of it. Since this was early Friday afternoon, I didn't know whether anything would happen before the weekend.
Early the next Monday, now five days prior to the election, I got a call from the Bossier MPC director Sam Marsiglia, who said it was legal to have the sign there because "it's a public sign." He alleged that a government had put it there, and that was legal. I informed him that the parish engineer had said otherwise and tried to explain that wouldn't look very good if a government was using taxpayer dollars to sway their votes so a government wouldn't do that, but he was insistent and said I should call Parish Administrator Bill Altimus about the matter.
I had duties to attend to so it was about 20 minutes later that I dialed Altimus. He cheerfully informed me the sign would be moved. As soon as I hung up, Marsiglia called, saying it would be moved to the Reeves Marine property (adjacent east of the barricades) and to check back with him if it wasn't done. (It would have been out of the right-of-way simply by moving it behind the barricades but would have remained on city property.)
This, I might add, is simply wonderfully neighborly behavior by the city and parish and Reeves Marine. Silly me, I thought whenever illegal campaign signs were discovered they either were destroyed or confiscated to a location where their owners could liberate them. Instead, not only were the interests behind the sign being allowed to move it, within only minutes of being informed of that necessity Reeves Marine graciously volunteered to host the sign. What a friendly place! Future candidates for office, now you know, if you place a sign on Bossier City property and/or illegally, it won't be destroyed or removed, they'll let you move it, maybe even to Reeves Marine. (If you ask nicely, maybe they'll even move it for you!)
(Note: in a subsequent communication, even Bossier City elected officials seemed confused over the incident. At my request, city councilman Scott Irwin wrote to Mayor Lo Walker, whose office's reply did not even discuss the legal issue and did not address the propriety of an electioneering sign on city property, adding "With your concurrence I will consider this ITEM CLOSED." Maybe not; maybe this issue of propriety is something that ought to be addressed by the city.)
Regardless of the sign's position (or of any others; there were several other similar ones touting the bond issue around the parish), the proposition narrowly failed. It took one concerned citizen to make the system work properly regarding the sign. Sep. 30, 2006, it took a majority of concerned citizens voting to make the Bossier Parish Police Jury see the truth that it didn't need to raise taxes to make sure the parkway was extended expeditiously and, even with deteriorated economic conditions, then to proceed to fulfill the other projects that had argued could be completed only with the increased taxation.
And confirmation of this came earlier this month, when the extension to the Parkway opened (through where the sign originally had been) without the extra tax dollars having gone into its construction. Lesson: watch government very closely lest it take what it does not need nor deserve from the people.
And now to 2024 … the sign displayed on Bossier Watch seemed awfully close to the road, meaning it's in the right-of-way, and the Bossier UDC hasn't changed since making that placement illegal. Thus, it would be incumbent on either the parish or whatever municipality may have such signs to remove these.
And where are they coming from? Campaign finance disclosure law would mandate that any political committee spending money on electioneering at this date close to the election would had to have filed a report about the expenditure for signs. None has, meaning either some PAC somewhere illegally hasn't reported this or no registered PAC has done it. That leads to a loophole in the law (R.S. 18:1501.1): any person who spends in opposition or support of a candidate or ballot item must report that – unless the aggregate contributions and expenses involved don't exceed $500. It is possible that, if there are few enough of these signs, that their cost didn't exceed that figure, and that someone or a few people got together and did that.
So, the public never may know who is doing this, and what their potential relationship is to Bossier Parish's government and libraries. In fact, it may be quite close, given the wording of the sign which ambiguously doesn't advocate for or against the ballot item. It merely exhorts the viewer to vote on that day and slips in "BOSSIER PARISH LIBRARIES." By doing this, if discovered government employees actually were involved, the parish could claim it wasn't electioneering but merely informing the public there was an election on Saturday, Apr. 27.
Of course, the signs' presentation implies something critical about libraries will appear on the ballot and, further, people should vote in whatever manner available to support libraries. After all, who is against libraries?
If anybody in Bossier Parish government knows about this, they need to go public. At the very least, parish government must remove any such signs on public rights-of-way; tolerance of this denotes acceptance not only of illegal behavior but also endorsement of a political preference. And state lawmakers would do well to clarify statute to make it expressly illegal for any government to spend any dollars to electioneer, even if in a manner that doesn't explicitly advocate for or against something on the ballot. Because when it comes to gorging themselves on taxpayer dollars, government will try any dodge available to keep other peoples' money rolling in.
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Two years ago, Olaf Scholtz, the German Chancellor, announced that we were at a moment of Zeitenwende in the aftermath of Russia's renewed invasion of Ukraine (2014 was the start, 2022 was much deeper with greater intensity and more far-reaching aims). The term refers to a watershed moment, a rupture, a turning point that ushers out the old way of thinking and ushers in a new one. That alters the ideational foundations of foreign/defense policy and grand strategy. I am lucky enough to be in Berlin and at the Hertie School as they held an event aimed at seeking to understand whether this was just a German thing or whether other parts of Europe were also changing their worldviews/mindsets. The public event was advertised thusly.For the Germans, a key was that rather than thinking that there is no security in Europe if it is not cooperative security with Russia, now the thinking is that there is no security in Europe if it is not cooperative security against Russia. The big question, of course, is whether there have been changes not just in thoughts but in deeds. And, yes, Germany is doing stuff it had not done before: spending at least for now more than 2% of its GDP on defense, sending arms to a war zone, reduction of energy dependence on Russia, etc. But does it have a clear idea of what the new world view is? Not so sure. The panelists from all over Europe were asked a bunch of questions by the organizers including: has your country or region had a zeitenwende, if so, what is it, when was it? How is the match between the governing elites and the public on attitudes about all of this? We folks in the audience asked whatever questions that came to us (yes, I tended to ask civ-mil questions). And hanging over all of this was Trump potentially winning in November and the meaning of that--can there be a European NATO (with a Canadian appendage?)*Since we had three workshop panels and one public panel essentially covering most of Europe, I am not going to repeat everything I learned. I did learn a lot and will remember some of it. But here are some of the highlights:The Baltics and Poland did not have a change in worldviews in 2022, but could simply say "we told you so," as their views towards Russia and European security were either formed around 2007-8 with Russia's cyberattack on Estonia and war with Georgia or... always saw NATO and European security as against Russia not with Russia. UK was also in this camp, more or less, and is better able to respond as it has reduced the dependence on Russian capital in the financial sector.France has made some significant policy shifts, but providing extended deterrence if Trump pulls back the US commitment is not going to happen. Lots of lag--several countries want to make adaptations but implementation is slow. I got some knowing laughs at lunch today when I said that everyone's procurement was broken in different ways--kind of the way every snowflake is different.Everybody has recruitment/retention issues in their militaries--Canada is far from alone in that.Germany is trying to find the old playbooks from the Cold War--how did West Germany contract with the US and others about the long term bases--providing schools and infrastructure and the like--as they need to know for their plan to have such bases in Lithuania. Yes, they are moving not just a brigade of troops but their families as the US, UK, Canada, and others did during the Cold War. This contrasts sharply with the Canadian strategy of shipping troops in and out every six months. It shows how long term and how serious the Germans are. Significant up front costs but probably less expensive in the long run.Carlo Masala's public talk started the three known unknowns that frame thinking--will Russians win in Ukraine, what will happen in the US election, what will be the future of EU/will the far right gain more ground? Speaking of Trump, there is still some wishful thinking in Europe--that Trump will not follow through if elected. I kept telling folks that he wouldn't have sent forces to help an invaded ally before and he certainly won't do so in the future.Sweden and Finland had public opinion flip after 2022 invasion, so, yes, some zeitenwende here. But an interesting contrast as for Finland, neutrality was a strategy, but for Sweden, it was an identity. Poland having nuclear thoughts? Irony is that this almost makes Mearsheimer right as he predicted that Germany would develop nukes after NATO falls apart after the end of the Cold War. Instead, after the end of the after the cold war, due to the possibility of American withdrawal, Poland, not Germany, is now pondering proliferation. Much talk in that part of the world about whether the Russian timeline for invading Poland/Baltics is 2-3 years or more like 5-7. And yeah, I don't think that is likely, but it is easy for me to say from distant Canada. One thing is clear in Poland--no one is wondering where the money will come from as they move beyond 2% to 3.5% or more.The Baltics convo started with a reminder that Trump was so ignorant he thought World War I started there and not in the Balkans. The NATO-Founding Act is not dead enough. It no longer restricts conventional deployments (see German permanent basing in Lithuania above), but it does restrict the nuke stuff. Which enrages the Baltics who think that agreement is dead, dead, dead.Ethnic politics is alive in the Balkans as the various stances of countries towards Russia-Ukraine is complicated by the ethnic politics within. Three cheers for my first ten years of research! Serbia is pro-Russia, the Serb entity in Bosnia is pro-Russia. This leads to actors in the region that are not pro-NATO. Of course, those that benefited from NATO intervention are pro-NATO--Albania, Kosovo, Northern Macedonia. This discussion raised another complication from a Trump victory--NATO is still in Kosovo. But probably would not be if Trump is President again. Romania's relations with Ukraine did go through a big swing from tensions over old territorial claims to friendship as they both are threatened by Russia.A side discussion mines floating in the Black Sea reminded me that the consequences of this war will outlast the war, just as the Germans at the conference reminded me that construction workers discover a old bomb from WWII in Berlin every couple of weeks.Why is Hungary such an outlier in all things these days? Mostly because it wants to be exactly that. Since there is no real competition domestically, Orban can fixate on foreign policy and wants to pull Europe in his direction. I had forgotten about the Hungarian minority in Ukraine, but, of course, an optimally obnoxious nationalist country such as Hungary (see the Steve and Bill book) would want to keep that tension alive. The challenge of potential Ukrainian membership in the EU is mostly about the fact that Ukraine is big--it would have a major impact on the distribution of agricultural benefits/competition and also specific sectors like transit. So, Portugal and Spain (and others) are more concerned about the economic impact of Ukraine joining the EU than any implications regarding Russia or anything else.Greece is in surprisingly good shape. Its spending on defense is now more focused on modernizing the force, it is attempting rapprochement with Turkey, and is even participating in the US-led op in the Red Sea (if I heard correctly). Greek support for Ukraine is ahead of where the public is. Some big themes drawn by the organizers at the end:Distance matters--those closer to Russia either already had shifted their stances and were in "I told you so" mode or flipped quite dramatically, changing decades of orientation (Finland/Sweden). Those furthest away and least energy dependent on Russia didn't really have to shift.Everyone is holding their breath for the next zeitenwende--if Trump gets elected---what happens with NATO (Steve says it essentially dies or becomes far weaker with Europe plus Canadsa)? Some ZW was a matter of time--some revolutions in thinking started with Crimea in 2014, some started in 2022, some started in 2007-08. And some have not had a major re-thinking.The only Canadian content was injected by... me. During the lunch on the second day, I got some questions about whether there has been a Canadian zeitenwende, and I basically said no. That would require some real hard thinking on Canada's role in the world and how it has changed and what should be the Canadian response. And, no, this Canadian government is not doing that thinking (nor would a Conservative one lead by PP). Instead, as someone asked me: is Canadian foreign policy diaspora politics, I pretty much said yes.It was a great event for me. First, I came to Europe in part to get European perspectives on the state of play, and this I got in a big way. Second, I met a number of people who I hope to interview for my current project, so I am a bit less anxious about getting to talk to the right people and enough of them. I have plenty of time between this three month trip and next year's, but always good to have a more in-person, human connection with the sharp folks on the stuff I am studying. Third, it was just fascinating. I got into IR because this stuff engages me, and this conference did so. Finally, the folks involved--the organizers and the speakers--are simply nice, sharp folks, and so it was fun.
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In recent months, Israeli officials have gotten into the habit of equating Hamas with ISIS. This framing has obvious benefits for Israel, which hopes to garner global sympathy by comparing its enemy to a group widely viewed as the pinnacle of early 21st century evil.But it also leads to a thorny question. If Hamas is indeed as bad as the Islamic State, then why should its leaders continue to find shelter in multiple Arab states?In the case of Qatar, where Hamas's political leaders have been based since 2012, the answer is pragmatic. Israel needs a reliable mediator in order to reach a deal for the return of Hamas-held hostages. Doha has already shown its worth by facilitating talks that secured the release of 105 hostages during a week-long ceasefire in November.But that arrangement may have an expiration date. Israeli security officials have threatened to kill Hamas leaders wherever they are, even if that means an attack on Qatari soil. More moderate Israeli voices argue that Doha's arrangement with Hamas simply can't last."The United States and Israel still need to lean on Doha to use its leverage with Hamas to achieve some essential wins — even if Qatar must ultimately cut ties with the organization," Yoel Guzansky, a former Israeli security official, recently wrote in Foreign Affairs.As wars rage in Gaza and Ukraine, neutral states are coming under increasing pressure to pick a side. Switzerland, once thought of as the prototypical global referee, has joined sanctions on the Kremlin and even closed its airspace to Russian planes. Finland has joined the NATO alliance, and Sweden could follow suit by the summer. Qatar — long seen as the ideal Israel-Hamas mediator — may soon have to pick between its American patron and the Palestinian militant group.This is natural to some extent. When it comes to neutrality, war is where the proverbial rubber hits the road. Belligerents almost always view their conflict in terms of true good vs. total evil, a framing that neutral states call into question by their very existence."Under just war theory, neutrality is not possible," said Pascal Lottaz, a professor at Kyoto University and an expert on neutrality. "Whenever good fights evil, not fighting evil is equal to being evil."Yet war-fighting states have long leaned on neutrals as mediators, especially when military force shows limited chances of success. So what happens if the neutrals disappear?Switzerland by any other nameIn some ways, Qatar came upon neutrality by accident. The tiny Gulf state was seen as a Saudi dependent until the mid-1990s, when it embarked on an ambitious plan to protect its security by making friends with just about every other country in its fractious region. A few years into this project, Doha realized that it now had a significant competitive advantage. "It allowed them to be strategically positioned to act as a conduit between actors that didn't otherwise talk to each other," said Mehran Kamrava, a professor of government at Georgetown University Qatar. Pragmatic as they are, Qatari officials played to their strengths and started to pitch themselves as an Arab Switzerland. By the late 2000s, Doha had already mediated major peace talks in Chad, Sudan, and Yemen. Despite crises stemming from the Arab Spring and a later spat with its Gulf neighbors, Qatar's reputation for neutrality has stuck. Its diplomats have led high-profile talks between the U.S. and its most bitter enemies and even helped secure the release of Ukrainian children taken to Russia. Of course, Doha isn't neutral in the traditional sense. For states like Switzerland and Austria, neutrality is a formal commitment to stay out of the fighting that allows them to preserve their security without going to war, according to Lottaz. The arrangement is passive: If you don't mess with me, then I won't mess with you. Qatar's version of neutrality is both less formal and more ambitious. Like traditional neutrals, Doha's primary goal is to stay out of danger in a conflict-prone region. But a second key objective is to raise Qatar's profile such that the tiny state can have an influence over major geopolitical disputes without losing its independence. This helps explain why Qatar's highest officials often participate directly in mediation. When Hezbollah threatened to tank negotiations during a Lebanese political crisis in 2009, the emir personally called Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad and asked him to pressure his ally to break the deadlock. This type of neutrality relies on a stream of diplomatic fictions. Yes, Qatar has a major U.S. military base on its territory, but that doesn't make it a member of the Western bloc. Yes, Qatar hosted Taliban leaders, but that doesn't make it an Islamist ally. In a black and white world, Doha is infuriatingly gray. In practice, Qatar takes every chance it gets to build geopolitical leverage, backstopped by the country's seemingly endless supply of liquid natural gas. This brings us to Doha's relationship with Hamas. Qatari officials say they invited Hamas's political leaders to Doha in 2012 at the behest of the Obama administration, shortly after the militant group fled from Syria amid tensions with Assad. (The earliest Hamas-Doha ties date to 2006, when the Bush administration asked Qatar to open communication channels with the group.) Qatar jumped at the opportunity to both improve ties with the U.S. and improve its competitive advantage as a mediator. But that wasn't enough to shield the Gulf state from criticism after the Oct. 7 attacks. U.S. officials undermined Qatar in the days following the attack by pulling out of a Doha-mediated deal through which Iran got access to billions of dollars in frozen assets following a U.S.-Iran prisoner swap. Hawkish voices in Congress and the American press also leaped to condemn Doha for supporting Hamas, using as evidence Qatar's policy of paying civil servants in Gaza (with Israel's approval). Andreas Krieg, a security studies professor at King's College London, says this is mostly bluster. He describes the rhetorical pressure on Qatar as little more than a "circus in Washington to be seen as being supportive of Israel no matter what." The U.S., Krieg says, has not taken any concrete steps to pressure Qatar on this front. Rather, Washington has given Doha extra leeway to pursue talks. And even if Hamas is somehow destroyed by the war, Qatar will be a prime candidate to mediate with whatever new Islamist movement takes its place, Krieg argues. Only time will tell. Qatari neutrality could face a deep crisis if Israel follows through on its pledge to hunt down Hamas leaders "in every location." But Qatar is nothing if not pragmatic, and Kamrava of Georgetown predicts that Doha's leadership would gladly assent to kicking out Hamas leaders if it meant strengthening ties with the U.S., the most powerful state over which it has significant leverage.The question we're left with is whether this is good for America. Mohamad Bazzi of New York University argues that it's not. "[I]t would be a mistake to force Hamas leaders out of Qatar," Bazzi wrote in a recent op-ed. "[T]hey would probably go to Iran, Lebanon or Syria – and Israel, the US and Europe would have a harder time negotiating with them indirectly." In other words, kicking Hamas out of Qatar would likely make one of the world's most complex conflicts that much more intractable.Cold wars and hot peaceQatar's problems are a microcosm of trends playing out across the world today. The UAE and Turkey have brokered major deals between Russia and Ukraine — deals that less independent states could never have pulled off — and the West have largely repaid them with sanctions and condemnation. To some extent, it should come as little surprise that powerful states balk at neutrality. "It's usually the stronger party of the two belligerents that will put more pressure on the neutrals," Lottaz said. "The weaker one, the one that has more to lose, usually has more to gain from keeping others neutral." He points to the Ukraine conflict as a case in point. The U.S. and its allies condemn neutrality toward the war both on moral grounds and because they see their side as stronger. Russia, for its part, knows that it can benefit more from states remaining neutral than it ever could from its allies voicing their support for Russian policy. Some states have managed to dodge angry powers by keeping a low profile, as in the case of Oman, a rarely mentioned Gulf state that played a crucial role in the talks leading up to the Iran nuclear deal in 2015. But quieter neutrals are not exactly quick to get involved in intractable conflicts that don't affect their vital interests, leaving them outside of most issues entirely. Qatar, by contrast, seems to revel in the chance to take on well-known conflicts, even when — as in Israel-Palestine — the chances of success are limited. Neutral states, Lottaz reminds us, are intimately involved in the causes they mediate. To the extent that Doha views its mediator image as crucial for its security, it will aggressively seek out leverage points in every conflict it can. This worked reasonably well when the U.S. was the only true great power on the world stage. But aggressive neutrality is a tougher sell today as Washington has come to view its ties with both Moscow and Beijing in increasingly zero-sum terms. The dawn of a new cold war has given states some room to balance these powers against each other, but the space for forceful independence — especially for smaller states like Qatar — has begun to shrink. A few hot wars have certainly not helped. So is neutrality dying? It's tough to say for sure. But it's hard to shake the feeling that powerful states will miss it when it's gone.
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Rummaging through my accumulated papers, I just came across the English translation of a speech I delivered in Czechoslovakia on July 4, 1982, when I was American ambassador in Prague. At that time Czechoslovakia was ruled by a Communist regime imposed by the Soviet Union.As I perused it, I realized to my dismay that today I could not honestly make many of the statements in this message.Here are some of the key paragraphs and my reflections on them today:"I am pleased to send greetings to the people of Czechoslovakia on this 206th anniversary of my country's independence. It is a day when we Americans celebrate the foundation of our nation as an independent, democratic republic, and a day on which we dedicate ourselves anew to implementing the ideals of our founding fathers. For us, the bedrock of these ideals is the proposition that states and governments are created by the people to serve the people and that citizens must control the government rather than being controlled by it. Furthermore, we believe that there are areas of human life such as expression of opinion, the practice and teaching of religious beliefs, and the right of citizens to leave our country and return as they wish, which no government has the right to restrict."Can we really say that our citizens "control the government" today? Twice in this century we have installed presidents who received millions of fewer votes than their opponents. The Supreme Court has nullified rights supported by a decisive majority of our citizens. Votes for the U.S. Senate count far less in a populous state than in a state with fewer citizens. Corporations and individuals are virtually unlimited in the amount they can spend to promote or vilify candidates and to lobby Congress for favorable tax and regulatory treatment. The Supreme Court has, in effect, ruled that corporations are citizens too! That sounds to me more like an oligarchy than a democracy."We are a nation formed of people from all corners of the world, and we have been nurtured by all the world's cultures. What unites us is the ideal of creating a free and prosperous society. Through our history we have faced many challenges but we have been able to surmount them through a process of open discussion, accommodation of competing interests, and ultimately by preserving the absolute right of our citizens to select their leaders and determine the policies which affect their lives."Since when have we seen an open discussion and accommodation of competing interests in the work of the U.S. Congress? How is it that, for the first time in U.S. history, we had no Speaker of the House of Representatives for days this year?"Our society is not a perfect one and we know very well that we have sometimes failed to live up to our ideals. For we understand the truth which Goethe expressed so eloquently when he wrote, "Es irrt der Mensch, so long er strebt"(Man errs as long as he strives.) Therefore, while we hold fast to our ideals as goals and guides of action, we are convinced that no individual and no group possesses a monopoly of wisdom and that our society can be successful only if all have the right freely to express opinions, make suggestions and organize groups to promote their views."Unless you are a Member of Congress who speaks out in defense of the fundamental rights of Palestinians to live in freedom in their ancestral lands, or students at Columbia University who wish to do the same."As we Americans celebrate our nation's birthday and rededicate ourselves to its ideals, we do so without the presumption that our political and economic system– however well it has served us–is something to be imposed upon others. Indeed, just as we preserve diversity at home, we wish to preserve it in the world at large. Just as every human being is unique, so is every culture and every society, and all should have the right to control their destinies, in their own ways and without compulsion from the outside. This is one of the principal goals of our foreign policy: to work for a world in which human diversity is not only tolerated but protected, a world in which negotiation and accommodation replace force as the means of settling disputes."Unless you live in Afghanistan, or Iraq, or Syria, or Palestine…or, for that matter, in Iran, Cuba, or Venezuela."We are still a long way from that world we seek, but we must not despair, for we believe that people throughout the world yearn basically for the same things Americans do: peace, freedom, security, and the opportunity to influence their own lives. And while we do not seek to impose our political system on others, we cannot conceal our profound admiration for those brave people in other countries who are seeking only what Americans take as their birthright."Unless they live in Gaza or the Palestinian West Bank."While this is a day of national rejoicing, there is no issue on our minds more important than the question of preserving world peace. We are thankful that we are living at peace with the world and that not a single American soldier is engaged in fighting anywhere in the world. Still, we are concerned with the high levels of armaments and the tendency of some countries to use them instead of settling disputes peacefully. We share the concern of all thinking people with the destructive potential of nuclear weapons in particular."At that time the Soviet Union had invaded Afghanistan and the U.S. was demanding their withdrawal. Subsequently they did withdraw in accord with an agreement the U.S. negotiated. But then, after 9/11, the U.S. invaded and stayed for 20 years without being able to create a democratic society. A subsequent invasion of Iraq, on spurious grounds, removed the Iraqi government and gave impetus to ISIS. Then, the U.S., without a declaration of war, invaded Syria and tried unsuccessfully to overthrow its government (which we recognized) and also to combat ISIS, which had been created as a result of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.American soldiers are now stationed in more than 80 countries. We spend more on arms than all other budgets for discretionary spending, and now the Biden administration is making all but formal war against Russia, a peer nuclear power."It is for this reason that President Reagan has proposed large reductions of nuclear weapons. … We have also made numerous other proposals which we believe would increase mutual confidence and reduce the danger of conflict. All aim for verifiable equality and balance on both sides. That way, the alliance systems facing each other would need not fear an attack from the other. …"Yes, and by 1991 we negotiated massive reductions in nuclear weapons, banned biological and chemical weapons and limited conventional weapons in Europe. The Cold War ended by agreement, not the victory of one side over the other. But, beginning with the second Bush administration, the U.S. unilaterally withdrew from every important arms control treaty and embarked on a trillion dollar "modernization" of the American nuclear arsenal. Meanwhile, although there was no Warsaw Pact after 1990, the U.S. expanded NATO and refused to negotiate an agreement that insured Russia's security."The task ahead for all the peoples of the world to establish and preserve peace is not an easy one, The issues are complex and they cannot be solved by simplistic slogans, but only by sustained effort."Nevertheless, from the late 1990s the U.S. seemed motivated by a false and simplistic doctrine that the world was destined to become like the U.S. and the U.S. was justified in using its economic and military power to transform the rest of the world to conform with its image of itself (the Neocon thesis). It was, in effect, an adaptation of the failed "Brezhnev doctrine" pursued by the USSR until abandoned by Gorbachev. As with the Brezhnev doctrine, the attempt has been an utter fiasco, but the Biden administration seems, oblivious to the dangers to the American people, determined to pursue it."Nevertheless, I speak to you today with optimism, since I know that my country enters the 207th year of its independence with the determination not only to preserve the liberties we have one at home but to devote our energies and resources to maintaining peace in the world."But, today, during the 248th year of American independence :The U.S. is sending 100 "super-bombs" for dropping on Gaza. The BLU-109 "bunker busters", each weighing 2,000 pounds, penetrate basement concrete shelters where people are hiding, the Wall Street Journal reported Dec. 1.America has sent 15,000 bombs and 57,000 artillery shells to Israel since October 7, the paper said. Details of the size and number of weapons sent have not been previously reported.Also on the list are more than 5,000 Mk82 unguided or "dumb" bombs, more than 5,400 Mk84 2,000-pound warhead bombs, around 1,000 GBU-39 small diameter bombs, and approximately 3,000 JDAMs, the Journal said.The news dramatically contradicts statements of Foreign Secretary Antony Blinken that avoiding civilian casualties is a prime concern for the United States.The U.S. also provided the bomb that was dropped on the Jabalia refugee camp, killing 100 people, possibly including a Hamas leader, the Journal said.Repeated calls by the countries of the world, through the United Nations, for a ceasefire have not been supported by the U.S. and its follower nations.Military spending makes up a dominant share of discretionary spending in the U.S., and military personnel make up the majority of government manpower.The weapons are being airlifted on C-17 military cargo planes directly from the U.S. to Tel Aviv.Oh lord, what has happened to us?This piece has been republished with permission from Ambassador Jack Matlock's website. Dear RS readers: It has been an extraordinary year and our editing team has been working overtime to make sure that we are covering the current conflicts with quality, fresh analysis that doesn't cleave to the mainstream orthodoxy or take official Washington and the commentariat at face value. Our staff reporters, experts, and outside writers offer top-notch, independent work, daily. Please consider making a tax-exempt, year-end contribution to Responsible Statecraft so that we can continue this quality coverage — which you will find nowhere else — into 2024. Happy Holidays!
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Since I am discussing Dorlin's Self-Defense I thought that I would use some pictures from old self defense manualsincluding this variation of nikkyo. Elsa Dorlin's Self-Defense: A Philosophy of Violence considers, among many things, the role that self-defense played in social contract theory (and beyond). What follows bellow is a response to that particular provocation and not a review of the whole book, but it is very much worth reading.Even Hobbes who made violence, and force, in some sense the foundation of sovereign authority allows for a right to defend oneself. As Hobbes writes, "If the sovereign command a man, though justly condemned, to kill, wound, or maim himself; or not to resist those that assault him; or to abstain from the use of food, air, medicine, or any other thing without which he cannot live; yet hath that man the liberty to disobey."As Dorlin argues this "right" is nothing other than the very fact that one will resist being put to death. As I often say when I am teaching Hobbes, "it is unclear if this right is anything more than the right to kick and scream on the way to the scaffold." It is a right that to some extent is rendered ineffective at the exact moment it is granted in that the alienable struggle to maintain one's own existence comes up against the insurmountable power of the sovereign. However, its de facto ineffectiveness does not undermine that it is recognized as a right, and that this de jure right returns us to the materialist basis of Hobbes's anthropology in which we are all equal in our struggle to maintain our existence. As Dorlin writes, "Hobbes's materialist anthropology considers the right of nature to self-preservation as a disposition, acting equally in everyone, and not just as an original right over one's self, enjoyed by some but not others."and then as she goes onto argue on the next page..."Through this reading of Hobbes's anthropology, our goal is to show how self-defense can be considered a manifestation--perhaps the simplest--of a relationship with oneself immanent in vital impulses of the bodily movements, particularly in the way they perpetuate over time. Subjectivity is made up of both bodily defensive tactics--skillful acts of resistance--against real and imagined interpersonal challenges, and material conditions that are unable to eliminate or conceal the establishment of a Subject of law who must be kept in line by the state."Dorlin contrasts Hobbes on this point to Locke, and I will get to Locke in a minute, but I thought it might be useful to consider Spinoza as well as Locke, considering the way in which all three can be understood through what rights or capacities cannot be alienated or surrendered in the constitution of the social contract. Read together it is possible to see different alternatives in terms of how the inalienable defines a particular vision of the social order and disorder, as the two constitute a rough dialectic. What is seen as inalienable, the struggle to survive, is intimately intertwined with the very alienation or exchange at the heart of the contract, which is an exchange of right for the very possibility of survival. Turning first to Spinoza, I have often considered the contrast between the different anthropologies of Hobbes and Spinoza to be a provocative point of demarcation within the history of philosophy. I have argued that Hobbes demands us to see freedom even in our fear while Spinoza argues that we are compelled even in our desires. I am always frustrated by those who see the two as the same, as two different versions of some kind of atomistic struggle for survival. On this point, in terms of what is inalienable, you do not need to take my word for it because Spinoza himself famously remarked in a letter that the difference between his thought and Hobbes is that he "always preserves the natural right in its entirety." This difference in part explains the revision of social contract theory in Chapter Seventeen of the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus in which Spinoza writes: "The picture presented in the last chapter of the overriding right of sovereign powers and the transference to them of the individual's natural right, though it comes quite close to actual practice and can increasingly be realized in reality, must nevertheless remain in many respects no more than theory. Nobody can so completely transfer to another all his right, and consequently his power, as to cease to be a human being, nor will there ever be a sovereign power that can do all it pleases...This is shown I think, quite clearly by actual experience; for men have never transferred their right and surrendered their power to another so completely that they were not feared by those persons who received their right and power, and that the government has not been in greater danger from its citizens, though deprived of right, than its external enemies"(I have said more about the rectification of contract and obedience in Chapters Sixteen and Seventeen of the TTP here.) Despite the invocation of a Machiavellian idea of resistance Spinoza spends most of the TTP writing not so much of the inalienability of power in general, but of the inalienability of the power to think and interpret. As Spinoza writes in Chapter Twenty,"If minds could be as easily controlled as tongues, every government would be secure in its rule, and need not resort to force; for every man would conduct himself as his rulers wished, and his views as to what is true or false, good or bad, fair or unfair, would be governed by their decision alone. But as we have already explained at the beginning of chapter 17 that it is impossible for the mind to be completely under another's control; for no one is able to able to transfer to another his natural right or faculty to reason freely and to form his own judgements on any matters whatsoever, no can he be compelled to do so."It is not the alienable right to self defense, to protect oneself from self harm or to struggle against the harm of others, that Spinoza focuses on, but the inalienability right to interpret or make sense of things. This is consistent with Spinoza's general view that we all make sense of the world through our own history that shapes our affects, imagination and sensibility. It is thought, the sense we make of the world, and not the struggle to survive that is inalienable. A little koshinage Where does this leave Locke, what is inalienable in his thought? The answer to this question is to be found in the way in which property preexists the social contract and to some extent is even pre-social. As Locke writes in Chapter Five ,"Though the earth, and all inferior creatures, be common to all men, yet every man has a property in his own person: this no body has any right to but himself." Self-Possession is not only the condition of any and all future property it is prior to the very constitution of society. As Dorlin writes,In Locke's philosophy, "I am defending myself" means "I am defending my belongings, my property," which also means "my body." The body proper establishes and defines the person: it is therefore the object of any act of justice carried out by a subject of law. The subject in self-defense is an "I" endowed with rights, the first of which is the ownership of one's body. The establishment and constitution of such subjects occur through the property relation, which therefore preexists the act of self-preservation. The status of property owner--and of judge, its logical extension--is a condition of legitimacy (and also of efficacy) of self-defense. As with Hobbes and Spinoza this inalienable property also sets a limit on the power of the state or sovereign. It is property rather than survival or thought that is inalienable. As Locke writes, "…neither the sergeant, that could command a soldier to march up to the mouth of a cannon, or stand in a breach, where he is almost sure to perish, can command that soldier to give him one penny of his money…absolute power over life and death is not power over goods."Thus, to return to the subject of Dorlin's book these three different inalienable "goods" survival for Hobbes, thought for Spinoza, and property for Locke can also be considered three different strategies for self-defense, for checking the power of the state. One seeks defense in the struggle for survival, in maintaining enough force so that one can at least go out guns blazing, taking a few of them with you; the second in thought, in developing a different understanding, a different interpretation, a different way of thinking than the one put forward by the dominant forces (I will add parenthetically that I think that this would look different than the current imperative to do your own research); and finally, the last seeks its salvation in property, in maintaining self-possession through possessions. In this age of apocalyptic fears it is a matter of what is in your "bugout bag" a gun, a book, or a wad of cash. Of course framed in such stark terms any one option seems inadequate, and a combination of force and knowledge seems to be necessary for self-defense, especially against those who seem to be committed to holding onto their property even at the expense of their own survival and rationality. (You knew that Locke would be the bad guy, right?) It is also my hope that contrasting these different ideas of self-defense can shine light not only the poverty of the focus on property as a condition for survival, but also underscore the importance of thought and not just force as a tool for survival and creation of different ways of living outside of the control of Leviathan.
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Sometime awhile ago I came up with the idea of doing a trilogy of posts on conspiracy theory, or modern conspiracy thought, read through Spinoza, Hegel, and Marx. I am not exactly sure why the idea appealed to me, in part because I increasingly consider Spinoza, Hegel, and Marx to be the cornerstones of my philosophical thought, even if these cornerstones come through the mediations of Tosel, Jameson, and Althusser (to name a few), but in this case, more specifically it seemed worth asking what would three critics of the mystifications of their day make of our modern mystifications.After writing the pieces on Spinoza and Hegel it took me a long time to even consider writing a piece on Marx. The intersection of Marx and conspiracy theory just seems too big to take on in a blogpost. This is in part because for many in the US, Marxism is both the name of an actual conspiracy and a conspiracy theory. It has become increasingly so in terms of the former, the right has dealt with decline of the Soviet Union not by giving up on red scares, but by making the object of such ghost stories more and more diffuse and conspiratorial. Marxism, or communism, are not to just to be found in open appeals to revolution, or organizing workers instead everything from Critical Race Theory to the casting of a Disney film can now be seen to be the work of Marxism in its more diffuse cultural form, a plot that becomes more insidious the more indirect its connection discernible political goals become. At the same time that Marxism is seen as conspiracy it is argued that its understanding of history and politics which sees the interest of the ruling class behind everything is fundamentally a conspiracy theory, if not the fundamental conspiracy theory. As is often the case, I would argue that this idea that Marxism is a conspiracy theory gets things wrong and upside down. To gesture to a much larger argument, I would argue that Marx's fundamental theoretical innovation is to present an understanding of economic, social, and political relations that breaks with every conspiracy theory in that its primary mode of explanation is not individual intentions, or collective strategies, but the economic and social conditions that exceed any intention or conspiracy. The actions of capitalist with respect to wages and working conditions are, to use the parlance of our times, dictated by the demands of the market, by the demand to be competitive, etc., what Marx would perhaps more simply call the extraction of surplus value. Marx stresses that this structure is absolutely indifferent to the conscious intentions of not only the workers, who must conform to it in selling their labor or risk losing their jobs, but to the capitalist as well. As Marx puts it, in the mouth of the worker addressing the capitalist, "You may be a model citizen, perhaps a member of the R.S.P.C.A. [Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals], and you may be in the odour of sanctity as well; but the thing you represent when you come face to face with me has no heart in its breast." As I argued with respect to Spinoza (see the link above), if the defining characteristic of most conspiracy theories is understanding the world in terms of ends, of deducing the conspiracy from effects, (if talking about race makes white people feel bad that must be the reason behind such teaching, and so on, Marx's fundamental argument is how little ends and intentions mean in understanding social and political life. Marx's criticism is not one of "capitalist greed" as a moral failing, but of the structural conditions that cause capitalists to seek cheaper workers, to demand more of workers, and so on regardless of their moral character. This is the real meaning of Marx's invocation of vampires and werewolves, not to call the capitalist a monster, but to claim that there is something monstrous in capital that exceeds intentions and is found not in the hearts of human beings but in the social relations that produce and reproduce them. As something of an aside, I will suggest that part of Marx's legacy on critical theory, for lack of a better term, is this demand to think in terms of structures that exceed and situate consciousness, this, as I have argued awhile ago, is partly what is at stake in the concept of the mode of production. This legacy goes beyond those who are explicitly Marxist. What Foucault called a dispositif, or apparatus, what Deleuze and Guattari referred to as assemblages or machines, were also an attempt to think the structural over and above the intentional. They are in some sense an attempt to articulate a concept that could displace the mode of production understood as the articulation of material practices and ideas, what Marx called base and superstructure. In Foucault this becomes the relation of power and knowledge, while in Deleuze and Guattari it becomes that of machinic assemblages of bodies and collective assemblages of enunciation. Both of which could be understood as an attempt to expand the explanatory framework beyond the putatively economic to encompass the production of knowledge and desire. Closer to home, the insistence on the term "structural" in "structural racism," as well as similar attempts to think patriarchy as a social and political structure, are all attempts to theorize racism, sexism, or misogyny without reducing it to individual prejudices, biases, or attitudes. I would then say, summing this up all too quickly, not only is Marx's thought not a conspiracy theory, Marx's fundamental move of thinking relations, structures, and institution in excess of intentions and understandings is the antechamber or all theories that want to be more than conspiracy theories that want to understand the structural conditions and not the individual attitudes as the basis for exploitation and domination. Such a point is beyond the focus of a blogpost, and, moreover, it was not what I intend to get at here. My question is what does Marx offer for thinking the conspiratorial turn in contemporary politics. The first point, which I have already more or less uttered, is that a great deal of what we call conspiracy theories are really just anti-communism, and that these theories have become more baroque and oblique as communism as a political force retreats into historical memory. They are in some sense a kind of anti-communism without communism, as Seymour argues. It is the decline of Marxism as a political force that leads to the demand to find it everywhere; everything that challenges the existing order, not just the economic order but its racial and gender aspects as well, from teaching about the history of slavery to non-binary gender identity can be labelled "Marxist." (The irony of this is that actually existing Marxism, especially in its more official state varieties, has had a spotty at best record when it comes to understanding race and gender as sites of domination and exploitation. Many Marxists of an old school variety are perhaps surprised to learn that anti-racist education is secretly Marxist and that Marxists are behind the demand to respect individual's choice of pronouns). Second, Marxism is integral to understanding the real conditions of social and political life which are in some sense experienced as a vast conspiracy. As I have alluded to above, Marx explains, better than any conspiracy theory the way in which prevailing economic and political relations produce the feeling of helplessness and lack of control that is, as Marcus Gilroy-Ware argues, the raw material for most conspiracy theories. Of course the fundamental question is if it is in some sense the relations of capitalism that create the conditions of alienation and powerlessness which in turn create the condition for conspiracy theorizing, why do such theories name everything but capital, or the ruling class, as the agent of this conspiracy. This is part because the demands of capital are too open, too disclosed to be the object of a conspiracy theory. There is no riddle to solve in saying that capital is driven by the extraction of surplus value, or, as they say, the pursuit of profit. It is openly declared in every newspaper, website, and news broadcast. Without a secret, without the ability to be in the know, there is no affective appeal to a conspiracy theory. We are stuck in a kind of perpetual purloined letter situation in which it is because the existing goals of the ruling class are so out in the open that there is a need to create a kind of bizarro world inversion of this world in order to believe in the conspiracy that must exist. While it is fairly clear to anyone paying attention that the established position on COVID for example is to declare it over again and again in order to be able to get people back to work and to end any state spending on aid, testing, or vaccines, such a goal is too open to muster any theorizing, too public to generate any critique, so we get a bizarro inversion where the powers want to keep the pandemic going, want lockdowns, mask mandates, and vaccines for some vague reason of control. At the same time, it could be argued that the fact that conspiracy theories generally leave capitalism untouched, approaching it only obliquely through the antisemitic fear of global elites, demonstrates to what extent the demands of capitalism have become, as Marx writes, self-evident natural laws, wage labor as a mode of existence and commodification as the realization of pleasures remain unexamined by conspiracy theories. Thus to butcher a phrase, is easier to imagine the world controlled by lizard people than it is to question the existence of wage labor and the commodity form.
Teaching English to Filipino learners have been challenging especially during the time of pandemic with very limited interaction between the teacher and the students. Different online learning platforms were explored and utilized so that continuity of learning may happen despite the situation. Distance learning was welcomed by every learner both in the basic education system and tertiary levels. Applications were also further accessed so that language learning can become more engaging at the same time develop the communication skills of all learners. However, this scenario was not a walk in the park for many; likewise, it becomes more difficult for those students who have special needs. These circumstances serve as challenges for teachers to reevaluate and reinvent their teaching practices to further accommodate and teach English to diverse learners may it be during times of pandemic or not. In line with this, the book Supporting English Learners with Exceptional Needs by Patricia Rice Doran and Amy K. Noggle was reviewed and evaluated. The authors are faculty in Arcola Elementary School in Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland as well as in Towson University. For this reason, this gives us thought that the authors gained inspiration in writing this book through their students to provide them support and intervention. This book tries to address the needs of the learners who have high-incidence and low-incidence disabilities. As reviewers and evaluators of this book, we have our personal thoughts and ideas in teaching English to our learners. Filipino learners who are studying English also possess diverseness and uniqueness which lets us use varied teaching strategies to accommodate different learners' needs and weaknesses. The information featured in this book are useful to better and improve the classroom teaching of English and further develop the skills of the students. The insights shared by the author could be essential for use to devise ways towards improvement of language learning suited for the needs of Filipinos learners. In its introduction, the writers had elaborated the extensive research of the challenges faced in the United States concerning English learners. The data showed that there is a need to reevaluate practices as well as improve class routine since learners are diverse in so many ways. Moreover, these challenges paved way for opportunities to support as well make significant changes in the education system were seen. It is also important to note that the book recognizes the potentials that could be discovered from learners with disabilities if they would be supported and nurtured through a special education system in accordance to the child development perspective. The book is divided into three sections which include different chapters that showcase scenarios in real-life setting, elaboration of key concepts, and more importantly practical approaches relevant in teaching English to learners with learning disabilities. Specifically, Section 1 includes background knowledge related to English learners and students' abilities. Section 2 discussed the classroom structures and framework. Lastly, Section 3 distinguishes the support needed for English learners with disability. Through these sections the strengths, weaknesses, as well as policies for English learners were emphasized together with the necessary classroom approaches and assessments that can be utilized in specializing programs for English learners. The first Chapter of the book is What Do English Learners Bring to Our Schools? Cognitive, Linguistic, and Cultural Assets. In this chapter we are given a realization on how we provide interventions and assessment among our diverse learners. It is elaborated that in the case of a classroom with learners of diverse background we should highlight the essence of strength-based thinking. It also made us reflect on the resilience of our students and their funds of knowledge. The chapter could sum up the need for teachers to develop strategies that will be holistic and honing the context of the uniqueness of each learner especially in language learning. The chapter also put emphasis on educational equity among learners, we must value the strengths and assets of the learners as they attain proficiency in language learning. The second Chapter of the book, Challenges and Opportunities for English Learners in Our Schools, expounds on the concept of dealing with our learners' needs as opportunities instead of challenges. As language teachers we should see a silver lining upon hurdling the challenges of diversity among our learners. It put significant consideration on translating the learners' need which are composed of different life-stressors into meaningful opportunities towards learning. The chapter also presents to us several challenges faced by a language learner which involves not only his cognitive ability but his family and cultural background. The chapter also expounds on several approaches and learning frameworks which can be valuable resources for educators in dealing with learners needs as opportunities rather than challenges. On the other hand, Chapter 3, A Policy Primer reiterates the different government and state policies concerning children right to education and how these policies helped in transforming the language learning landscape for many English learners with difficult situation such as the child who became the point of discussion in the chapter "Eterio". The chapter also traces back the history of how discrimination due to race or disability was not avoided by several state policies such as the "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB) in 2002, and the 'Every Student Succeed Acts (ESSA)' in 2015. More so, the chapter puts emphasis on how policies put premium on the protection of English learners with exceptional needs as well as those policies that recognizes the need to fund individualized educational services. Section 2 of the book is welcomed by its fourth Chapter, Ecological Approaches and Multitiered Systems of Support: Holistic Approaches to Serving English Learners where in it distinguishes the diversity of learners in a learning community. Given the said situation, it expounds on the significance of an ecological, tiered framework which may present school personnel the chance to back up the learners in several aspects. These may include interdisciplinary communication and collaborative work among school personnel. The chapter also assess the necessity to ensure that the intervention provided for the learners are based from their background and level of development. The chapter reflects on presenting interventions not only based on their cultural perspectives but also based on the whole-child perspective. In Chapter 5, Collaborative Problem Solving for English Learners: The Unique Role of the ESOL Teacher the authors discuss the problem-solving process in language learning. The chapter reviewed the different process that are found conducive towards planning successful classes among English learners. It explains the need for a thorough discussion and observations prompts that may be relevant in solving the problem of a learner. The discussion on collaborative problem solving was given prominence in the chapter as well since it is found to be an important element in providing support in teaching diverse learners. Furthermore, the need of consistency among ESOL teachers as an integral part of the problem-solving process was focused upon since they are expected to distinguish the strengths of the learners, and how these will be used to better facilitate strategies. The sixth Chapter is Universal Supports for English Learners at Risk. This chapter discusses the common problems that the English teachers are experiencing in their classes like lack of parental support and nonacademic factors (lack of sleep, living environment, and daily stressors) which leads to the use of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). This is a framework for curriculum and instruction that is used to provide accessibility, support, and challenge by considering the needs of each learner. Moreover, thin this chapter, it is emphasized that teachers need to identify and consider a lot of factors before providing solutions and interventions. The support provided to students are not confined with the structured classroom adjustments, sometimes students are affected by external factors like family pressures or internal factors like student's disability. Chapter seventh is Targeted Supports for English Learners. This chapter explains the parameters in providing targeted supports and interventions to English learners. Teachers need to consider the prior experiences of the learners including their trauma if there is. Identifying the student's strengths, needs, and unique profile is necessary. It is also emphasized that in the implementation of the intervention, parents or family members are encouraged to take part actively for an effective turnout. Chapter eight is Assessment and Identification for English/ Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Learners: High-incidence Disabilities. In this chapter, several court cases were featured to gain understanding on the experiences of the people with disabilities and their challenges encountered by the immigrants and minority populations in schools. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1990 (IDEA) was also discussed that is made to provide unbiased testing procedures and to address language barriers. Chapter ninth is Assessment and Identification for English Learners: Low-incidence Disabilities. This chapter features how the students with low-incidence disabilities (LID) were specifically evaluated and assessed and the challenges that the teachers faced. The LID students are the ones who are deaf, blind, or having other health impairments. The challenges faced by the teachers were shortage of knowledgeable personnel, specialized/interdisciplinary knowledge, and skill sets, and need for appropriate assessment procedures. The teachers needed the help of some medical, speech, audiology, and assistive technology in addressing the needs of the learners under LID prior and during the learning process. The last chapter is Intensive Supports and Specialized Programming for English Learners. This part talks about the recommended practices in developing and implementing specialized programs for students with low-incidence disabilities and high-incidence disabilities. Teachers may reach to the families of the learners with disabilities. A collaborative discussion is helpful to make sure that the ways in teaching the students were appropriate and fitting according to the needs of the students. Also, schools may provide intensive interventions and supports to students that takes into consideration their level of proficiency and cultural fit. This chapter provided a number of available resources and self-evaluation forms that teachers and schools may use. In the hope of improving the teaching and learning experience of the students and to further address diverse learners, the evaluators recommend this book to teachers of English. In terms of addressing the students' needs and weaknesses, this book provided sample situations that teachers of English usually encounter while providing strategies on how to properly address them. Furthermore, this book tries to ensure that all the learners discover their giftedness and how they could use it in powerful ways.
SUMMARY We expand on the article "Ethical Challenges Arising in the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Overview from the Association of Bioethics Program Directors (ABPD) Task Force" to consider the ways in which rural and remote communities pose unique ethical questions in the current COVID-19 pandemic. KEY ISSUES Rural communities have poorer populations as compared to urban and suburban areas (Symens and Trevelyan 2019) and they have more underlying medical conditions and are more likely to die from chronic respiratory illnesses, heart disease, and other problems that put people more at risk for COVID-19 (Associated Press 2020). Because of these health vulnerabilities, US insurance providers such as Medicare and Medicaid play an outsized role in connecting individuals to testing and treatment for COVID-19 (Artiga et al. 2020). Unfortunately, most rural states tend to be those where the expansion of Medicare was most resisted (KFF 2020). In Canada, historical mistrust of government has similarly created barriers to health care. Rural and remote communities are also home to many marginalized populations who lack integration into sources of societal power such as money and expert knowledge. Examples of these marginalized communities include Amish, (Staff 2020) immigrant refugees, Native American tribes (Sepkowitz 2020), and Indigenous people living in rural and remote communities in Canada's north (Indigenous Services Canada 2020). Telemedicine may be helpful but many rural communities do not have access to computers and other technologies that allow for telemedicine, including phone use that may not be utilized among Old Order Amish (Kornegay 2020). Mental illness poses a significant challenge to rural healthcare. Rural communities experience unique problems in these patient populations, such as overlapping and conflicting patient-provider relationships and altered therapeutic boundaries that challenge the preservation of patient privacy. Increases in domestic violence and other crimes, and exacerbated risk of addiction and suicide seems inevitable as people are being forced to shelter at home where few resources may exist (Snuggs 2020). Fewer health care professionals and hospital beds per capita mean that residents of rural communities have few sources of healthcare and rely on the ethical behavior of their providers with little recourse. Fewer resources in rural areas mean a risk of hospital closure, and potentially a lack of adequate care. In Washington, 13 rural hospitals have less than 45 days of cash on hand, according to a letter (WSHA 2020) from the state hospital association to Washington Governor Jay Inslee. Rural hospitals in Texas that have survived so far do not have funding to prepare for COVID-19 (Walters 2020). Rural healthcare systems view ethics committees as primarily educational and commonly underutilize this resource (Shih and Goldman 2011). Rural physicians and nurses are often unfamiliar with bioethics analysis and instead turn to spouses, peers, the Ten Commandments, or the Medicine Wheel for ethical guidance. Oftentimes, nurses see a questioning of ethical issues as a challenge to the hierarchy of rural medicine and fear often retaliation (Cook and Hoas 2008). In conditions of scarcity, bioethics can be seen as unnecessary in conditions where unequal distribution of the healthcare workforce is the true illness producing these symptoms (Morley and Beatty 2008). Not only do rural systems/hospitals lack or underutilize their ethics committees, but the lack of timely and appropriate ethical guidance or expertise is compounded during a pandemic as smaller systems are at greater risk of using all of their resources faster, without the financial or political means of larger institutions. KEY QUESTIONS How can bioethics engage and support rural healthcare during the COVID pandemic? To answer this question we note that Jonsen has described bioethics as "a systematic study necessarily is carried out by scholars dedicated to thinking, writing, and teaching about a subject" (Jonsen 1998). Here, it is important to recognize the paradoxical role of bioethicists as "other" to the clinical care team. It is through that very other-ness that we can offer questions that may otherwise not be asked, and suggest helpful frameworks that may otherwise be overlooked in the rush of pandemic care. Second, how can policies and procedures being shared by urban and suburban institutions be adapted to use in rural and remote healthcare settings? Each rural and remote healthcare system is unique. Misinformation or simply the public fear of being identified as a person having COVID-19 is of critical concern in rural communities, and especially among undocumented persons. Because each community is best known by local healthcare systems, this is a question that must be asked by each institution, with bioethicists, leadership, and clinical care members as a team. Third, how can rural healthcare institutions strengthen their ethical commitments to quality patient care during the pandemic while respecting traditional beliefs? Policies and processes used by larger institutions during a pandemic can be shared across institutions, but often the smaller rural clinical sites and agencies that are treating the most vulnerable of populations who are not well-informed, typically do not have a presence during deliberations about best practices and "shared" policies, and the socio-cultural aspects of rural populations are often ignored in which communication is limited. Institutions may avail themselves of many recommendations, but these must be implemented locally in every case. AREAS OF CONSENSUS Rural health systems are an indispensable part of our obligation to care for all persons during the current pandemic and beyond. The answer to this question is particularly vexing in systems where scholars are not seen as offering pragmatic solutions to on the ground problems. Italy has answered this call by embedding ethics into the clinical care even during the COVID-19 pandemic, defining the role of the bioethicist as "a figure able to promote dialogue" (Nicoli and Gasparetto 2020). Rural communities have unique socio-economic qualities that require an adaptive response from the clinical team. Bioethics is an essential element to equip healthcare providers and other decision-makers with the tools they need during this pandemic (Cohen et al. 2020; Warren 2020). It is essential for leadership in rural academic and clinical centers to provide accurate, clear information that could be immediately translated appropriately and delivered in ways that best meet the needs of that population. It is important to have patient advocates, persons within communities who can translate, and experts at the table when there are discussions about innovative uses of technology, triaging efforts, policy development/implementation, and to be sure to connect with community leaders (e.g., elders, leaders of a refugee community) to address some of the fears, baseline knowledge, and best practices for communication. AREAS OF DISAGREEMENT In the USA where healthcare is privatized, should Medicare/Medicaid be expanded to help those rural areas where the population is vulnerable or marginalized? While many say yes, in the case of the National Federation of Independent Business v Sebelius (2012) seven justices declared the mandatory Medicaid eligibility expansion unconstitutional. States are left to decide whether to expand Medicaid to their residents, and 14 states have declined to adopt (KFF 2020). Rural populations may differ vastly due to the differences between states that have adopted and those that have not. What are the best ways to support rural healthcare systems financially during normal times and during a crisis such as the current pandemic? Is it enough to provide direct funding from the just enacted stimulus bill? The 2020 CARES Act (116th Congress 2020) appropriates $1.32 billion, for the purposes of detecting, preventing, diagnosing, and treating COVID-19. Not everyone is convinced the bill provides enough relief. Rural healthcare must overcome misinformation and fear among rural residents. Reliance on larger clinical and academic institutions can be both valuable and ethically challenging. While policies and processes during a pandemic can be shared across institutions, often the smaller rural clinical sites and agencies that are treating the most vulnerable of populations are not well-informed, typically do not have a collaborative presence during deliberations about best practices and shared policies, and the socio-cultural aspects of rural populations are often ignored. POLICY AND PRACTICE STRATEGIES AND IMPLICATIONS Support close relationships and understanding through transparent and frequent communication. Because of the lack of broad community knowledge and understanding of COVID-19 specific practices, there may be a misunderstanding of why these policies are in place to separate families and others from infected patients. Academic medical centers need to have clear communication policies and structures in place to assure timely access to information in a format that is understandable to the populations served. Identify gaps/lack of clarity in policies and procedures that are being shared from urban/suburban institutions, and create applicable policies, guidelines, and resources that consider the rural populations' sociocultural aspects. The use of virtue ethics as a framework for the development of policies for close-knit rural healthcare may be an effective use of ethical understanding applied in a pragmatic manner. Ensure that rural healthcare systems identify the ethical responsibilities of the institution, focusing on the core domains of the healthcare system's mission. The overall ethics environment should facilitate and support ethical practices and support from the highest levels to equalize the power differential between physicians and others on the healthcare team (Morley and Beatty 2008; Vernillo 2008). Affirmative efforts must be taken to overcome these barriers and promote a climate of open communication without fear of retaliation or exclusion. Facilitate the means for rural systems to utilize the work done by other groups to promote shared decision making with patients and providers. These can be utilizing decision aids and educational materials (Vernillo 2008), and integrate principles of distributive justice with the pragmatic considerations of rural practice and virtue ethics attentive to the multiple relationships and perspective of rural communities (Klugman 2008).
En México, son pocos los ejemplos exitosos de mejoramiento de condiciones de accesibilidad en centros históricos. No se ha conceptualizado la relación que hay entre las actividades cotidianas, el reconocimiento de la diversidad humana y la conservación del patrimonio. Tampoco se entiende que la accesibilidad es un derecho humano, encima de la estética y la priorización del monumento, ya que hay edificios antiguos que conservan sus usos originales y de afluencia diaria como los templos católicos, considerados a su vez recintos culturales ya que son contenedores de patrimonio, arte (bienes muebles) y practicas sociales con atracción turística.En Puebla, existe la experiencia de un proyecto participativo e incluyente de accesibilidad donde se involucraron a cinco inmuebles de interés patrimonial. Son templos históricos que forman un itinerario por su cercanía e importancia en el primer cuadro de la ciudad. En un primer tramo, están Santa Mónica, considerado un santuario que recibe a miles de fieles cada semana, el ex convento de Santo Domingo, donde se encuentra la capilla del Rosario, y la Basílica Catedral de la ciudad, conectados por la calle peatonal más importante de la ciudad, "La 5 de mayo". Hacia el sur, completando la ruta, se localizan San Juan de Letrán, "El Hospitalito", y La Soledad, con a su vez se comunican con el Museo Amparo. Todos los templos son antiguos, datan de los siglos XVI al XIX.Durante 2015 y 2016, a través de un trabajo conjunto entre autoridades locales, universidades y asociaciones civiles, además del apoyo económico de una entidad local municipal y otra internacional del gobierno chileno, se colocaron diversos elementos para la mejora de la accesibilidad, como rampas metálicas reversibles, y se intervinieron pavimentos en atrios y accesos. Hasta la fecha (2020), es un proyecto de alcance territorial para el beneficio de todos, no solo para las personas con movilidad reducida, que permite un desplazamiento autónomo y de fácil utilización, inclusive para aquellas personas que requieren ser asistidas por otra persona, ya que los porcentajes de pendientes en las rampas oscilan entre el seis y diez por ciento.La metodología desarrollada para abordar el trabajo fue mediante la incorporación de un equipo interdisciplinar, en este caso Re Genera Espacio, que difundió la importancia de reconvertir estos inmuebles patrimoniales en espacios accesibles, una acción promovida ante los custodios de los cinco templos, realizar un análisis diagnóstico de cada caso, desarrollar el proyecto y supervisar los trabajos con la finalidad de que cumplieran con las normativas y recomendaciones locales e internacionales.El proyecto fue recibido de buena manera por los custodios, después de un largo proceso de trabajo, así como por el resto de la población, lo que se refleja en un aumento considerable de personas con alguna discapacidad que acuden a los recintos, sean feligreses o turistas, y de otras personas con movilidad reducida que hacen uso de los espacios abiertos, como atrios y calles. Hacemos énfasis en que se requieren más intervenciones en otros espacios considerados menos importantes. Este es un primer paso hacia ciudades más accesibles, en este caso una zona histórica, que requiere intervenciones urgentes para crear redes de accesibilidad. El presente trabajo dio pauta a otros proyectos que se han venido desarrollando por parte del equipo, no solo con discapacidades motrices, también con personas con ceguera y debilidad visual. ; In Mexico, there are few successful examples of improving accessibility conditions in historic centers. The relationship between daily activities, the recognition of human diversity and the conservation of heritage has not been conceptualized. It has not been understood that accessibility is a human right, above the aesthetics and prioritization of the monument, since there are old buildings that retain their original uses and daily affluence such as Catholic temples, which are also considered cultural sites and containers of heritage, art (movable property) and social practices with tourist attraction.In Puebla, there is the experience of a participatory and inclusive accessibility project where five heritage buildings were involved. They are historical temples that form an itinerary due to their proximity and importance in the original area of the ancient city. In the first section, there is Santa Monica, considered a sanctuary that receives thousands of faithful every week, the former convent of Santo Domingo, where the Rosario chapel is located, and the city's Cathedral Basilica, connected by the pedestrian street more important of the city, "La 5 de mayo". Towards the south, completing the route, San Juan de Letrán, "El Hospitalito" and La Soledad are located, with the Amparo Museum near of them. All temples are ancient, dating from the 16th to 19th centuries.During 2015 and 2016, through joint work between local authorities, universities and civil associations, in addition to the financial support of a local municipal entity and another international entity from the Chilean government, various elements were put in place to improve accessibility, like metalic ramps reversibles, and there were intervened pavements in atriums and accesses. Even in 2020, it is a project of territorial scope for the benefit of all, not only for people with reduced mobility, which allows autonomous and easy-to-use travel, even for those people who need to be assisted by another person, since the percentages of slopes on the ramps range between six and ten percent.The methodology developed to the work was through the incorporation of an interdisciplinary team, Re Genera Espacio, which promoted the importance of reconverting these heritage buildings into accessible spaces, an action promoted before the custodians of the five temples, as well as establishing a diagnostic analysis of each case and develop the project, in addition to supervising the work in order to realize with local and international regulations and recommendations.The project was well received by the custodians, after a long process of work, as well as by the rest of the population, which is reflected in a considerable increase in people with disabilities who come to the temples, whether they are parishioners or tourists, and other people with reduced mobility who make use of open spaces, such as atriums and streets. We emphasize that more interventions are required in other spaces considered less important. This is a first step towards more accessible cities, in this case a historic area, which requires urgent interventions to create accessibility networks. This work gave guidelines to other projects that have been developed by the team, not only with motor disabilities, but also with people with blindness and visual weakness. ; A Mèxic, són pocs els exemples reeixits de millorament de condicions d'accessibilitat en centres històrics. No s'ha conceptualitzat la relació que hi ha entre les activitats quotidianes, el reconeixement de la diversitat humana i la conservació de l'patrimoni. Tampoc s'entén que l'accessibilitat és un dret humà, a sobre de l'estètica i la priorització de l'monument, ja que hi ha edificis antics que conserven els seus usos originals i d'afluència diària com els temples catòlics, considerats al seu torn recintes culturals ja que són contenidors de patrimoni, art (béns mobles) i practiques socials amb atracció turística.A Puebla, hi ha l'experiència d'un projecte participatiu i incloent d'accessibilitat on es van involucrar a cinc immobles d'interès patrimonial. Són temples històrics que formen un itinerari per la seva proximitat i importància en el primer quadre de la ciutat. En un primer tram, estan Santa Mònica, considerat un santuari que rep a milers de fidels cada setmana, l'ex convent de Sant Domingo, on es troba la capella del Rosari, i la Basílica Catedral de la ciutat, connectats pel carrer de vianants més important de la ciutat, «la 5 de maig». Cap al sud, completant la ruta, es localitzen Sant Joan del Laterà, «El Hospitalito», i La Soledat, amb al seu torn es comuniquen amb el Museu Amparo. Tots els temples són antics, daten dels segles XVI a l'XIX.Durant 2015 i 2016, a través d'un treball conjunt entre autoritats locals, universitats i associacions civils, a més del suport econòmic d'una entitat local municipal i una altra internacional de govern xilè, es van col·locar diversos elements per a la millora de l'accessibilitat, com rampes metàl·liques reversibles, i es van intervenir paviments en atris i accessos. Fins a la data (2020), és un projecte d'abast territorial per al benefici de tots, no només per a les persones amb mobilitat reduïda, que permet un desplaçament autònom i de fàcil utilització, inclusivament per a aquelles persones que requereixen ser assistides per una altra persona, ja que els percentatges de pendents en les rampes oscil·len entre el sis i deu per cent.La metodologia desenvolupada per abordar el treball va ser mitjançant la incorporació d'un equip interdisciplinari, en aquest cas Re Genera Espai, que va difondre la importància de reconvertir aquests immobles patrimonials en espais accessibles, una acció promoguda davant els custodis dels cinc temples, realitzar una anàlisi diagnòstic de cada cas, desenvolupar el projecte i supervisar els treballs amb la finalitat que complissin amb les normatives i recomanacions locals i internacionals.El projecte va ser rebut de bona manera pels custodis, després d'un llarg procés de treball, així com per la resta de la població, el que es reflecteix en un augment considerable de persones amb alguna discapacitat que van als recintes, siguin feligresos o turistes, i d'altres persones amb mobilitat reduïda que fan ús dels espais oberts, com atris i carrers.Fem èmfasi en que es requereixen més intervencions en altres espais considerats menys importants. Aquest és un primer pas cap a ciutats més accessibles, en aquest cas una zona històrica, que requereix intervencions urgents per crear xarxes d'accessibilitat. El present treball va donar pauta a altres projectes que s'han desenvolupat per part de l'equip, no només amb discapacitats motrius, també amb persones amb ceguesa i debilitat visual.
During the last decades in Brazil there has been a significant increase in hydrosocial conflicts due to the construction of large hydroelectric complexes, which involve qualitative and quantitative changes regarding access and ownership of water. It has opened a new period of accumulation and transformation of production relations through the commodification of this important resource. This extension of large projects of an extractivist nature in the Amazon region, especially from the end of the eighties from the last century, after the settlement of the so-called Washington consensus. This phenomenon led to a whole series of transformations in productive, reproductive and social relations, in order to provide mechanisms for regional and national integration, as well as for overcoming accumulation crises which came from the global scale. In the Brazilian case, these reforms undertaken in recent decades in the political, social, environmental, economic and legislative realms, have not meant a major change in the productive level of the world-economy scale, since the peripheral role in the country, initiated during the colonial period, continues to be maintained. But they have deepened their dependence through the extractivist development model, highlighting among other practices (such as the advance of the agricultural frontier, large soybean crops, the deployment of fracking to increase rents derived from the hydrocarbons, etc…) the large hydroelectric complexes located throughout the country's vast hydrographic basin. The main goal of this kind of new structures is to produce higher levels of energy, largely dedicated to the processing of aluminum, whose demand has increased exponentially in recent years in states such as China, among other BRICS. From all these hydroelectric structures, due to their importance and expansion over time, probably the one that stands out the most is the Belo Monte dam on the Xingú river, near to the city of Altamira. A multiplicity of actors are involved in this one (indigenous communities, fishing farmers, the State, Eletrobras, non-governmental organizations, indigenous confederations, construction companies, supranational institutions, etc.) whose dispute over access to water resources implies a modification of the configuration of the power relations that take place in the territory. Although it is true that its planning began in 1975, within the framework of the search for a better use of the country's hydroelectric potential, to boost economic development and energy sovereignty; the advances and setbacks in the settlement of the operation of the infrastructure have been delayed until today and probably will continue in the near future. This paper not only aims to analyze the spatio-temporal path of this controversial conflict. Furthermore, it proposes two additional objectives. On the one hand, the elaboration of a theoretical framework that combines the perspectives of the production of nature, the production of space and the construction of scale, which could be applied to the analysis of other environmental conflicts that take place in the global south. On the other hand, and consequently, through its use in the study of this particular case, it seeks to determine the strengths and weaknesses that it shows for its use in future similar works. Hitherto the most part of the works and papers related with this case study are focused in the contentious politics of social movements and communities to stop the development of the project. As well as a significant number of them mainly analyze the contradictions of PT through the Brazilian state regarding to the different social impacts of the dam. This article aims to go beyond and provide tools and categories to explain the practices, relations and structures which are involved this process. In view of this, a methodology based on bibliographic review and the use of both primary and secondary sources is proposed. Through this method, it is possible to obtain the set of practices, representations and relationships that shape the conflict itself. In turn, to achieve this end, the article is divided into four main parts. In the first one, it is exposed the articulation approach between the different categories and aspects of the theoretical gazes for their uses in the case study. In relation with the perspective of the production of nature, originally developed by Neil Smith, the categories of use value and exchange value are fundamental. These ones, through their dialectic within the production relations, modify through the pass of time the metabolism that takes place between nature and society itself, generating conflicts where these changes imply a clash between two modes of production. With this fact different values prevail over the environmental resources, whose access is sought to continue the process of social reproduction. In addition to this, the proposed framework take in count the categories of spatial practices, representations of space and spaces of representation, formulated by Henri Lefebvre, in order to explain how changes in power relations involve changes in the space in which they are inserted and vice versa. Furthermore, with the interscalar perspective proposed by several scholars that are mentioned, the possibility of explaining how phenomena and actors from different scales influence the local one during the long development of the conflict. Subsequently, in the second section of the paper, the analysis of the spatio-temporal development of the conflict is carried out, from the beginning of project planning, through the modifications carried out by the different governments, the changes in the positions of the actors, the different law resolutions, the granting of licenses and so on, until today. Thirdly, the role of hegemonic actors in advancing the construction of the hydroelectric complex is explained and detailed, for which it is not only important to analyze the different representations and narratives carried out by different governments with respect to the project of Belo Monte, but also how state hydroelectric companies (Eletrobras and Eletronorte) are affected by the entrance of foreign capital, changing over time the spatial practices that are carried out, as well as the different positions of the institution responsible for the granting of environmental licenses to allow the dam activity (IBAMA). At the end, in the last part, the same operation is made but with the subordinate actors involved, which basically would be the local and foreign non-governmental organizations, as well as the communities of indigenous, peasant and fishermen of the locality. For them, the river fundamentally supposes a use value insofar as it is used as a source of resources and transportation to maintain pre-capitalist production relations on which they are sustained. Obviously, these activities have a low exchange value produced through its limited technology to harvesting and fishing, that finally are destined for local trade. The main results which can be highlighted are related with how this dam in particular, and the different hydroelectric projects in general along the region, allow to extend spatially an economic integration through the deployment of new relations of production and mechanisms for accumulation. These ones suppose an appearance of new use values, exchange values and values that clash against the previous ones thus producing the social struggle in the local scale around the dam. Furthermore, the frameworks of the scale and the production of social space show as useful theories for its application to future cases of environmental conflicts, meanwhile the production of nature framework shows some difficulties in order to use some of its categories for the case study. ; Durante las últimas décadas en Brasil se ha producido un incremento significativo de los conflictos hidrosociales a causa de la construcción de grandes complejos hidroeléctricos. Esta extensión de grandes proyectos de carácter extractivista en la región amazónica, sobre todo a partir de finales de la década de los años ochenta del siglo pasado, han conllevado todo un conjunto de transformaciones en las relaciones sociales, productivas y reproductivas, de cara avanzar en mecanismos para la integración regional y nacional, así como para la superación de crisis de acumulación propias de la escala global. Entre todos, por su trascendencia y dilatación en el tiempo, probablemente el que más destaca es el de la represa de Belo Monte en el río Xingú, próximo a la ciudad de Altamira. En él se ven involucrados una multiplicidad de actores (comunidades indígenas, campesinos, pescadores, el estado, Eletrobras, constructoras, instituciones supranacionales, etc) cuya disputa por el acceso a los recursos hídricos supone una modificación de la configuración de las relaciones de poder que se dan en el territorio. Este artículo, además de analizar el recorrido espacio-temporal de dicho conflicto, se propone dos objetivos adicionales. Por un lado la elaboración de un marco teórico, que conjugue las perspectivas de la producción de la naturaleza, la producción del espacio y la construcción de la escala, que pueda ser aplicado al análisis de conflictos ambientales que tienen lugar en el Sur Global. Por otro lado, y en consecuencia, a través de su empleo en el estudio de este caso particular, determinar las fortalezas y debilidades que presenta para su uso en futuros trabajos similares. De cara a ello se plantea una metodología basada en la revisión bibliográfica y el uso tanto de fuentes primarias como secundarias, mediante las cuales se puedan extraer y analizar el conjunto de prácticas, representaciones y relaciones que dan forma al conflicto en sí mismo. A su vez, el artículo se divide en cuatro partes principales: el planteamiento de articulación entre las distintas categorías y aspectos de los planteamientos teóricos para su uso en el estudio de caso; el análisis del desarrollo espacio-temporal del conflicto, desde el inicio de la planificación del proyecto hasta día de hoy; en tercer lugar se explica y detalla el papel de los actores hegemónicos en el avance de la construcción del complejo hidroeléctrico; y en última instancia se lleva a cabo la misma operación pero con los actores subalternos implicados. De entre los resultados obtenidos, destaca cómo este proyecto a nivel particular, y los macroproyectos hidroeléctricos en general en la región, han sido fundamentales para la integración económica en el marco de la extensión de las relaciones de producción capitalistas y los mecanismos para la acumulación a través de la realización del plusvalor, derivando resistencias ante este proceso de extracción. Así mismo, la perspectiva interescalar y la de la producción del espacio muestran potencialidades como marco para el estudio de conflictos ambientales, mientras que el de la producción de la naturaleza lo hace de manera parcial.
RIJEČ UREDNIŠTVANa svojoj sjednici 17. srpnja 2003. godine Vlada Republike Hrvatske donijela je Nacionalnu šumarsku politiku i strategiju. S obzirom na sve očitije klimatske promjene koje traže novi odnos prema prirodi i okolišu, na manjkavosti važeće Nacinalne šumarske politike i strategije šumarstva, ali i po našoj ocjeni na neadekvatno uključivanje šumarstva u narodno gospodarstvo, je li i vrijeme za promjene u važećoj Nacionalnoj šumarskoj politici i strategiji? Imamo li uzore? Gledajući šumarske politike u relevantnim zemljama u kojima je šumarstvo značajna grana gospodarstva, razvidno je da se one ne mogu doslovno kopirati. U brošuri Šumarska politika Sabadi (1992) nakon analize Šumarske politike u Njemačkoj i Švicarskoj, navodi kako je očito "da svaka zemlja ima svoj oblik šumarske politike koji joj odgovara s obzirom na gospodarski i politički poredak, filozofiju te utjecaj pojedinaca i grupa na državnu vlast". No, nesporno je da je svaka šumarska politika integralni dio narodnog gospodarstva. Najvažnija faza u stvaranju nacionalne šumarske politike je njezino uključivanje i integracija s ostalim narodnim gospodarstvom u jednu inerakcijsku cjelinu. Isti autor kaže kako kod utvrđivanja Šumarske politike "treba prvo utvrditi ciljeve, a potom sredstva i mjere za postizanje postavljenih ciljeva. Posebnu pozornost treba posvetiti malom seljačkom šumoposjedu (oko 25 % šumske površine)" što je kod nas posebice teško, jer su šumoposjedi mali, a šumovlasnici se teško odlučuju na udruživanja putem kojih se jedino može polučiti uspjeh. Otežavajuća je okolnost da je svako ulaganje u šumu dugoročno i za ulagače premalo profitabilno, ponajprije jer šumarstvo ne sagledavaju kao integralni i vrlo utjecajni čimbenik narodnog gospodarstva. Uglavnom šuma se gleda samo kao izvor sirovine za preradu, dok se zaboravlja općekorisna uloga šuma koja traži širu podršku narodnog gospodarstva. No, ako njenu pravu vrijednost ne mogu sagledati privatni šumovlasnici i općenito poduzetnici, kojima je na prvome mjestu trenutna sirovinska vrijednost, to mora Država, posebice kada je ona, kao u našem slučaju većinski vlasnik. Opći interes treba biti ispred svih drugih interesa, a Država mora kontrolirati i privatne šumovlasnike da se ponašaju sukladno Zakonu o šumama, instrumentu Nacionalne šumarske politike i strategije, koji mora biti obvezan za sve šumovlasnike.Analizirajući da li primjenjujemo ono što je propisano u važećoj Nacionalnoj šumarskoj politici i strategiji i što bi još trebalo propisati, možemo postavljati pitanja i sami na njih odgovarati, jer bi tuđe odgovore smatrali kritikom, najčešće neopravdanom. Ponajprije: da li drvne sortimente prodajemo po tržišnim načelima; da li stvarno vjerujemo da ugovorima o isporuci sirovine pomažemo razvoju finalne prerade drva i povećanju zaposlenosti, posebice inženjera i VKV radnika, ili pak punimo privatne džepove izvoznika proizvoda primarne prerade; ako isporuku drvne sirovine ne usmjeravamo na optimalnu finalnu proizvodnju, nije li to rasipanje nacionalnog bogatstva u kojega je uložen prosječno stogodišnji trud; u isto vrijeme projekt Roswood Centra kompetencija za istočnu Europu, čitamo, daje primjere dobre prakse i inovacija koje se mogu implementirati za pametno i održivo korištenje vrijedne šumske sirovine; da li stvarno ili samo deklarativno kontroliramo sječu na privatnom šumoposjedu, posebice u šumama koje su vraćene bivšim šumovlasnicima; kojim instrumentima i koliko uspješno to radimo; osiguravamo li koristi koje bi od šumarstva trebala imati lokalna zajednica i stanovništvo ruralnih područja, što je jedno od glavnih načela Šumarske politike i strategije EU, koju načelno podržavamo; potičemo li i koliko uspješno suvremenu energetsku uporabu drvne sirovine; da li razmišljamo kako riješiti pitanje sukcesije – ruralna područja ostaju bez stanovništva, i šuma se širi čak do vrtova – nestaju pašnjaci pa i livadske površine unutar šume koje su donedavno košene za pašu i prehranu divljači; da li je istina da nam drvoprerađivači ne želeći osigurati zalihu drvne sirovine, a kada njima to pogoduje "diktiraju" izvlačenje drvnih sortimenata i kada to vremenske prilike ograničavaju (mokar teren) pa nastaju velike štete na šumskom tlu; zašto smo za sitan novac prepustili koncesionarima radnička odmarališta, posebice na moru, koja su izgrađena doprinosom radnika, kojega nisu pretočili u plaće, nego upravo u te objekte; da li smo u odnosu na druge zemlje prevelike površine uključili u Natura 2000; da li smo obavili restrukturiranje Hrvatskih šuma d.o.o. ? Sabadi kaže: "Racionalan put glede organizacije je da se svi poslovi obavljaju u šumariji, a na višoj razini samo oni poslovi koje nije moguće riješiti na šumariji ili njihovo rješenje nije racionalno. U Ministarstvu organizirati službe vrhovnog šumarskog nadzora i one za pomoć malim šumoposjednicima". Da li smo postavili sva pitanja – ne, ali čitatelje potičemo da ih i oni postave i daju odgovor na njih. Ponajprije treba odgovoriti na postavljeno pitanje u naslovu.Nadajući se da nam ova razmišljanja neće pokvariti nadolazeće blagdane, svim članovima Hrvatskoga šumarskoga društva i čitateljima Šumarskoga lista, želimo sretan Božić i uspješnu 2020. godinu.Uredništvo ; EDITORIALAt its session on July 17, 2003, the Government of the Republic of Croatia passed the National Forestry Policy and Strategy. In view of the increasingly pronounced climate change, which requires a new approach to nature and the environment, of the deficiencies of the current National Forestry Policy and Forestry Strategy, as well as, in our opinion, of the inadequate inclusion of forestry in the national economy, has the time come to introduce some changes in the valid National Forestry Policy and Strategy? Do we have any models? A review of forestry policies in relevant countries in which forestry is an important branch of economy clearly shows that they cannot be literally copied. In his brochure "Forestry Policy" Sabadi (1992) analyzed forestry policies in Germany and Switzerland and concluded that "every country has its own form of forestry policy which is in line with its economic and political system, philosophy and the influence of individuals and groups on the state government". It is, however, indisputable that every forestry policy is an integral part of the national economy. The most important stage in the creation of a national forestry policy is its inclusion into and integration with other national economies into one interactive unit. The same author goes on to say that in order to develop forestry policy, "its goals should first be determined, followed by means and measures of achieving the set goals. Particular attention should be paid to small private forest estates (about 25 % of the forested area)". This is very difficult in our country because privately owned forests are small and private forest owners are not willing to merge their estates, which is the only way in which success can be achieved. An aggravating circumstance lies in the fact that investments in forests are of long-term nature and are not sufficiently profitable for investors, chiefly because they do not perceive forestry as an integral and highly influential factor in the national economy. Forests are mainly viewed as a source of raw material for processing, while the non-market forest role, which requires a broader support by the national economy, is overlooked. If the real value of forests is not understood by private forest owners and entrepreneurs in general, whose primary goal is the current value of raw material, then it is the State which should understand it, especially when the State is the major owner as in Croatia. Collective interest should be above all other interests. The State should also make sure that private forest owners adhere to the regulations of the Forest Act, the instrument of the National Forestry Policy and Strategy which is binding for all forest owners.In our analysis of whether we apply the regulations set down in the valid National Forestry Policy and Strategy and what additional items should be incorporated, we should ask questions and answer them ourselves, since we would consider answers by other parties as mostly unjustified criticism. These questions involve the following: do we sell wood assortments according to market principles; do we really believe that with contracts on the delivery of raw material we contribute to the development of final wood processing and increased employment of engineers and qualified workers in the first place, or do we fill the pockets of private exporters of primary processing products; if raw wood material is not directed towards optimal final production, does not this mean that we squander the national wealth in which a hundred-year-long effort has been invested; at the same time we find that the Rosewood Competence Centre for Eastern Europe provides examples of good practice and innovations to be implemented into wise and sustainable use of valuable wood material; do we control felling in private forest estates in practice or only declaratively, particularly in forests which have been returned to their original owners; which instruments do we use and how successfully to accomplish this; do we ensure benefits which forestry should provide for the local community and the population of rural areas, which is one of the main principles of the EU Forestry Policy and Strategy, which we support in principle; do we stimulate and to what extent modern energy use of wood material; do we think about how to solve the question of succession - rural areas are increasingly being abandoned and forests are spreading as far as the people's gardens - pastures and grassland areas within forest, which were until recently mowed or grazed by wildlife, are disappearing; is it true that wood processors do not want to ensure stocks of wood material, and when it suits them "dictate" the extraction of wood assortments even when weather conditions are unfavourable (wet terrain), thus inflicting vast damage on forest soil; why did we allow workers' resort centres, especially those at the seaside, to be taken over by concessionaires for petty cash (these resorts were built with the money which workers allocated from their salaries for exactly this purpose); in relation to other countries, did we allocate too large areas to Natura 2000; did we restructure the company "Croatian Forests Ltd"? Sabadi says: " Rational organisation presupposes that all jobs are accomplished in a forest office, and only those jobs which cannot be performed in a forest office or their solution is not rational should be performed at a higher level. Forest monitoring services and services aimed at assisting small forest owners should be set up in the Ministry". Have we covered all the relevant questions? No, we have not, but we urge the readers to ask questions and give the answers themselves. The first question to be answered is the one mentioned in the headline.Hoping that these thoughts will not spoil the upcoming holidays, we wish Merry Christmas and a Very Successful New Year 2020 to all members of the Croatian Forestry Association and readers of the Forestry Journal.Editorial Board
El éxito y la masificación que goza actualmente la noción de «patrimonio» es el producto de un recorrido extenso y accidentado. Detrás del aparente consenso celebratorio que prevalece en el discurso público, todavía hoy encontramos que dicho concepto admite definiciones y usos diversos e incluso contradictorios, invitándonos a reconocerlo como un dispositivo complejo, polisémico y en permanente transformación. La edición de este número temático, cuyo objeto es reflexionar sobre el patrimonio desde Chile y América Latina, no puede sino tomar como punto de partida esta condición tensionada del patrimonio en el mundo contemporáneo, ofreciendo algunas claves y aproximaciones al fenómeno que dan cuenta de la diversidad y riqueza que caracteriza a este campo de estudios. Los paradigmas sucesivos que han marcado los modos de entender y gestionar el patrimonio no pueden, en la actualidad, ser pensados como conceptualizaciones absolutas e incontestables. Si en primera instancia, respondiendo a sus orígenes etimológicos, el patrimonio se encontró asociado a la noción de «herencia» (Ballart, 2002), hoy en día sabemos que estos acervos no son sólo la recepción pasiva de un conjunto de bienes del pasado, pues su activación necesariamente implica múltiples procesos de selección y omisión. Del mismo modo, la identificación romántica del patrimonio con la noción de «tesoro» —es decir, como algo precioso y de valor excepcional, y que por lo tanto debe ser conservado y preservado—, debe ser matizada por una pregunta acerca de quiénes y cómo se le otorga dicho valor a los bienes que se consideran patrimoniales. Por otra parte, y de forma paralela a las transformaciones experimentadas por un concepto aledaño (el de «cultura»), la noción de patrimonio ha debido desanclarse de su consideración meramente física y objetual, para abrir paso a las dimensiones inmateriales y simbólicas que también constituyen los procesos de patrimonialización. Ello implica que la gestión del patrimonio no puede restringirse a la mera conservación de las piezas o edificios, pues también es de su competencia la promoción de los acervos culturales que constituyen la vida y memoria de los pueblos en toda su diversidad. Los debates que marcaron los estudios sobre el patrimonio durante los años noventa en Iberoamérica recogieron críticamente estas lecciones, subrayando las ambivalencias del concepto y los derroteros que éste experimenta en el curso de la vida social. Desde el campo específico de la antropología, los aportes de Ll. Prats (1997) pusieron en evidencia el carácter de «construcción social» que subyace a todo patrimonio. De esta forma, podemos constatar que no hay nada neutro ni inmutable en el concepto: se trata, necesariamente, de la activación de determinadas versiones —ideológicas— de la identidad local, por parte de agentes sociales diversos que no necesariamente están de acuerdo entre sí. Asimismo, las contribuciones de N. García Canclini (1999) permitieron visualizar la multiplicidad de actores, discursos y usos que configuran el ámbito del patrimonio, y los modos en que sus interacciones se encuentran condicionadas por los recursos y capacidades diferenciales con los que cuentan para imponer sus respectivas agendas en la arena patrimonial. Durante el tránsito hacia el siglo XXI, en el marco de los procesos de globalización, estas tensiones del campo patrimonial cobraron nuevas escalas y conformaron un peculiar paisaje geopolítico, arbitrado en buena medida por organismos internacionales como la UNESCO. En este contexto, la voz de las ciencias sociales en el debate sobre el patrimonio puso en cuestión la supuesta neutralidad con la que operaban ciertos saberes disciplinares desde la arquitectura, las bellas artes o la historia, enfatizando el hecho de que las declaratorias patrimoniales —y sus correspondientes procesos de gestión y conservación— no pueden ser entendidas como asuntos ajenos al problema del poder. El dossier «Reflexiones sobre el patrimonio desde Chile y América Latina» entrega nuevas miradas para profundizar en este diagnóstico crítico, poniendo en perspectiva las primeras décadas de políticas patrimoniales en el contexto de la región. En esta sintonía, el artículo de M. Lacarrieu y S. Laborde pone foco en las tensiones diversas que se reproducen en el marco de los procesos de patrimonialización de acervos inmateriales, pertenecientes a comunidades signadas por diversas formas de subalternidad y colonialidad. Para las autoras, el discurso del patrimonio resulta indisociable de la colonialidad del poder y de las clasificaciones étnicas y raciales que lo sustentan, tal y como se expresa en el mapa dibujado por la UNESCO para consagrar y administrar el Patrimonio Cultural Inmaterial. A partir de las experiencias de la población afrodescendiente de Buenos Aires, y sus múltiples estrategias en pos del reconocimiento de una cultura negada y subalternizada, el texto da cuenta de la amplia y compleja gama de desacoples entre las lógicas institucionales y los grupos sociales que buscan posicionar sus patrimonios: mientras las primeras —a menudo bienintencionadas— continúan atadas a definiciones esencialistas y enraizadas en la retórica eurocentrista de la nación; los sujetos y comunidades trascienden los territorios y operan a través de prácticas en movimiento que apuntan hacia su descolonización. El patrimonio, como lo fuera la noción de «cultura» de acuerdo al crucial texto de G. Yúdice (2002), se convierte en estos escenarios en un recurso que configura identidades y agencias de modo performativo. Siguiendo en la misma clave crítica, la contribución de Xavier Andrade desmenuza agudamente los límites y vicios que entrañan los usos del concepto de «patrimonio» en su despliegue contemporáneo, poniendo especial atención a las políticas culturales ecuatorianas y al caso específico de la ciudad de Guayaquil. Las secciones iniciales del artículo constituyen una entrada analítica a las ambigüedades e instrumentalizaciones que han marcado la historia reciente del patrimonio. Se cuestiona, de este modo, su pretendida asepsia conceptual, demostrando —mediante la experiencia empírica guayaquileña— su acople funcional a las agendas del poder en términos de sus políticas identitarias, cívicas y urbanísticas. Como contrapunto de estas operaciones institucionales, Andrade apela a una perspectiva antropológica que le permite ofrecer nociones alternativas para pensar los acervos culturales desde lógicas descentradas y abiertas a la diversidad: «ruinas»; «materialidad»; «apropiación». Los artículos a continuación nos permiten entrar en territorio chileno, a través del análisis de las políticas de gestión del patrimonio desde el punto de vista de la institucionalidad local. El texto de P. Seguel, en primer lugar, lleva el concepto de patrimonio al campo de la memoria y los derechos humanos, examinando las políticas de protección de los Sitios de Memoria desde 1996 hasta la fecha. En el marco de las políticas de pasado y las políticas de memoria que han articulado los procesos de reparación simbólica en el Chile postdictatorial, el autor se introduce en el trabajo de patrimonialización y puesta en valor de la memoria de las violaciones a los derechos humanos en Chile. Así, Seguel elabora un diagnóstico municioso de los Sitios de Memoria del país, dando cuenta de las diversas falencias que aquejan su gestión y visibilizando la ausencia de una política pública sistemática que permita trascender las protecciones acotadas y reactivas que han caracterizado el actuar institucional. Por otro lado, el documento que nos presentan L. Alegría y C. Urzúa analiza el dispositivo patrimonial a partir de una de sus instituciones más canónicas: el museo. Poniendo atención al panorama museal que caracteriza al Valle del Aconcagua, los investigadores indagan en las diversas variables museológicas y turísticas que intervienen en esta oferta cultural, y entregan claves para potenciar nuevas estrategias desarrollo integral, participativo y sustentable con el protagonismo de sus comunidades. Ambos artículos nos advierten de las diversas brechas y dificultades que ha experimentado la escena local para dotar a la institucionalidad de herramientas sólidas, efectivas y sistemáticas para la gestión y promoción del patrimonio. Finalmente, presentamos dos contribuciones que se sitúan en una escala empírica para reflexionar en torno a los procesos de patrimonialización en tanto escenas de convergencia de intereses y actores diversos. La primera de ellas vuelve la mirada al ámbito urbano: J. Arratia se detiene en el reciente desarrollo experimentado por el barrio Matta Sur, en la zona de Santiago Centro, en el marco de su declaratoria como Zona Típica de acuerdo a la normativa patrimonial. El caso permite observar la convergencia —no siempre armónica— de diferentes discursos acerca del valor del «hábitat residencial» del barrio, instalando una pregunta acerca de qué significa el desarrollo urbano en tiempos de presiones inmobiliarias, y para quién se construye la ciudad. En segundo lugar, el artículo que cierra este dossier pone el foco en el escenario rural, a través de una aproximación a los acervos patrimoniales y las formas de vida implicadas en la cerámica de Quinchamalí. En éste, G. Campaña interroga el papel que ha jugado esta expresión del arte popular en las representaciones de "lo chileno", en tanto espacio de disputas simbólicas, para luego examinar detenidamente la cadena operativa de procesos —materiales e inmateriales— que hacen posible la emergencia de las piezas. De este modo, a partir de una aproximación etnográfica, la autora visibiliza los diversos elementos involucrados en la construcción del valor de estas artesanías, recorriendo sus condiciones de producción cerámica; las tramas sociales y simbólicas que las sustentan; y las vicisitudes de los circuitos de distribución y comercialización de las obras. Las diversas entradas y niveles con que estos textos abordan la problemática del patrimonio nos permiten observarlo como un campo de estudios en el que converge una multiplicidad de actores, disciplinas, perspectivas teóricas y agendas políticas. La vocación amplia y abarcadora del concepto es, tal vez, aquello que lo constituye como un espacio para las indeterminaciones y agencias, invitando al diálogo crítico entre tradiciones y posturas diversificadas. Esperamos que este dossier, desde su emplazamiento latinoamericano, pueda contribuir a señalar algunos de los desafíos contemporáneos de estos debates, visibilizando las experiencias locales y abriendo preguntas que cobran nuevas urgencias en este campo que está siempre en construcción.
Referencias bibliográficas.
Ballart, J. (2002) El patrimonio histórico y arqueológico: valor y uso. Barcelona, España: Ariel.
García Canclini, N. (1999) "Los usos sociales del Patrimonio Cultural". En: Aguilar Criado, Encarnación Patrimonio Etnológico. Nuevas perspectivas de estudio. Andalucía, España: Consejería de Cultura. Junta de Andalucía.
Prats, L. (1997). Antropología y patrimonio. Barcelona, España: Ariel Antropología
Yúdice, G. (2002). El recurso de la cultura. Usos de la cultura en la era global. Barcelona, España: Gedisa.
El objetivo principal de este trabajo consiste en realizar un análisis comparativo de la jurisprudencia y práctica contenciosa de los sistemas regionales europeo e interamericano de protección de los derechos humanos en el ámbito concreto del derecho a la vida y a la integridad física. Se trata de llevar a cabo una evaluación de tipo general para resaltar las convergencias y divergencias más destacadas de ambos sistemas, así como sus influencias mutuas. Todo ello ha de servir de base para explicar las diferencias jurisprudenciales y de funcionamiento. Tras una contextualización de los sistemas regionales de protección de derechos humanos al amparo del sistema universal, el estudio se centra en la jurisprudencia sentada por ambos tribunales en los derechos a la vida y a la integridad física. También se analizan las confluencias y discrepancias de sus sentencias judiciales en materia de los derechos que asisten a una víctima reconocida de violación de estos derechos. Asimismo, por su especial importancia y relación con los derechos analizados, se aborda la desaparición de personas como ejemplo paradigmático de violación múltiple de derechos. Así, tras la introducción al tema de la tesis, se aborda un capítulo genérico que muestra la doble dimensión de los derechos civiles y políticos, es decir, las obligaciones de los Estados y los derechos de las víctimas, dado que es el marco común para todos los derechos de "primera generación", entre los que se encuentran los que nos ocupan. En este capítulo se estudian aspectos esenciales para conocer el alcance de la protección internacional conferida a los derechos reconocidos convencionalmente. En este sentido, se abordan cuestiones como qué actos del Estado son objeto de control, la titularidad y la legitimación para recurrir, las obligaciones genéricas y específicas de los Estados, así como las consecuencias de su incumplimiento. Además, y como una forma específica de incumplimiento especialmente grave, se ha estimado oportuno realizar una especial consideración a las últimas novedades respecto de las leyes de amnistía en Chile, Argentina, Colombia, El Salvador, Croacia y España. Desde la perspectiva de las víctimas, se aborda quiénes tienen derecho a la reparación, analizando el concepto novedoso de víctima colectiva, y el contenido específico de sus derechos, es decir, la tríada justicia, verdad y reparación. Dentro del derecho a la reparación, se estudia la restitución, la indemnización, la rehabilitación, la satisfacción, la cesación y las garantías de no repetición, mostradas mediante ejemplos contenciosos ilustrativos de medidas legislativas o de políticas públicas dirigidas a cambiar una situación estructural de origen normativo, práctica incorrecta o déficit institucional en los dos sistemas. Constituye la pretensión fundamental del capítulo segundo la profundización en el estudio comparativo jurisprudencial sobre el derecho a la vida. El derecho a la vida tiene un carácter prioritario, desde el momento en que se considera como un prerrequisito para el disfrute del resto de derechos humanos. Como derecho inderogable, su cuidado y atención debe ser especial en las situaciones que entrañan un riesgo por excelencia para la misma. De ahí que se analice su interpretación en los casos en que el Estado despliega una fuerza letal, los escenarios bélicos y las condiciones en las que se aplican las penas de muerte. Ello se examina tanto en el Sistema Universal de Protección de los Derechos Humanos como en los sistemas regionales. Igualmente se analizan las obligaciones, positivas y negativas, de los Estados a la luz de sus respectivos textos convencionales regionales, así como sus excepciones: la arbitrariedad, la proporcionalidad y la intencionalidad. Dentro del derecho a la vida, tres son las situaciones que actualmente están planteando ciertos problemas jurídicos por su definición, práctica y debate acerca de su legalidad o ilegalidad, donde los conceptos tienen márgenes de no fácil deslinde y delimitación. En particular, se aborda desde el punto de vista analítico, no ético, la muerte asistida o derecho a morir, la protección de la vida del no nacido y la pena de muerte. El punto de partida para su consideración son los textos legales, las sentencias y la doctrina al respecto. La muerte asistida, que se contempla en el sistema europeo –el interamericano todavía no se ha pronunciado al respecto-, parte de una situación de conflicto de intereses entre el respeto a la vida privada, la autonomía personal y el deber del Estado de salvaguardar la vida, que se resuelve mediante la ponderación de los mismos a fin de valorar cuál ha de prevalecer, pues se lesiona la vida pero se protegen la libertad del individuo, el derecho a no ser sometido a tratos inhumanos o degradantes y la vida privada. Respecto a la protección de la vida del no nacido, de nuevo se origina una ponderación de intereses y derechos que, en el caso europeo, deja amplio margen de apreciación a los Estados y que, por el contrario, en el americano es más restrictivo. Por otra parte, en cuanto a la pena de muerte, la mayor diferencia entre ambos sistemas, como se demuestra, es que si bien en el sistema americano no llega a la supresión, sí prohíbe la extensión de su uso y su restablecimiento una vez abolida, por lo que es notoria la tendencia a su reducción; por el contrario, en el sistema europeo formal y materialmente está muy restringida, lo cual no ha impedido que algunos países sigan aplicándola. El derecho a la integridad física es tratado en el capítulo tercero. Como componente esencial de la existencia, ya sea en el plano físico o en el mental, incluye la prohibición de la tortura o de inferir penas o tratos de carácter cruel, inhumano o degradante. Partiendo del marco regulador de la protección de este derecho en el sistema universal, se pasa a la consideración de la obligación estatal de no atentar contra la integridad personal y sus excepciones en ambos sistemas regionales. Especial consideración se tendrá en fijar la distinción entre tortura, trato cruel, inhumano o degradante, así como la responsabilidad del Estado en función de si es un funcionario o un particular el que viola el derecho. De acuerdo con el esquema desarrollado en el derecho a la vida, las obligaciones positivas y negativas de los Estados en ambos sistemas regionales son objeto de examen pormenorizado. Particular atención tendrá a este respecto la prohibición de expulsión, extradición y devolución de una persona a otro Estado cuando existan razones fundadas para creer que esa persona estaría en peligro de ser sometida a tortura, incluso cuando el riesgo en el país receptor emana de otras fuentes que no sean las autoridades estatales. Estas obligaciones estatales adquieren una especial relevancia ante las personas privadas de libertad, de ahí que les dediquemos un epígrafe específico. Por último, se aborda el derecho a la reparación de las víctimas de violación del derecho a la integridad, dado que la reparación debe ser plena, eficaz y ofrecer una compensación económicamente cuantificable por los perjuicios. Las medidas, como se verá, pueden ser de muy diversa índole y alcance. El capítulo IV está dedicado al análisis de las desapariciones de personas como caso paradigmático por excelencia de violación múltiple y continúa de derechos, entre los que se incluyen los derechos a la vida y a la integridad física. Para su estudio, se presenta una descripción del concepto y de su regulación en las normas internacionales, centrando el tema en la respuesta al fenómeno que de la desaparición de personas se han dado en los países miembros de estos dos sistemas regionales de protección de los derechos humanos. En cuanto a Europa, el tema se propone desde un estado de la cuestión que atiende a la jurisprudencia y a la práctica llevada a cabo por algunos Estados analizados por el Comisario de Derechos Humanos del Consejo de Europa en diferentes informes, mostrando ejemplos de su aplicación en países como Chipre, España, Irlanda del Norte, Turquía o Ucrania. Se finaliza con el planteamiento de sus principales desafíos, pues si bien es cierto que algunos Estados han realizado progresos considerables, otros escenarios nacionales se caracterizan por la inercia de inacciones previas y la impunidad, con escollos en leyes internas, obstáculos a la búsqueda o ausencia de programas de reparación. Además, se ha contextualizado la situación del Estado español. Respecto del sistema interamericano, su Corte tuvo un papel clave en la consolidación internacional dado que su jurisprudencia fue precursora de un tratamiento comprensivo de la gravedad y del carácter continuado o permanente y autónomo de esta figura. Para ello se tendrán en consideración los elementos constitutivos según la Corte Interamericana, la definición, la calificación de estas violaciones y los derechos vulnerados para, de este modo, adentrarnos en las consecuencias actuales de esas violaciones en varios Estados como Argentina, Brasil, Chile, Colombia y Uruguay, pues aunque acaecidas mayoritariamente en la época de las llamadas "dictaduras del Cono Sur", siguen produciendo efectos hoy. Al objeto, se han planteado algunas observaciones sobre jurisprudencia comparada, en el marco de ejemplos de buenas prácticas. Por último, la parte final de la investigación comprende tanto las conclusiones obtenidas partiendo de los objetivos perseguidos y de la hipótesis de partida, que muestran los resultados alcanzados y las aportaciones realizadas, como la lista de referencias bibliográficas y documentales utilizadas. En suma, con base en lo anteriormente descrito y desde la hipótesis de partida planteada, es decir tras el estudio de la jurisprudencia del TEDH y de la Corte IDH sobre los respectivos Estados, así como la influencia recíproca entre ambas jurisdicciones, se ha realizado un análisis comparado de la jurisprudencia de los sistemas regionales europeo y americano, especialmente de los últimos años, en dos derechos concretos, el derecho a la vida y el derecho a la integridad física. El objeto de esta tesis ha consistido en resaltar las convergencias y divergencias más destacadas, sus influencias mutuas, para así evaluar los principales problemas detectados y plantear posibles alternativas de mejora en la protección de dichos derechos. No obstante, aún con sus defectos, se puede concluir que ambos sistemas han sentado las bases y colaborado en el desarrollo del Derecho internacional de los derechos humanos y, que a pesar de partir de contextos muy diferentes, la convergencia de estándares se ha acrecentado con el paso del tiempo, con influencias mutuas directas.
