I’ve been asked to get specific about the what, where, when, and how’s on what I would do differently, how I would approach what we are dealing with in regards to public safety. My mind immediately goes to the factors of addiction and the concentration of individuals living in the homeless encampments that exist here in Minneapolis. It’s a complicated issue, and my explanation is not a simple one. I’m going to present this in pieces of various sizes. I do not come to my position or approaches to these issues without deep consideration and an amount of experience with this population in several roles. That said, allow me to begin with where my motivations and values arise from.
That which is being touted as Social Justice, in contemporary secular and political terms is a bastardization of the concepts of Social Justice that have been founded upon Natural Law in accordance with Divinity. Man’s relationship to man, the Human Community, the participation and responsibilities of the individual in regard to socialization. The CCC, for example, regards Social Justice as vocational. It describes the parameters of socialization, not socialism; which is the primary difference between the Social Justice of the secular democratic socialist versus Social Justice derived from, driven by, and aligned with the Divine. Practices of mutual service and dialog, organic bonds of principle, purpose, and very importantly - the principle of Subsidiarity. Which states that, “a community of a higher order should not interfere with the internal life of a community of a lower order, depriving the latter of its functions, but rather should support it in case of need and help to co-ordinate it’s activity with the activities of the rest of society, always with a view to the common good.” In his encyclical on capital and labor, Pope Leo the 13th states that, “The foremost duty, therefore, of the rulers of the State should be to make sure that the laws and institutions, the general character and administration of the commonwealth, shall be such as of themselves to realize public well-being and private property…Hereby then, it lies in the power of a ruler to benefit every class in the State, and amongst the rest to promote to the utmost the interests of the poor; and this in virtue of his office, and without being open to suspicion of undue interference – since it is the province of the commonwealth to serve the common good. And the more that is done for the benefit of the working classes by the general laws of the country, the less need will there be to seek for special means to relieve them.”
The Social Justice of the secular democratic socialist is antithetical to these things. It is rooted in appeals to revenge, anger, and tribalization. Dividing communities and people into orders of outrage, resentment, and differentiation. Concentrating on immutable physical characteristics and stressing identity, diversity, justice, and action; the secular democratic socialist model of Social Justice makes calls to action without or with very little contemplation for the intrinsic, spiritual, moral reasonings that give rise to Socially Just conditions. It demands redistribution of resource by force, it grants moral authority to race and gender – two physical conditions, immutable, that have no bearing on the capacity for moral understanding or practice. It is an interpretation of justice that lacks moral foundation or consistency. It is an appeal to base emotionalism.
To reclaim the banner of Social Justice and return it to its rightful place, we must embrace the moniker of social justice warrior, not use it as a term of derision. That yes, indeed, we do work for the cause of Social Justice – just not as the concept that is being sold today, specifically as espoused by those who identify themselves as Democratic Socialists. Ours is a Justice that holds respect for the HUMAN person, recognizes both EQUALITY and DIFFERENCES among men, and promotes HUMAN solidarity.
The concept of Justice is a concept of Law. From where do we derive our laws? What are laws? From where does our concept of Justice arise? Natural Law, Moral Law, and Human Law must all be consulted before a determination of Justice can be made. The Democratic Socialist leaves his considerations with Human Law, completely disregarding both Natural and Moral Law, which precede the Law of Man. Aquinas writes that, “Just as in speculative reason we proceed from indemonstrable principles, known naturally, to the conclusions of the various sciences so that this knowledge is not innate in us but obtained by the work of reason, so also the human reason has to proceed from the precepts of the natural law as though from certain common and indemonstrable principles to other more specialized regulations. And such specialized regulations arrived at by effort of reason are called human laws, when the other conditions necessary for the true law as set forth above are present. Thus, Cicero says in Rhetoric 2, 53, “The beginning of law proceeds from nature; then come certain customs judged useful; finally reverence and religion sanction what proceeds from nature and is established by custom.””