Essays, thoughts, poems, prayers and quotes.
The Inquisition was its own dominion of judgement, a state within a state, answerable to no one other than the Pope, the Crown and its own array of imposing bureaucratic regulations. As well as the inquisitors and…
It would be fair to say that the world of politics seems to be dominated by an ideology that we in the UK call liberalism and which argues for the primacy of freedom and the pursuit of individual happiness. This is an…
To have standards or regulations imposed upon us means we all cannot succeed; some will make it and some will fail. It is by the nature of such measures that they must divide us into sheep and goats. The only standards…
Now I don't want to be misunderstood - I am not blaming Devolution, what I want to talk about is the opposite problem. Emilie Whitaker coined the term "blame devolution" to describe, I think, the way in which…
Aristotle famously divided the forms of government into three:Monarchy - rule by oneAristocracy - rule by the bestPolity - rule by the manyEach in turn can be corrupted into:Rule by a tyrant, who is concerned only…
The patriarch Ching of Ch'i was with his companions on Mount Ox. As he looked northward out over his capital, tears rose in his eyes. "Such a splendid land," he said, "swarming, burgeoning; if only I didn't have to die…
There was a man of Cheng who was going to buy himself shoes. First he measured his foot; then he put the measurements away. When he got to the market he discovered that he had left them behind. After he found the shoes he…
The centre of me is always and eternally a terrible pain... a searching for something beyond what the world contains, something transfigured and infinite. The beatific vision - God. I do not find it, I do not think it…
Then he [Charles Martel] again: "Would man not be worse off Below if he were not a social being?" "Yes," I replied, "and here I need no proof." "And how could that be so, if men on earth Did not live diversely with…
Moreover, philanthropy was an obligation too, since the word 'zedakah' meant both charity and righteousness. The Jewish welfare state in antiquity, the prototype of all others, was not voluntary; a man had to…
quis enim te discernit quid autem habes quod non accepisti si autem accepisti quid glorias quasi non acceperis Who made you special, who gave you your gifts? And if your gifts were given to you why do you…
We fell asleep. We forgot that they don’t take care of us, we take care of each other. We forgot that it’s the rich who need the poor, not the poor who need the rich. We forgot that politicians work for us, we…
The [new 1834] Poor Law treated the claims of the poor, not as an integral part of the rights of the citizen, but as an alternative to them - as claims which could be met only if the claimants ceased to be citizens in any…
Citizenship is a status bestowed on those who are full members of a community. All who possess the status are equal with respect to the rights and duties with which the status is endowed. There is no universal…
Although we can call someone a citizen and say we wish to treat them as an equal it turns out that there are some very real things we need to do in order to make such a claim real. Stigma and pride take hold so easily, and so…
The welfare state needs defending - but we also need to rediscover what it is really for. Since its creation the major focus has been on its size - should we spend more on it or less on it. But this is the wrong…
The second principle is that organisation of social insurance should be treated as one part only of a comprehensive policy of social progress. Social insurance fully developed may provide income security; it is an…
We tend to assume that what we call the Left is broadly for the welfare state while what we call the Right is broadly against it. However the reality is more complex, in fact only a few extremist are exactly against the…
There are different ways of understanding the idea of citizenship. One of the most important distinctions is between those who think of citizenship as a status given to the individual by a community…
Can you guess what I felt, Vityenka, once I was behind the barbed wire? I'd expected to feel horror. But just imagine - I actually felt relieved to be inside this cattle-pen. Don't think it's because I'm a born slave.…
If the present order is taken for granted or assumed to be sacrosanct, charity from the more to the less fortunate would seem virtuous and commendable; to those for whom the order itself is suspect or worse, such…
These were no leaders, but they were firstinto the dark on Dog Fox Field:Anna who rocked her head, and Paulwho grew big and yet giggled small,Irma who looked Chinese, and Hanswho knew his world as a fox knows a…
The good we secure for ourselves is precarious and uncertain until it is secured for all of us and incorporated into our common life. Jane Addams Thanks to Henry Iles for sharing this lovely quote with me. Jane…
On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” He…