Dropping Like Flies

[Nihil Obstat]

[quote name='Totus Tuus' timestamp='1308800570' post='2257533']
Met him at the Mises Institute last summer and I am sure his books are great (I got halfway through one of them and was really turned off by his criticism of the popes' understanding of economics-- I get that popes aren't experts, but he wasn't very nice about it imho) but I just get really turned off by his attitude. Nothing against him personally I just prefer to steer clear of his materials out of personal preference.
[/quote]
Ooh, you've been to the Mises Institute? Lucky. I wanna go there too.
I read his book The Church and the Market, and most of his articles that relate Catholicism to economics. He does criticize what you might call the 'typical' papal understanding of economics, and I guess debating his style of doing so is more a matter of taste. However, the subject itself is critical for his thinking, as I'm sure you'd agree. He really can't go anywhere as a Catholic without first establishing that, for instance, we're not necessarily bound to believe that minimum wage laws are the best way to benefit the poor.
If you perceive his criticisms as.... I don't know, mean spirited, I'd probably tend to interpret it as aggressive, and only aggressive in order to break down many many decades of built-up inertia in the subject as it stands in the Catholic world. He's got to get the ball rolling again, to use the inertia metaphor again.

[Totus Tuus]

[quote name='Nihil Obstat' timestamp='1308801358' post='2257538']
Ooh, you've been to the Mises Institute? Lucky. I wanna go there too.
I read his book The Church and the Market, and most of his articles that relate Catholicism to economics. He does criticize what you might call the 'typical' papal understanding of economics, and I guess debating his style of doing so is more a matter of taste. However, the subject itself is critical for his thinking, as I'm sure you'd agree. He really can't go anywhere as a Catholic without first establishing that, for instance, we're not necessarily bound to believe that minimum wage laws are the best way to benefit the poor.
If you perceive his criticisms as.... I don't know, mean spirited, I'd probably tend to interpret it as aggressive, and only aggressive in order to break down many many decades of built-up inertia in the subject as it stands in the Catholic world. He's got to get the ball rolling again, to use the inertia metaphor again.
[/quote]

I definitely agree with you. As you pointed out, it's just his style that I don't like. I'm sure his content is pertinent, but I have this highly inconvenient habit of despising works by people I find obnoxious

Edit: My repugnance towards people who are obnoxiously "aggressive" towards the Church is highly influenced by the role that the rad trad mentality played in my life years back. I get on the defensive when it comes to people criticizing the popes for anything, even if it's legit, because of the hatred I have seen in some people towards "Vatican II" and all the popes since then. I cried for a week when JPII died, because I never felt so close to someone I had never met. Long story short (and much more emotional than it probably needs to be): I don't handle pope-slamming well. And it's something I need to work on.

Edited June 23, 2011 by Totus Tuus