Jonathan Witt

Posts by Jonathan Witt

October 30, 2014

Poverty, Inc. Documentary Premieres in Austin and Savannah

I worked alongside several Acton Institute colleagues and Coldwater Media for years on the Poverty, Inc. full-length documentary film, which tackles the question: Fighting poverty is big business, but who profits the most? Continue Reading...

June 30, 2014

A Cultural Case for Capitalism: Part 12 of 12 — Beyond Marxism

[Part 1 is here.] That most colossal blunder of Marxist experiments, the Soviet Union, collapsed more than twenty years ago, and yet Marxist thinking still penetrates the warp and woof of contemporary culture, so much so that it’s easy even for avowedly anti-Marxist conservatives to think from within the box of Marxism when considering the problem of cultural decay. Continue Reading...

June 27, 2014

A Cultural Case for Capitalism: Part 11 of 12 — The Challenges

[Part 1 is here.] Economic freedom does generate certain challenges. The wealth that free economies are so effective at creating brings with it temptation. Wealth can tempt us to depend on our riches rather than on God. Continue Reading...

June 25, 2014

A Cultural Case for Capitalism: Part 10 of 12 — The Free Market that Wasn’t

[Part 1 is here.] Some might answer any defense of the free economy by pointing to the housing and financial crisis that came to a head in 2008, holding it up as proof positive the free economy is a wrecking ball swinging through communities and leaving all manner of economic and cultural destruction in its wake. Continue Reading...

June 25, 2014

A Cultural Case for Capitalism: 9 of 12 — Berry vs. Salatin

[Part 1 is here.] Jonah Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning, details how the growth of government-corporate cronyism during the past 120 or so years has been largely a phenomenon of the socialist left. Continue Reading...

June 25, 2014

A Cultural Case for Capitalism: Part 8 of 12 — Capitalism and Cronyism Confused

[Part 1 is here.] In his case against capitalism, Wendell Berry argues that the average person not only is anxious because he depends upon so many other people for his wellbeing (truckers, utility companies, etc.) Continue Reading...

June 24, 2014

A Cultural Case for Capitalism: Part 7 of 12 — What have the capitalists ever done for Wendell Berry!

[Part 1 is here]. In Monty Python’s Life of Brian, the ring leader of a little band of first-century Jewish rebels asks, “What have the Romans ever done for us?” Continue Reading...

June 23, 2014

A Cultural Case for Capitalism: Part 6 of 12 — The Distributist Alternative

Part 1 is here.] An economically free society doesn’t have to be hyper-utilitarian, materialistic and banal; and yet, here we are, living in a capitalist age marked by these very features. Continue Reading...

June 18, 2014

A Cultural Case for Capitalism: Part 5 of 12 — Capitalism from Christendom

[Part 1 is here.] A common reading of Western history holds that the principles of the free economy grew out of the secular Enlightenment and had little to do with Christianity. Continue Reading...

June 17, 2014

A Cultural Case for Capitalism: Part 4 of 12 — The Crunchy Con Critique

[Part 1 is here.] The free economy frees entrepreneurs to create new wealth for themselves and others, which brings us to the issue of consumption. In his book Crunchy Cons, conservative author Rod Dreher describes consumerism this way: “Consumerism fetishizes individual choice, and sees its expansion as unambiguous progress. Continue Reading...

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