Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
10 Signs You May Be a Distributist
10 Signs You May Be a Distributist
Aug 25, 2026 4:00 PM

The presence of one group at the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protests might be surprising: the Distributist Review has produced this flyer for distribution at the protests. They don’t seem to have asked themselves whether G.K. Chesterton and Hillaire Belloc would have gone down to protest with the unwashed masses (the answer, of course, is never in a million years)but contemporary “neodistributists” are a more inclusive set. Theygo far beyond the metaphysical and aesthetic principles of Chesterton and Belloc’s economics.Since that flyer’s a little hard to read, we’ve put together a list to help you identify your inner distributist: herewith, Ten Signs You May Be a Distributist:

You can’t wait for the Revolution: As we’ve explained before, the changes distributists want amount to revolution. That puts them squarely in line with the rest of the OWS camp, munications head told NPR, “My political goal is to overthrow the government.” Fortunately, the revolution will be prosecuted in accord with Catholic Social Teaching. (What’s a little property-snatching among friends?) If this idea excites you, you may be a distributist!You just want to grow heirloom tomatoes in a co-op: Or maybe your grandfather’s strain of prized carrot. Either way, if think the Catholic Social Teaching mandates this kind of lifestyle, you may be a distributist!You abominate the seedless watermelon: The seedless watermelon is an unnatural monstrosity, you say? If you oppose genetic engineering on principle and begrudge the one billion lives saved by the Green Revolution, you may be a distributist!You find yourself supporting environmentalist policies, but for different reasons: If you find yourself always on the side of radical environmentalists, but as with the seedless watermelon, different principles lead you to their extreme positions — well, puzzle no longer. You may be a distributist!You think you live in a polis: If you’d like to impose virtue on 307 million people the same way you would on 75,000; if you think that what worked on a co-op level in Spain can be scaled up 60,000 percent without distortion; and if you insist on economic self-sufficiency — in short, if you’re more attached to the form of the polis than Aristotle himself was, then you may be a distributist!You find yourself asking “What would Frodo do?”: Distributists often take The Shire of J.R.R. Tolkein’s The Lord of the Rings as a model society (mostly those who consider a return to the polis too fantastical). If you’re convicted that eating two breakfasts a day is more in line with Catholic Social Teaching, you may be a distributist!You really miss guilds: If you’ve mythologized the quaint, confraternal aspects of medieval guilds, and don’t mind overlooking how controlling they were; if you love the idea of long apprenticeships and don’t mind sweeping grants of patent and absolute trade secrecy, you may be a distributist!You dislike intellectual property: If you view Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution as a tool for enriching the plutocracy (except of course when monopolies are given to guilds) and identify more with the Swedish-internet-pirate school of thought, you may be a distributist!You bleed your patients with leeches: If you long for the simpler, more local health care system of the Middle Ages, when your barber performed appendectomies and your doctor’s first instinct in case of illness was to send for leeches, then you may just be a distributist!You brew your own beer: Coors is the beer of Republicans, O’Doul’s is probably the beer of the Tea Party, and the unwashed hipsters at OWS all drink Pabst Blue Ribbon, but if you brew your own beer, you may be a distributist! (No word on what Chesterton thought of bathtub gin.)

Note: If you would like a more serious response to distributism, see here and here.

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
A book the next pope should read
What one book would you send to the next pope to read? William Rees-Mogg has decided what his “inaugural present” would be: The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith. ...
Acton on the Laura Ingraham Show
Rev. Robert Sirico, president of the Acton Institute, will join The Laura Ingraham Show tomorrow beginning at 9:30 am EDT to discuss events from the Vatican. Tune infor a live broadcast of Laura’s show via Cleveland’s 1420 WHK Radio. Check local listings in your area for other broadcasts of the show. You can also keep up with media appearances by Acton staff by checking the John Paul II press archives. Recent appearances include Kishore Jayabalan, director of the insitute’s Rome...
Homiletics award deadline approaches
There is one week to go to enter the 2005 Homiletics Award. Seminarians and graduate students in degree programs preparing them for preaching and teaching ministries are eligible. All entries must be postmarked by April 18. This year’s topic is “The Warning to Rich Oppressors” from James 5:1-6. More details here. ...
What is the legacy of Pope John Paul II?
When asked about the legacy of Pope John Paul II, Prof. Gregory R. Beabout responds “that the life and legacy of John Paul II is best understood in light of the history and culture of Poland.” The important distinctions between nation and state, culture and government, were operative both in Polish history as well as in the life of Karol Wojtyla. Read the full text here. ...
Saul Bellow’s Henderson the Rain King
Saul Bellow died last week at the age of 89. He wrote the novel that was most influential and deeply important in my life, Henderson the Rain King. In this book, Bellow engages the hollow atheism at the heart of the modern secular world. Beginning as a larger-than-life American millionaire in a society bereft of meaning, Eugene Henderson embarks on a spiritual journey to find purpose in his life. After many misadventures, Henderson finally arrives at a point where he...
A ‘Litmus Test’ for charities?
There are some problems in parts of the charity sector. The problems are with charities that HAVE enough money to scam somebody or shift an inappropriate perk to a board member. There’s not much talk about the charities that never saw that kind of resource and never will. Government officials always think that more regulation is the answer, but it’s scary when the private sector supports that link. Six of America’s major foundations have financed Electronic Data for Nonprofits (EDIN)...
Sixty years ago today…
German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer is moved to the Flossenbürg concentration camp. During the night there is a summary court-martial, and on April 9, 1945, Bonhoeffer is executed. Here is a Christianity Today bio on Dietrich Bonhoeffer. ...
‘Slave markets’ and Africa’s development
This exchange came yesterday via NPR’s Morning Edition, as Renພ Montagne interviewed Cardinal Roger Mahony, the archbishop of Los Angeles… RENಞ MONTAGNE: Interesting, because of course, the notion of the vibrancy of the Church in the Southern Hemisphere. Just as an example, you were in Africa, what did you hear that mattered to them that might even surprise Americans? CARDINAL MAHONY: Well, that their concerns are the impact of globalization, for example. International corporations headquartered in the United States purchase...
Received into the Church by Pope John Paul II
What follows below is a narrative by Kishore Jayabalan, director of the Acton Institute’s Rome office (Istituto Acton): “My journey to the Catholic Church began in a very simple way, tried and tested over the centuries in just about every country of the world: Catholic schools. Like my non-Catholic parents in India, I was educated by priests, nuns and laypeople, first at St. Mary’s Queen of Angels in Swartz Creek, Michigan, then on to Luke M. Powers Catholic High School...
‘With God all things are possible’
Matthew 19:23-26 (New International Version) Then Jesus said to his disciples, “I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said,...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved