"Even non-believers can’t deny the inherent wisdom and clarity of the pontiff’s critique of the modern capitalist economy."

I love it. First the skeptic's examination of an icon (Zizek on "Mandela’s Socialist Failure"), and now a Pope willing to examine contemporary capitalism and its “trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world.”

The world turned upside down? Unlikely, but some good reading for an atheist on a Sunday morning.

What the Pope Got Right About Capitalism: Even non-believers can’t deny the inherent wisdom and clarity of the pontiff’s critique of the modern capitalist economy, by Robert Scheer (The Nation, from Truthdig)

Forget, for the moment, that he is the pope, and that Holy Father Francis’ apostolic exhortation last week was addressed “to the bishops, clergy, consecrated persons and the lay faithful.” Even if, like me, you don’t fall into one of those categories and also take issue with the Catholic Church’s teachings on a number of contested social issues, it is difficult to deny the inherent wisdom and clarity of the pontiff’s critique of the modern capitalist economy. No one else has put it as powerfully and succinctly.

It is an appraisal based not on “just pure Marxism coming out of the mouth of the pope,” as Rush Limbaugh sneered, but rather the words of Jesus telling the tale of the Good Samaritan found in Luke, not in Das Kapital. As opposed to Karl Marx’s emphasis on the growing misery of a much-needed but exploited working class, Francis condemns today’s economy of “exclusion” leaving the “other” as the roadkill of modern capitalism ...