{"id":5074,"date":"2013-04-10T20:41:51","date_gmt":"2013-04-11T02:41:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/?p=5074"},"modified":"2013-04-10T20:41:51","modified_gmt":"2013-04-11T02:41:51","slug":"an-interview-with-jerry-brown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/?p=5074","title":{"rendered":"An Interview With Jerry Brown"},"content":{"rendered":"

Matthew Garrahan<\/a>: <\/p>\n

He has first-hand experience of the ascetic life. As a young man he wanted to become a priest and attended a Jesuit seminary for three years. \u201cWe could only read the lives of Jesuit saints \u2013 not Franciscan saints, only Jesuit saints. The day was Latin, mass, meditation, menial work. The Jesuit upbringing was tantum quantum: you take what you need. Less not more. It\u2019s almost a Buddhist thought, a Greek thought. There\u2019s a balance.\u201d<\/p>\n

He calls this \u201cproportionality\u201d and it has become a philosophy that, over the years, has shaped his world view \u2013 particularly what he regards as the excesses of market-based capitalism. \u201cThe capital game, the market game is: is there ever enough money? No \u2026 how can there be enough? But take your body \u2013 you need so much salt, but not too much. [You need] some calcium but not too much. There\u2019s an optimum range. The right proportions. But money? No. It never stops.\u201d He suggests a fix that ties together strands of Buddhism and Jesuit Catholicism. The market system, he says, should \u201cbe embedded in the cultural biological system\u201d.<\/p>\n

………<\/p>\n

There were reports in the years that followed of a feud between Brown and Clinton but Brown disputes this. \u201cThere was no feud,\u201d he says. \u201cNo permanent enemies, no permanent friends \u2026 only permanent interests. Somebody said that. A Frenchman?\u201d His press secretary is sitting nearby on a long, worn table that Brown calls the \u201cmonastic bench\u201d, where he often holds meetings. \u201cLord Palmerston,\u201d calls the aide, after consulting his smartphone.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat?\u201d says Brown.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said \u2018no permanent enemies, no permanent friends\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll give you another maxim, because it\u2019s so shocking,\u201d says Brown, turning back to me and picking up a small red book. \u201cThis is the 12th rule of the Jesuit order.\u201d He opens it at a page and points me to a passage that stresses the \u201cabnegation and continuous mortification of all things possible\u201d. \u201cAbnegation \u2013 negate, go against. Mortify \u2013 make dead. That\u2019s strong! That\u2019s not the vibe of today.\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Matthew Garrahan: He has first-hand experience of the ascetic life. As a young man he wanted to become a priest and attended a Jesuit seminary for three years. \u201cWe could only read the lives of Jesuit saints \u2013 not Franciscan saints, only Jesuit saints. The day was Latin, mass, meditation, menial work. The Jesuit upbringing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5074"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5074\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}