One American Dream…
Tom Monaghan, the founder of Domino’s Pizza, former owner of Detroit Tigers, sugardaddy for lots of conservative causes. He has his version of the American Dream which he laid out in the first annual Boston Catholic Men’s Conference (!). It has to do with Ave Maria, the Catholic university that Monaghan is building in Florida. Monaghan is not only building a university, he is building a new society:
Bold talk — but the most dramatic part of Monaghan’s speech is yet to come. Ave Maria won’t be just a university, he continues. It will also be a new town, built from scratch, in which the wickedness of the world will be kept at bay. “We’ve already had about 3500 people inquire on our Web site about buying a home there — you know, they’re all Catholic,” Monaghan says excitedly. “We’re going to control all the commercial real estate, so there’s not going to be any pornography sold in this town. We’re controlling the cable system. The pharmacies are not going to be able to sell condoms or dispense contraceptives.” A private chapel will be located within walking distance of each home. At the stunning church in the center of town, Mass will be said hourly, seven days a week, from 6 a.m. on. “So,” Monaghan concludes, with just a hint of understatement, “it’ll be a unique town.” As he exits the stage, the applause is thunderous.
Doesn’t Iran have something very similar? Though naturally with different fundamentalist ideas at its base, but the similarities are more striking to me.
It’s likely that Monaghan’s dream is not quite legal. But isn’t it interesting to get a glimpse into the mind of a wingnut?
June 18th, 2005 at 10:48 am
Amazing how once a little dick makes money off a string of pie shops he thinks he is god- this is a cult and needs to be presented as such.
June 18th, 2005 at 11:18 am
Jonestown?
Drink your Kool-aid..they’re coming with flamethrowers!
June 18th, 2005 at 11:53 am
Christ, what a day…
June 18th, 2005 at 12:29 pm
Disney did it first, although not with a particular religious faith in mind. Disney’s creation embodies the worship of Norman Rockwell’s small-town America, which never really existed except in people’s minds. Anyone who believed wholly in that should read Sinclair Lewis’s Babbit.
June 18th, 2005 at 3:47 pm
This guy is a wingnut, but he’s a wingnut in the vein of Ross Perot, i.e. he a nut, but he’s got (a few) valid points, which the progressive community needs to understand and compromise with in order to win back a significant part of the moderate, and also conservative-but-not-radical vote.
Most religious, conservative, and many moderate people today feel under siege for quite valid reasons, beyond the nutbar gay/abortion/theocrat issues. At root they feel that they and their families are being forcefed objectionable material and lifestyles which are directly opposed to their beliefs, creating the feeling that freedom of speech has come to mean being forced to watch/listen. Also the feeling that living their lives according to their moral precepts, requires some degree of separation from temptations, especially where children are concerned, and that modern society provides no ability to protect oneself from these influences.
Both these elemenets have contributed to a strong backlash to modern society, with the result that people are trying to create walls and separate communities. The common element shared by both the nutcase and conservative/moderate communities is they’re trying to assert control over the public space because they’ve lost control over their private space. Furthermore, this dynamic is enabling the extreme religious and conservative right in their efforts to impose a theocratic vision of government. , with the net effect of fragmenting the country and potentially leading to signficant loss of freedom for everyone.
As an example, take the Digital Cable Box. It has ~300 channels, which the consumer has very limited control over, i.e. I essentially have to take the first 70 channels and really the first ~150-200 channels, to get a reasonable selection of “good” programs. However, for a person of faith, or even for a parent concerned about what their children watch, the majority of content for all the channels that person is forced to take constitutes an open sewer running into their living room. The cable box won’t even allow them to configure channels to skip over, one has to click through them all to get to the channel one wants. That means in order to get to the Discovery Channel at 4pm after school, their kids have to click through Law and Order SVU (aka snuff film of the week), MTV(soft core porn set to music), NYPD Blue and CNN (sicko du jour). From their perspective, that is being forcefed, and they’re right. Where this becomes dangerous is the extent to which the response become a blanket effort to generally censor and restrict the rights of everyone.
The way forward then is for progressive leaders to affirm the right people to live according to their beliefs, to the extent this does not conflict with freedom of speech or basic human rights, and re-enable them to control their private space.
June 18th, 2005 at 4:11 pm
And the reason I’d rather starve than order Dominos. He’s been in the abstinence pushing business for years, and funds fetus freaks.
June 18th, 2005 at 6:08 pm
It didn’t start with Disney. Nutcases and theocrats of all stripes have been founding one-town would-be utopias ever since America became a country. The vast majority of them went belly-up when the orginial Guiding Light kicked the bucket, and there was no one to take his place. The Mormons are really the only ones who made it work, in Salt Lake City, and even they had to trim their sails and make compromises with the outside world.
June 18th, 2005 at 6:14 pm
Let him build his town. We can do the same, then some of our towns will break away from the US and finally be free of those wackos.
June 18th, 2005 at 6:14 pm
Oh sure, like where is he gonna find enough priests to celebrate Mass around the clock? And wouldn’t that cut into the clergy’s….er, extracurricular activites???
June 18th, 2005 at 6:19 pm
Geoduck took the words out of my mouth. Prepare to witness just another example of puritan America’s obsession with religious communes. It ought to be quite amusing to watch it slowly self-destruct just like all the others have.
This guy isn’t the only one building a seclusionist (is that a word? It should be) commune. I think Dobson’s and all the rest are each building their own version of “Walt Disney presents JesusLand!”
June 18th, 2005 at 6:22 pm
It seems like the Catholics are positioning themselves to hijack the fundies agenda.
June 18th, 2005 at 6:30 pm
Will they have their own home for unwed mothers who they can abuse ala the Magdalene Sisters?
June 18th, 2005 at 6:37 pm
Darn, why can’t we have ProgressiveVille?
Oh wait, I have one already in Portland!
June 18th, 2005 at 6:55 pm
A bonanza for pedo-priests!
June 18th, 2005 at 6:57 pm
Anybody want to start a pool as to when the first murder or child molestation case will arise in this town?
June 18th, 2005 at 7:01 pm
The new Jonestown!
They should have Christmas lights on every abode running twenty four hours!
Plus the big countdown billboard of “days until Osama is captured from 9-11″ that is over 1,121 at this moment!
Let them eat yellowcake, and Giblets!
Pizza’s here…
June 18th, 2005 at 7:07 pm
No contraceptives?
I think they are going to run out of speace pretty quickly.
June 18th, 2005 at 7:08 pm
I can hear it now (Cue Monty Python):
“Every sperm is sa-cred. Every sperm is great. And if a sperm is was-ted, God gets quite I-rate.”
June 18th, 2005 at 7:30 pm
June 18th, 2005 at 7:32 pm
The lawyers are going to have a field day. They’re going to start with interstate commerce, and end up with the First Amendment and health, safety, and welfare. Hope the Catholics have got some cash left after settling all the child abuse settlements.
U.S. history is littered with the carcasses of intentional utopian communities. You just can’t keep this level of zealousness up through a generation or two. The internet is even changing Iran and Iraq, and you just can’t keep information out. Don’t get too excited about this planned community; it won’t last.
June 18th, 2005 at 7:35 pm
This is nothing new for Tom.
When Monaghan was still running Dominoes and working in the World Headquarters in Ann Arbor, MI, I was an undergrad at UM.
The city of Ann Arbor gave tax breaks and such to help monaghan develop a “public” park on the Dominoes Campus. It was (is?) a huge picnic area with play scapes and sculpture. … very very nice.
One day, several members of the Ann Arbor chapter of NARAL showed up with a picnic lunch. Monaghan found out and sent his goon squad to physically remove them from this taxpayer funded park.
There are lots of other such stories, like the time he refused to let Reagan’s former NSA speak at prayer breakfast because hefaild Monaghan’s pro-life litmus test. Tom pulled him out of the room and told him to leave. No shit.
June 18th, 2005 at 7:42 pm
Not all conservative Catholics are thrilled with Tom Monaghan’s vision. I’ve read criticisms of Monaghan’s “hothouse” on the web, mostly from Michael Rose, a critic of modern Catholic architecture. Leaving aside Rose’s annoyance that Monaghan’s church wouldn’t be within “tradition,” you have to ask yourself: What kind of idiot builds an entirely glass church in FLORIDA? It’s insane on all sorts of levels, from the “Cook the Congregation” aspect to the “Would you like to be living next to or near a glass building when Hurricane Dolores is bearing down?”
Another criticism of Monaghan has been his willingness to simply uproot Ave Maria from Michigan when the local authorities wouldn’t let him build his monstrosity of a crucifix.
The Phoenix article talks about how Monaghan had a conversion of sorts to a millionaire’s form of poverty when he was confronted with the sin of pride. It looks like to this outsider that he still has a considerable amount of pride left. I’m still shaking my head: what kind of idiot puts a glass church in Florida? Answer: An idiot with lots of money and a grandiose vision that he claims is his way of doing the work of “god.”
June 18th, 2005 at 7:47 pm
I wonder if they’ll have speakers set up around town to call people to prayer.
June 18th, 2005 at 8:04 pm
Domino Theory
During the Cold War, the Domino theory held that once a key nation in a region came under the control of communists, others would follow like toppling dominoes. Ron Paul and Walter Jones, of Freedom Fries Fame, were just the…
June 18th, 2005 at 8:47 pm
with the freepers heading to South Carolina and the catholics heading to Florida…too bad Dobson is in CO…maybe he can be persuaded to move to Jebland, anyway, with the global warming the repukes have denied for so long, it would be a bit of poetic justice for their “utopias” to become underwater theme parks.
June 18th, 2005 at 8:55 pm
A reservation for the self-righteous. Sounds like a hell of a good idea.
Will they have a walled or a razor wire perimeter?
June 18th, 2005 at 9:01 pm
I think it’s about high time Domino’s got boycotted — not only for Monaghan’s benighted idiocy, but because his excuse for a pizza sucks. It’s like V-8 Juice on Wonder Bread. Who eats this crap, and is there a special secluded town for them?
June 18th, 2005 at 9:27 pm
Yes, it’s ridiculously illegal, but should we really complain? The law only steps in when someone asks it to. I say we offer them a whole state, maybe two.
June 18th, 2005 at 10:17 pm
Awe let ‘em build it. Then bomb it.
June 18th, 2005 at 10:22 pm
Didn’t Jim Jones start this way?
June 18th, 2005 at 11:53 pm
There’s no problem with building the glass church in hurricane alley. Jeebus will steer the hurricanes clear of his own house.
As for mass every hour on the hour, even if you could recruit enough priests for that, just how well attended do you think those masses would be in a town of 3500 people. It’d seem mighty empty in the big glass church, wouldn’t it? I guess it must be for tourists.
But won’t tourists bring in corruption? Like shorts and iPods and chewing gum and cursing? I mean really, don’t you think more than a few pranksters would visit the town if you let tourists in and do stuff like leave old Playboys in the pews just to freak them out? And they’ll have to have a whole bunch of good Catholics constantly monitoring the porn sites on the internet so they can censor them and make sure nothing gets through. How many of those uptight anal retentives do you think will volunteer for those jobs?
And you’re right, his pizza sucks!
June 19th, 2005 at 1:41 am
I say ‘let him do it, unimpeded.’ Utopians can only learn by failing on their own.
Catholics will drive to the next town to buy their contraceptives, just as people go for booze when living in a dry town.
In fact, I propose the main route they drive to obtain their necessities of life be heretofore dubbed as the ‘Boner Boulevard’.
Of course, for years, I’ve found that Coors beer is only useful as a sexual lubricant and Domino’s Pizza’s only use is as a diaphragm.
June 19th, 2005 at 3:16 am
Think they’ll elect they’re own Pope?
Just to make sure they have Control of Every aspect …
June 19th, 2005 at 4:37 am
As an Englishman with 2000 years of catholic church abuse behind us - this town sounds great. Rather than thinking of them keeping everyone else OUT - shouldn’t you be thinking of this as a way of keeping them IN?
June 19th, 2005 at 5:58 am
There’s no point in Boycotting Domino’s now (other than the fact that it’s lousy pizza) — Monaghan sold it years ago so he could dedicate himself and his $$$ to wingnuttery full-time.
He started Ave Maria here in Michigan as a University (piggybackied onto established public facilities like Eastern Michigan) to groom students for Ave Maria Law School, a school he created to produce lawyers to fight abortion rights on all fronts. Now the whole kit & kaboodle is moving to Florida, and they can have it.
Maybe its better to have the wingnuts sequestered in their own little community where they set their own rules instead of trying to impose their views on society at large? If they need more than a town in Fla., I’d be willing to let ‘em have the whole state
June 19th, 2005 at 6:04 am
Adam Reilly (Bostonn Phoenix): If meddling secularists and activist judges intrude on Monaghan’s project, the collective ire of orthodox Catholics — who are already incensed by America’s embrace of the so-called culture of death — will only intensify. And those who share Monaghan’s worldview will have a new martyr. If the town of Ave Maria proceeds apace, meanwhile, the militantly separatist Catholic subculture that’s already growing in American society will be that much stronger. Either way, Tom Monaghan wins.
But a third outcome will occur. The fools who buy into “Ave Maria” will have children. These children will grow to be healthy teenagers under the Florida sun, and they’ll naturally want to get high and make love. The staff of “Ave Maria” will not have the resources to censor the internet, nor to patrol all the nearby woods for parked cars with teenage lovers in them, not to block the roads to adjacent towns where the teenagers can buy condoms and see R-rated movies. Eventually Monahan will die, some of the parents will die, and others will have lost their enthusiasm for Monahan’s foolishness. The gates will go unguarded, the walls will fall down. In time only local historians will know why the town is called “Ave Maria” rather than “Cypress Glade” or “Monahanville.”
June 19th, 2005 at 7:57 am
Two words: Extra Cheese.
June 19th, 2005 at 8:26 am
And of course they’ll welcome all those good Catholic Latinos (somebody’s got to sweep out the Wal-Mart and do the lawns).
After ten years, what do you think the non-Latino population of Ave Maria will be? Fifteen per cent? Ten?
Tom will have done something quite nice: built a beautiful Hispanic community in Florida.
June 19th, 2005 at 7:38 pm
If I had a zillion bucks I would immediately erect a vast ibogaine community. In fact, during the sixties, we had a “Hippie Town” in Danbury CT, complete with a gigantic marijuana leaf banner over the entrance.
The really sad thing is that, nowadays, only super-rich screwballs can do these things. And they are never collective, bottom-up operations. It just shows you how financially feeble the middle class minions have truly become.
June 20th, 2005 at 9:12 am
Shorter quietpc3400:
“We should encourage idiots that cannot deal with the reality of living in the year 2005″, and “I don’t know how to work my cable box”.
June 22nd, 2005 at 1:08 pm
The problems with these societies who pull themselves away from the world whom they blame then tear themselves apart when they have no one left to blame but themselves. Hence when the pilgrims who came to the US were starving they resorting to shooting each other in the back for what little food there was, kicked anyone out they deemed untrustworthy, which turned to fullblown paranoia and started killing each other.
In Salem it led to witchburning.
In Spain it led to the Inquisition.
In Britain we had the evil reign of Oliver Cromwell and the Puritans. They want to all form their own perfect community and do anything to wipe out anybody in their way, because generally they have a rosy picture of the past that has never really existed and can’t cope with modern society. They only see bad everywhere and they get told this by all these church tv channels and so on to avoid anything least you get corrupted.
Its also the reason why in the bible Sodom and Gommorah were destroyed. Being inhospitable to guests and full of hatred to strangers and their ways. Such thing was always considered bad to hide away in fear and loathing. They end up destroying themselves.