On Chesterton's great idiocy

John C. Wright: Distributionism vs Plutoyperetonism -- this could have been written by me; except, of course, that Mr Wright is a better, and more disciplined, writer than I am.

The 'distributionism' and (most of) the 'social teaching' of The One True Bureaucracy that so many Catholics are so enamored of (note, Mr Wright is himself Catholic) is just socialism ... and statist slavery ... with a differnet mask than it wore in Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia.

Baptizing socialism doesn't make it Christian and doesn't remove its need to destroy its host society (and the lives of the people) in order to power the short-term illusion that it's finally(!) working.

What we call 'captialism' and/or 'the free market' *just is* the inevitable outworking of freedom and morality grounded in Biblical religion. To hate 'free-market capitalism', as so many Catholics who like to think themselves intellectuals do, and as most of their prelates do (with a vegence), is to hate human liberty ... and Christianity.

The war on certainty

Douglas Wilson: With Commentary by Rabshekah

Sometimes ... (again)

Previously, I had linked to a quotation of G.K.Chesterton, of which I said: "For all his brilliance, sometimes G.K. Chesterton could be outright childish, in the negative sense, which is an intellectual failure, or even damned foolish, which is a moral failure."

For balance, I offer Genter Reader another glimpse of Chesterton, in which his unalloyed brilliance shines: "The truth is, that all genuine appreciation rests on a certain mystery of humility and almost of darkness. The man who said, ‘Blessed is he that expecteth nothing, for he shall not be disappointed,’ put the eulogy quite inadequately and even falsely. The truth [is] ‘Blessed is he that expecteth nothing, for he shall be gloriously surprised.’ The man who expects nothing sees redder roses than common men can see, and greener grass, and a more startling sun. Blessed is he that expecteth nothing, for he shall possess the cities and the mountains; blessed is the meek, for he shall inherit the earth. Until we realize that things might not be we cannot realize that things are. Until we see the background of darkness we cannot admire the light as a single and created thing. As soon as we have seen that darkness, all light is lightening, sudden, blinding, and divine. Until we picture nonentity we underrate the victory of God, and can realize none of the trophies of His ancient war. It is one of the million wild jests of truth that we know nothing until we know nothing."

As is frequently the case with human beings, in which our virtues and vices are often two sides of the same coin, both the first quoted silliness (or even foolishness) and this profound insight are rooted in Chesterton's affinity for 'paradoxen' ;)

Sometimes ...

For all his brilliance, sometimes G.K. Chesterton could be outright childish, in the negative sense, which is an intellectual failure, or even damned foolish, which is a moral failure. The blogger 'Codgitator' approvingly supplies a quote of Chesterton being -- at best -- outright childish, in the negative sense: Or rather a second ...

"Communism is that form of Capitalism in which all workers have an equal wage. Capitalism is that form of Communism in which the organising officials have a very large salary. … Both presuppose property not personal, but Worked from a centre and distributed as wages. There is a third ideal; or rather a second. It is that individuals should own and be free. … The right and essential thing [is] that as many people as possible should have the natural, original forms of sustenance as their own property.

The division of labour has become the division of mind; and means in a new and sinister sense that the right hand does not know what the left hand doeth. In the age of universal education, nobody knows where anything comes from. The process of production has become so indirect, so multitudinous and so anonymous, that to trace anything to its origin is to enter upon a sort of detective story, or the exploration of a concealed crime."