A New Name for Distributism See Page 3

2 18 21 Tremendous Trifles 2 Virginia de la Lastra 18 The Debater Clarence Darrow 21

“The way to make a living thing is to make it local.” —G.K. CHESTERTON THE MAGAZINE OF THE APOSTOLATE OF COMMON SENSE

A New Name for Distributism See page 3

Report on the 39th Annual Chesterton Conference … PAGE 7

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$ 95 9 NOV/DEC 2020 GREAT BOOKS & FILMS ON FATIMA u FATIMA FOR TODAY e Urgent Marian Message of Hope Fr. Andrew Apostoli, CFR In this authoritative, up to date book,NEW! Fr. Apostoli, foremost Fatima expert, carefully analyzes the Marian apparitions, requests, and amazing miraclesFATIMA that took place in Fatima, and clears up lingering questions about their meaning. He challenges the reader to hear anew the call of Our Lady to p100rayer Questions and sacri and ce Answers in rep aboutaration the for sin and for the conversion of the world. 16 pages of photos.Marian Apparitions — Paul Senz he Blessed Virgin appeared six times Produced by the lmmakers of the acclaimed e 13th Day, this powerful documentary combines ATOP . . . Sewnin So1917 cover,to three $18.95shepherd FINDINGchildren in FATIMA — T experts to tell the whole story of Our Lady of Fatima. archival footage,the dramatic tiny village reenactments, of Fatima, Portugal.and original einterviews with Fatima FFFAM . . . 90 mins, $14.95 story and message of these apparitions have gripped the imagination of people all over the world, including simple believers, FATIMA FOR TODAY theologians, skeptics, scientists and popes. e Urgent Marian Message of Hope is book presents 100 of the most common FATIMA MYSTERIES questions, with detailed answers, to explore Fr. Andrew Apostoli, CFR the context of these apparitions and why the Mary's Message to the Modern Age n this authoritative, up to date book, requests of Our Lady are so important today Grzegorz Gorny and Janusz Rosikon IFr. Apostoli, foremost Fatima expert, lavishly illustrated, over-sized volume carefully analyzes the Marian apparitions, for the Church and the world. with glorious photographs and insights requests, and amazing miracles that took FHQAP . . . Sewn So cover, $14.95 Aon the whole story of the apparitions of Our place in Fatima, and clears up linger- Lady of Fatima in 1917, perhaps the most ing questions about their meaning. He NEW! important private revelations in Church challenges the reader to hear anew the history. A unique work on Fatima that pres- call of Our Lady to prayer and sacri ce in ents the bigger story in pictures and detailed reparation for sin and for the conversion of text of the historical events before, during the world. 16 pages of photos and a er Mary’s appearances. It underscores FATOP . . . Sewn So cover, $18.95 the serious nature of Our Lady’s requests for prayer and sacri ce for the conversion of the world and salvation of souls, probing the mysteries of Fatima and their continued relevance for our modern age. FATMH . . . 8 x 10 Hardcover, 400 pages, $34.95 "A masterpiece! e most comprehensive DVD FATIMA book ever on the Fatima apparitions.” he major new feature lm tells the — Fr. Donald Calloway, Author, dramatic true story of the apparitions Champions of the Rosary Tin 1917 of the Mother of God to three shepherd children in Fatima, Portugal. It DVD portrays the great challenges the children THE 13TH DAY encountered with family, government, and Stylistically beautiful and technically innovative, this acclaimed the Church to convince them of Our Lady’s movie on Fatima uses state-of-the-art digital effects to create appearances, and her urgent message to the stunning images of the visions and the nal miracle of the sun world for prayer, penance and conversion, that have never before been fully realized on screen. concluding with the spectacular Miracle of 13DM . . . 85 mins, $19.95 the Sun witnessed by over 70,000 people. DVD Endorsed by the Vatican and Fatima Shrine, FINDING FATIMA with original song by Andrea Bocelli. Produced by the lmmakers of the acclaimed e 13th Day, this powerful documentary FATIMM. . . DVD, 113 mins, $22.95 combines archival footage, dramatic reenactments, and original interviews with Fatima experts to tell the whole story of Our Lady of Fatima. FFAM. . . 90 mins. $14.95 www.ignatius.com

P.O. Box 1339, Ft. Collins, CO 80522 1-800-651-1531 TABLE OF CONTENTS GREAT BOOKS & FILMS Volume 24 • Number 2, November/December 2020

TREMENDOUS TRIFLES...... THE DEBATER......

2 21

A New Name for Distributism Clarence Darrow

BY DALE AHLQUIST BY CHRIS CHAN ON

FATIMA GENERALLY SPEAKING...... ALL I SURVEY...... 24 3 A New Name for Distributism Digressing for Definitions u FATIMA FOR TODAY BY DALE AHLQUIST THE SIGNATURE OF MAN...... 34 BY DAVID FAGERBERG e Urgent Marian Message of Hope “Are the Artists Going Mad?” Fr. Andrew Apostoli, CFR The Distributists React! BY G.K. CHESTERTON VARIED TYPES...... 35 BY DAVID W. COONEY & THOMAS STORCK 20/20 In this authoritative, up to date book,NEW! Fr. Apostoli, foremost Fatima expert, carefully analyzes the Marian apparitions, requests, and LETTER TO AMERICA...... 36 BY VICTORIA DARKEY amazing miraclesFATIMA that took place in Fatima, and clears up lingering questions about their meaning. He challenges the reader to hear anew the call LUNACY AND LETTERS...... 5 Back to Fairyland of Our Lady to p100rayer Questions and sacri and ce Answers in rep aboutaration the for sin and for the conversion of the world. Marian Apparitions — Paul Senz BY G.K. CHESTERTON 16 pages of photos. ALL IS GRIST he Blessed Virgin appeared six times FEATURES Produced by the lmmakers of the acclaimed e 13th Day, this powerful documentary combines CHESTERTON’S SKETCHBOOK. . . . . 36 ATOP . . . Sewnin So1917 cover,to three $18.95shepherd FINDINGchildren in FATIMA — Berating the Bard...... 12 T experts to tell the whole story of Our Lady of Fatima. archival footage,the dramatic tiny village reenactments, of Fatima, Portugal.and original einterviews with Fatima STRAWS IN THE WIND...... 6 BY G.K. CHESTERTON BY JOE CAMPBELL FFFAM . . . 90 mins, $14.95 story and message of these apparitions The Bluff of the Big Shops have gripped the imagination of people all BY G.K. CHESTERTON On Being Moved...... 13 COLUMNS over the world, including simple believers, FATIMA FOR TODAY BY COLLIN SMITH theologians, skeptics, scientists and popes. e Urgent Marian Message of Hope BALLADE OF GILBERT ...... 10 NOTTING HILL...... 8 is book presents 100 of the most common The Flying Inn, FATIMA MYSTERIES Fr. Andrew Apostoli, CFR A Christmas Song For Chesterton Explains Localism questions, with detailed answers, to explore A Tale For The Times...... 15 Mary's Message to the Modern Age n this authoritative, up to date book, Three Guilds BY G.K. CHESTERTON the context of these apparitions and why the BY MATT RILEY requests of Our Lady are so important today Grzegorz Gorny and Janusz Rosikon IFr. Apostoli, foremost Fatima expert, BY G.K. CHESTERTON lavishly illustrated, over-sized volume carefully analyzes the Marian apparitions, for the Church and the world. NEWS WITH VIEWS ...... 16 with glorious photographs and insights requests, and amazing miracles that took FHQAP . . . Sewn So cover, $14.95 MISCELLANY OF MEN...... 11 COMPILED BY MARK PILON BOOK REVIEWS Aon the whole story of the apparitions of Our place in Fatima, and clears up linger- Lady of Fatima in 1917, perhaps the most ing questions about their meaning. He Conan the (Formally) Chestertonian THE FLYING INN...... America on Trial: A Defense NEW! important private revelations in Church challenges the reader to hear anew the BY DAVID P. DEAVEL 18 of the Founding...... 25 history. A unique work on Fatima that pres- call of Our Lady to prayer and sacri ce in Duck Decoys REVIEWED BY CHUCK CHALBERG ents the bigger story in pictures and detailed reparation for sin and for the conversion of TRUTH IN THE STATE OF BY DAVID BERESFORD TRANSMISSION ...... 30 text of the historical events before, during the world. 16 pages of photos The Church’s Best Kept Secret and a er Mary’s appearances. It underscores FATOP . . . Sewn So cover, $18.95 A Radical Idea That Might THE GOLDEN KEY CHAIN ...... 19 & If You Can Get It...... 27 the serious nature of Our Lady’s requests for Not Be So Radical Job 38:11-31 REVIEWED BY DALE AHLQUIST prayer and sacri ce for the conversion of the BY DALE AHLQUIST CONDUCTED BY PETER FLORIANI world and salvation of souls, probing the mys- The Forgotten Radical Peter Maurin: teries of Fatima and their continued relevance CHESTERTON’S MAIL BAG ...... CHESTERTON UNIVERSITY ...... 20 for our modern age. 31 Easy Essays from the Catholic FATMH . . . 8 x 10 Hardcover, 400 pages, $34.95 Local Issues Such as Stonehenge, Politics and Religion Worker ...... 28 BY DALE AHLQUIST REVIEWED BY MATT RILEY "A masterpiece! e most comprehensive Public Monuments, and Peasants DVD FATIMA book ever on the Fatima apparitions.” ABOUT THE COVER: Stone City, Iowa by Grant Wood he major new feature lm tells the — Fr. Donald Calloway, Author, Tdramatic true story of the apparitions Champions of the Rosary in 1917 of the Mother of God to three IMAGE CREDITS: p. 2 (left) Thomas Howard, (right) Matt Kelly;p. 14 Virginia de la Lastra; p. 15 & 18 David Beresford; p. 29 The Catholic Worker shepherd children in Fatima, Portugal. It DVD portrays the great challenges the children THE 13TH DAY All other images to the best of our knowledge are in the public domain, or covered under fair use. Stylistically beautiful and technically innovative, this acclaimed encountered with family, government, and PUBLISHER and EDITOR: Dale Ahlquist, President, ACS COPY EDITOR: Rose Gawarecki ART DIRECTOR: Ted Schluenderfritz SENIOR WRITER: Art Livingston CON- movie on Fatima uses state-of-the-art digital effects to create the Church to convince them of Our Lady’s TRIBUTING EDITORS: David Beresford, Joe Campbell, John C. Chalberg, Christopher Chan, Victoria Darkey, David Paul Deavel, David W. Fagerberg, Mark Pi- stunning images of the visions and the nal miracle of the sun appearances, and her urgent message to the lon SUBSCRIPTIONS & RENEWALS: (See form p. 21) CREDIT CARD ORDERS: call 1-800-343-2425 or fax 1-952-831-0387 E-MAIL: [email protected] LET- that have never before been fully realized on screen. world for prayer, penance and conversion, TERS AND ARTICLES: [email protected]; Letters to the editor may be edited for length or clarity. concluding with the spectacular Miracle of 13DM . . . 85 mins, $19.95 Gilbert! Magazine is published every eight weeks by The Society of Gilbert Keith Chesterton, a non-profit corporation established under Paragraph 501(c)(3) of the Sun witnessed by over 70,000 people. DVD the U.S. Tax Code. Donations to The Society of Gilbert Keith Chesterton are tax-deductible in the United States. Your contributions help support the publication Endorsed by the Vatican and Fatima Shrine, FINDING FATIMA of Gilbert! Magazine. Please send your donations to: The Society of Gilbert Keith Chesterton, 1320 Mainstreet, Hopkins, MN 55343. The views expressed by with original song by Andrea Bocelli. Produced by the lmmakers of the acclaimed e 13th Day, this powerful documentary Gilbert! Magazine contributors are not necessarily those of the publisher, the editors, or The Society of Gilbert Keith Chesterton. FATIMM. . . DVD, 113 mins, $22.95 combines archival footage, dramatic reenactments, and original interviews with Fatima experts to tell the whole story of Our Lady of Fatima. FFAM. . . 90 mins. $14.95 Copyright ©2020 by The Society of Gilbert Keith Chesterton. www.ignatius.com

P.O. Box 1339, Ft. Collins, CO 80522 1-800-651-1531 The Magazine of the Apostolate of Common Sense 1 TREMENDOUS TRIFLES By Dale Ahlquist he big news: This month we are publishing two new is your man. Witty, optimistic, learned, insightful, gentle, books. First, after too long a delay, we are happy joyous,—a balm for the soul. to announce that we have in hand the late Father Somebody sign her up. James Schall’s last book Second Readings. Our be- loved former columnist sent us the manuscript just • Some people consider Contemporary Christian Music before his death in 2019. It’s a sparkling collection popular. They would certainly know who singer Matt Maher of essays with this master thinker and writer offer- is, even though he’s from Newfoundland. In a recent interview, ingT profound and fascinating reflections on a dazzling array of he was asked what three people he’d invite to his fantasy din- topics. Plenty of Chesterton, of course, along with lesser lights ner party. G.K. Chesterton was on the list. Don’t know who the such as Plato and Aquinas. other two were. But somebody sign him up. Secondly, a new book that we’ve been working on in recent months that should definitely raise a few eyebrows among the faithful. An American Translation of Orthodoxy! What?! But, it has happened. It is going to be an effective way to reach a wider audience with Chesterton’s classic. Other classics have been translated, and it has helped bring their timeless truths to a new generation and a new time and place. You don’t have to read it—but we suggest that you do. And if you like it, start disseminating it! • We mourn the loss of Thomas Howard, who died in October. One of the “superstar” Evangelicals who converted to Catholicism in the 1980s, Howard was a gracious, eloquent, and entertaining man of letters. I had the great privilege of in- terviewing him for the January/February 2010 issue of our fair magazine, and better yet, he wrote a “Miscellany of Men” column for the July/August 2013 issue on his specialty, Charles Williams, the only member of the famous “Inklings” who might have known Chesterton personally. I wrote a tribute to Thomas Howard that you can read in Catholic World Report: • Fans of Irish Punk Music will be interested to know that https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2020/10/17/ when the band Dropkick Murphys performed in Fenway Park in-the-place-of-the-tiger/ last May (to an empty stadium but live-streamed to an audience of over 600,000), G.K. Chesterton appeared with them (on the bass drum). The drummer’s name is Matt Kelly. Nobody has to sign him up. Turns out he’s already a member! Thanks for the keeping the beat, Matt! • Thomas Jay, writing in the Tewksbury Register, June 5, 1915, noted that all of the world’s famous men can be found at Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum, “with the exception of Mr. G.K. Chesterton, England’s heavyweight author, and his figure has not yet been attempted owing to the possible short- age of wax.”

G.K. Chesterton dressed up as Old King Cole 100 and ran a tobacco stall at a Beaconsfield YEARS AGO bazaar held in benefit of the Children’s • Actress Patricia Heaton of the popular sit-com “Everybody Convalescent Home. A local newspaper, the Loves Raymond,” tweeted the following in September: Uxbridge Gazette, reported: “Chesterton in real life is worth I’ve been reading G.K. Chesterton at night before fall- seeing, but it was a great draw to see him attired as Old ing asleep. If you want to be transported out of this vul- King Cole.” gar, hate-spewing, brainless, illiterate world we live in, GK

2 Volume 24 • Number 2, November/December 2020 GENERALLY SPEAKING A New Name for Distributism By Dale Ahlquist

The truth has made us free; the tradition has given to men the centralization, whether it be political or commercial. It is sort of liberty they really like; local customs, individual crafts- about directness. It is about dignity. It is about responsibility. manship, variety of self-expression, the presence of personality It puts the family’s rights above the individual or the commu- in production, the dignity of the human will. These are expressed nity, but in recognizing the family as primary, it serves both in a thousand things, from hospitality to adventure, from par- the individual and the community, that is, the common good. ents instructing their own children to children inventing their We’re not trying to change the idea. We’re not trying own games, from practical jokes to pilgrimages and from patron to change the philosophy. We’re trying to introduce a bet- saints to pub signs. (G.K.’s Weekly, June 12, 1926) ter word—better in that it has an immediate, recognizable meaning, and, for the most part, an immediate appeal. It’s hen I helped start the American Chesterton not a perfect term, and it certainly does not encompass the Society in 1996, I said that one of our goals entire idea, but we think it is a good word, and we’re going was to repackage G.K. Chesterton for a new to start using it. generation, as I was part of the generation Localism. that had missed out on Chesterton. Although It is a word that already has a meaning: the support of the new generation has had more exposure to local production and consumption of goods, local control WGKC than its immediate predecessors, thanks in part to our of government, and promotion of local history, local culture, efforts, there are certain terms that simply hold no meaning and local identity, and protection of local freedom. It ob- for these fresh souls. One of those terms is Distributism. Of viously favors de-centralization and directness, and is even course, we could argue that the term Distributism has never more obviously opposed to globalism and collectivism. held much meaning for anyone. It was misunder- People want to take responsibility for their own stood immediately and then it disintegrated lives and they are increasingly frustrated and from there. alienated by the fact that everything is out In the early days of Gilbert!, we were of their control and they cannot really already aware of the problem and we say who is in control. They are weary had the great idea to have a contest to of the complexities and complications come up with a new name. We even brought on by bottomless bureaucra- offered a T-shirt to the winner. cy and endless regulations, everything There was no winner. separated from everything else, and In fact, there were no contestants. no one being answerable for anything. The happy few who grasped the idea of Localism means having a say in Distributism were unsatisfied with any what happens to you. It means keep- term that did not completely explain the ing accountable those who have power idea—even though “Distributism” didn’t that affects you. As Chesterton says, you explain it either. should be able to keep your politicians The word “Distributism” does not sug- close enough to be able to kick them. It means gest property or small business or self-government keeping your dollars in your community, buying or family or freedom; it does, however, lend itself to being from your neighbor. It means owning your own piece of the confused with Re-Distribution, which is what taxation is. community. Micro-minded capitalists considered us socialists, while bub- And there is nothing more local than the family. There is ble-brained socialists feared we were Fascists. nothing more local than the home. By Localism, we mean an Distributism is supposed to be the application of Catholic economy and a political system based on the family. When Social Teaching which was first promulgated by Pope Leo Christ came, he first came into a family. Chesterton says XIII in his 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum and expound- Christianity has always been a domestic religion because it ed on by all the Popes ever since, especially Pope Pius XI in started with the Holy Family. And he says that each family is Quadragesimo Anno. It is based on the idea that “more work- a tiny kingdom—that is, a local kingdom—that creates and ers should become owners” and that widespread ownership loves its own citizens. would provide freedom and independence and make for a If we begin with the dignity of providing for and protect- more just society, that capitalism is responsible for grave ills ing and loving our own families, the next natural step is to in modern society, and that socialism is the wrong solution, treat our neighbors with the same respect and charity so that generally making matters worse. Distributism is opposed to their families can enjoy what we enjoy. Thus, Catholic Social

The Magazine of the Apostolate of Common Sense 3 Generally Speaking

Teaching—and Localism—may be summed up as “Love your evangelization, education, and Catholic Social Teaching. It is neighbor as yourself.” that last one that continues to be misunderstood, but it is im- The American Chesterton Society has become The Society portant that we make it better understood because not only is of Gilbert Keith Chesterton. We have gone from being a lit- it integral with the other two, it is normal. It is common sense. erary society to a Catholic apostolate whose three pillars are It is what we stand for.

within Western societies. There are na- The Distributists React! tionalists who say they support local- e approached some no- seen many comments from what could ism, and even globalists who say they table Distributists with a be called the moderate “right” and “left” do. I believe that, to the average person, preview of our intention that favor localism already, and that itself there is nothing incompatible with local- to start using the term presents both an opportunity and a prob- ism and the idea of franchise businesses, “Localism” instead of lem with our adoption of the term. The and even local offices of major corpora- “Distributism” to make opportunity is that it is a door opener, tions. Localism, for most of them, is not Wthe idea more easily accessible. We were particularly for the more “conservative” incompatible with the consolidation of pleased to get the following reactions side since the term “distributism” will im- the ownership of property or the consol- from two distinguished Distributists, mediately turn them away without great idation of political power, but this is cer- both of whom were important contrib- effort. By leading with the idea of local- tainly not the case for distributists. Their utors to our important book The Hound ism, we would be introducing ourselves ideas of localism are actually quite differ- of Distributism: in a way where we have common ground ent than ours. and that would be a much better starting The reason for the name, distributism, position than we currently face. But we is that the principle underlying all of the David W. Cooney cannot just stand there. Distributism is economic and political positions of the (Editor and Creator of much more than what they understand distributist movement is the idea of dis- The Practical Distributist blog) as localism, and this leads us to the prob- tributive justice. It is possible that this lem. The main problem with using the type of justice can be achieved in sever- istributism is an idea that comes term, localism, in place of distributism is al different ways, and distributism rep- with great difficulties. It represents a that it already has given understandings resents one of those ways. It is an attempt fundamentally different philosophi- Dcal view of society, particularly in its economic and political aspects, than that which our society has been trained to believe. Our society has been trained to see things in a practically strict dichotomy— either capitalist or socialist. When people in our society hear or read distributism, they automatically translate this to mean ite Mr. heter redistribution. Not just redistribution, but a type of redistribution that can only be urIn addition Parih to the one-man r show, Scl achieved and enforced by the highest level more Chalberg-as-Chesterton wit of government, and therefore, is just an- and wisdom is available on DVD. other form of socialism. In fact, when the friend of one of my children, a recent high school graduate, heard that I promoted an idea called distributism, her assumption was that it was some sort of “communism lite.” My initial thought, when I heard of the proposal of presenting the idea of distributism as “localism,” was pretty enthu- siastic, although I also said that we would $20 each, 2 for $30, or $40 never escape the name of distributism. for all three (plus postage) Here is why. Dr. John C. “Chuck” Chalberg Localism is a phrase that will more readily be accepted by most who are historyonstage.net • [email protected] • 612-961-0912 even remotely open to our ideas. I have

4 Volume 24 • Number 2, November/December 2020 to present and achieve distributive justice, as understood in the LUNACY AND LETTERS context of Catholic social teaching, as a comprehensive and co- from Gilbert Readers hesive system, and localism is an integral part of that. This is why I believe that, even if we use localism as the means of introducing distributism to a wider audience, we can never really get away from our association with the historic name. Localism is actually understood differently in a distributist society than in a capitalist one. Even if we use the term as an introduction, it will eventually have to come out that we mean more by it than what was greatly disappointed and shocked by the letter the listener will initially assume, more than can be logically en- from Elise Boratenski in the Sept/Oct issue of Gilbert! compassed by the name of localism, and that is the opportunity It is a rehash of Black Lives Matter and Critical Race to begin to introduce the wider concepts of distributive justice I Theory talking points that I thought had been dis- and distributism as a whole. credited by now. It defies common sense that a country that elected a black man president twice is racist. It defies common sense and my own consciousness that I benefit from an unjust system. This injustice is based on Thomas Storck dishonest interpretation of statistics. And we all know (Author of An Economics of Justice and what Mark Twain said about statistics so I will not go Charity: Catholic Social Teaching, Its there. It defies common sense and is insulting to me that Development and Contemporary Relevance.) the writer proposes I, and the Church, take a good, hard look at complicity in racism. I also find it disingenuous he inadequacy of the term distributism for the socio-eco- that the phrase “violent protesters” is used rather than nomic order advocated by Hilaire Belloc, G.K. Chesterton, the more accurate word rioters. and others, both past and present, has long been recog- If the writer wants Catholics to address all the prob- T nized. To some it weighs heavier than others. But to re- lems identified, then they need to elect representatives place the term distributism with localism seems to me a mis- that reflect a Christ-centered and therefore honest assess- take, for the former, however less than satisfactory it may be, has ment of perceived issues that need legislation. My own as- been sanctioned by long usage, is gaining in acceptance (cf. the sessment echoes that of Ronald Reagan that the govern- American Solidarity Platform) and is used even in languages be- ment is the main problem in our country. sides English. To supplement it by the term localism may, in cer- Being a student of history, I am well aware of what tain contexts, be desirable and helpful, but I don’t think we can “race relations” is all about and I think it is abhorrent that ever discard the term distributism. the writer does not recognize the hundreds of thousands If we look at distributism as more than an economic arrange- of lives of all “colors” sacrificed in the Civil War and later ment for the ownership and control of property, then to empha- to get blacks, indeed all of us, their well-deserved civil size its localist aspects seems to me just. But it’s important to note rights. So, yes, we need to study and recognize “race rela- that though distributism can and at best should mean more than tions” throughout history. We also need to move on and certain economic arrangements concerning property ownership, address the real problems of our age. My suggestion: abor- it can never mean less than that, i.e., it must always include the tion kills way more people than gun violence against any doctrines expressed so forcefully, e.g., in Belloc’s The Restoration artificial classification of our species. of Property, doctrines which put it at odds with capitalism, un- Robert Lundquist derstood as Pius XI defined capitalism in Quadragesimo Anno, West St. Paul, Minnesota no. 100, and upon which so many crucial economic outcomes rest. I think it entirely proper to say things like, “distributism, the localist system of wide-spread property ownership,” or “dis- disagree with Elise Boratenski’s criticism of the maga- tributism, which is based on a localism that emphasizes the pri- zine. Gilbert! continues to address the hard conversa- macy of family and place,” etc. But localism simply in itself is tions, responding with kindness, cheerfulness, clarity, compatible with all kinds of exploitative economic arrangements. I and truth, avoiding being dragged into controversies The term is vague enough that by itself it is not satisfactory. of the moment that are being stoked by undefined terms. Solutions to societal injustice are found in supporting the family structure and strengthening local communities. This is Gilbert’s mandate, it happens one person at a time What do you think? and requires a change of heart. Hearts are not changed by Please send us your reaction to our decision to start using the arguments, hearts are changed by example. word “Localism” instead of “Distributism” so that we might be David Beresford better understood. We will print the best (and maybe the worst) Douro-Dummer, Ontario responses in the next issue.

The Magazine of the Apostolate of Common Sense 5 STRAWS IN THE WIND I think the big shop is a bad shop. I An Essay by G.K. Chesterton think it bad not only in a moral but a mercantile sense; that is, I think shop- ping there is not only a bad action but a bad bargain. I think the monster em- porium is not only vulgar and insolent, but incompetent and uncomfortable; and I deny that its large organization is efficient. Large organization is loose The Bluff of the Big Shops organization, nay, it would be almost as By G.K. Chesterton true to say that organization is always disorganization. The only thing perfect- wice in my life has an editor large shops were really worse than little ly organic is an organism; like that gro- told me in so many words that shops. That, it may be interesting to note, tesque and obscure organism called a he dared not print what I had is one of the things that a man is now for- man. As applied to things like shops, written, because it would offend bidden to say; perhaps the only thing he the whole thing is an utter fallacy. Some the advertisers in his paper. The is really forbidden to say. If it had been things like armies have to be orga- presence of such pressure exists an attack on Government, it would have nized; and therefore do their very best everywhereT in a more silent and subtle been tolerated. If it had been an attack to be well organized. You must have a form. But I have a great respect for the on God, it would have been respectful- long rigid line stretched out to guard honesty of this particular editor; for it ly and tactfully applauded. If I had been a frontier; and therefore you stretch it was evidently as near to complete hon- abusing marriage or patriotism or public tight. But it is not true that you must esty as the editor of an important week- decency, I should have been heralded in have a long rigid line of people trim- ly magazine can possibly go. He told the headlines and allowed to sprawl across ming hats or tying bouquets, in order truth about the falsehood he had to tell. Sunday newspapers. But the big newspa- that they may be trimmed or tied neat- On both those occasions he denied per is not likely to attack the big shop; ly. The work is much more likely to be me liberty of expression because I said being itself a big shop in its way and more neat if it is done by a particular crafts- that the widely advertised stores and and more a monument of monopoly. man for a particular customer with

Chesterton for Today ✦ Today there is only one ✦ I am more and more convinced that what is wanted now- thing of which we are certain, adays is not optimism or pessimism, but a sort of reform and that is that we are uncertain. (Listener, Nov. 1, 1933) that might more truly be called repentance. (Illustrated London News, July 8, 1922) ✦ What is the matter with journalism is that it is journalistic; in the literal sense of making the last twenty-four hours much too important. (New Witness, Nov. 28, 1919)

✦ The American Civil War was a real war between two civilizations. It will affect the whole history of the world. (Illustrated London News, Dec. 14, 1929)

✦ The best things are silenced, the worst things well expressed. (Illustrated London News, Sept. 14, 1907)

✦ The fundamental sense of human fraternity can only exist in the presence of positive religion. (“The Great Victorian Novelists,” The Victorian Age in Literature)

✦ The true modern cowardice is that no one has the courage to pronounce truisms. (The Morning Post, Oct. 18, 1906)

✦ To do a normal thing in an abnormal atmosphere is to suffer the fate of an abnormal thing. (G.K.’s Weekly, Aug. 7, 1926)

6 Volume 24 • Number 2, November/December 2020 Straws in the Wind particular ribbons and flowers. The per- the way in which (please God) they may dragon without wondering whether son told to trim the hat will never do it be undone tomorrow. a fashionable crowd of princesses ran quite suitably to the person who wants For the success of big shops really is after the dragon to be devoured. They it trimmed; and the hundredth person psychology; not to say psychoanalysis; or, have never heard of a fashion; and do told to do it will do it badly; as he does. in other words, nightmare. It is not real not know the difference between fash- If we collected all the stories from all and, therefore, not reliable. The very first ion and fate. The necessitarians have the housewives and householders about thing to do is to tell these American pok- here carefully chosen the one exam- the big shops sending the wrong goods, er-players that they are bluffing. Because ple of something that is certainly not smashing the right goods, forgetting to they are bluffing, we can call their bluff. necessary, whatever else is necessary. send any sort of goods, we should be- We must stop the mere mad stam- They have chosen the one thing that hold a welter of inefficiency. There are far pede towards monopoly before the last does happen still to be free, as a proof more blunders in a big shop than ever traditions of property and liberty are of the unbreakable chains in which all happen in a small shop, where the indi- lost. But when we ask what we can do, things are bound. Very little is left free vidual customer can curse the individual here and now, against the actual growth in the modern world; but private buy- shopkeeper. Confronted with modern ef- of monopoly, we are always told that we ing and selling are still supposed to be ficiency the customer is silent; well aware can do nothing. By a natural and in- free; and indeed still are free; if anyone of that organization’s talent for sacking evitable operation the large things are has a will free enough to use his free- the wrong man. In short, organization swallowing the small, as large fish might dom. Children may be driven by force is a necessary evil—which in this case is swallow little fish. The big corporation to a particular school. Men may be driv- not necessary. can absorb what it likes, like a dragon de- en by force away from a public-house. The big shops are things near to us vouring what it likes, because it is already All sorts of people, for all sorts of new and familiar to us all. I need not dwell and nonsensical reasons, may be driv- on other and still more entertaining en by force to a prison. But nobody is claims made for the colossal combina- yet driven by force to a particular shop. tion of departments. One of the funniest The rush to the big shops Of all things in the world, the rush is the statement that it is convenient to to the big shops is the thing that could get everything in the same shop. That is could easily be stopped. be most easily stopped—by the people to say, it is convenient to walk the length who rush there. If we came to the con- of the street, so long as you walk indoors clusion that big shops ought to be boy- or more frequently underground, instead the largest creature left alive in the land. cotted, we could boycott them as easily of walking the same distance in the open Some people are so finally resolved to ac- as we should (I hope) boycott shops sell- air from one little shop to another. The cept this result that they actually conde- ing instruments of torture or poisons for truth is that the monopolists’ shops are scend to regret it. They are so convinced private use in the home. In other words, really very convenient—to the monopo- that it is fate that they will even admit this first and fundamental question is not list. They have all the advantage of con- that it is fatality. The fatalists almost be- a question of necessity but of will. If we centrating business as they concentrate come sentimentalists when looking at chose to make a vow, if we chose to make wealth, in fewer and fewer of the citizens. the little shop that is being bought up a league, for dealing only with little local Their wealth sometimes permits them by the big company. They are ready to shops and never with large centralized to pay tolerable wages; their wealth also weep, so long as it is admitted that they shops, the campaign could be practical permits them to buy up better business- weep because they weep in vain. They and successful. It will be said, of course, es and advertise worse goods. But that are willing to admit that the loss of the that people will go to the best shop. I their own goods are better nobody has little toy-shop of their childhood, or a deny it. I deny that the big shop is the ever even begun to show; and most of little tea-shop of their youth, is even in best shop; and I especially deny that peo- us know any number of concrete cases the true sense a tragedy. For a tragedy ple go there because it is the best shop. where they are definitely worse. means always a man’s struggle with that I know it is not merely a matter of busi- I expressed this opinion of my own which is stronger than man. And it is the ness, for the simple reason that the busi- (so shocking to the magazine editor and feet of the gods themselves that are here ness men themselves tell me it is merely his advertisers) not only because it is an trampling on our traditions; it is death a matter of bluff. It is they who say that example of my general thesis that small and doom themselves that have broken nothing succeeds like a mere appear- properties should be revived, but be- our little toys like sticks; for against the ance of success. It is they who say that cause it is essential to the realization of stars of destiny none shall prevail. It is publicity influences us without our will another and much more curious truth. amazing what a little bluff will do in this or knowledge. It is they who say that “It It concerns the psychology of all these world. Pays to Advertise”; that is, to tell people things: of mere size, of mere wealth, of For they go on saying that the big fish in a bullying way that they must “Do It mere advertisement and arrogance. And eats the little fish, without asking wheth- Now,” when they need not do it at all. it gives us the first working model of the er little fish swim up to big fish and ask From The Outline of Sanity way in which things are done to-day and to be eaten. They accept the devouring

The Magazine of the Apostolate of Common Sense 7 NOTTING HILL understand. The point is that it is not consulted about the things that it does under- Economics as if People Mattered stand. For it is not asked at all whether it would like the daily life of its own civilisation altered or not. It is not asked, for Chesterton Explains Localism instance, whether it would like its villages [This column was formerly known as “The chosen for us. … A big society is a soci- turned into suburbs. It is not asked wheth- Distributist,” but its new name is that very ety for the promotion of narrowness. It is er its local shopkeepers should have their local place that was defended by local he- a machinery for the purpose of guarding trade extinguished by the great stores of roes in Chesterton’s first novel. – Ed.] the solitary and sensitive individual from the great cities. It is not asked whether it all experience of the bitter and bracing would like its own English landscape lit- t is not fashionable to say much now- human compromises. It is, in the most tered with advertisements. I do not pro- adays of the advantages of the small fess to say how the question would be an- literal sense of the words, a society for community. We are told that we must swered; I only say the question is not asked. the prevention of Christian knowledge. go in for large empires and large ideas. The things we vote on are very seldom the I (“On Certain Modern Writers and the Institution of There is one advantage, however, in the the Family,” Heretics) things we see and smell and eat and drink small state, the city, or the village, which and do. These are more and more con- only the willfully blind can overlook. trolled by vast and vague central forces, at The man who lives in a small communi- once autocratic and anonymous. This is ty lives in a much larger world. He knows odern industrialism may have the real modern problem, which has noth- much more of the fierce varieties and un- made itself democratic, if we ing to do with utopias; and until it is solved compromising divergences of men. The merely mean by that that the there will be a real satire in self-govern- reason is obvious. In a large communi- M democracy is formally consult- ment for men who are invited to govern ty we can choose our companions. In a ed about a great many things, includ- everything except themselves. (Illustrated small community our companions are ing a great many things that it does not London News, Oct. 11, 1919)

[What We Used To Call Distributism], Briefly ✦ The essential idea of [it] is the idea of Directness. It concerns direct ownership, direct expression, direct creation and control. (G.K.’s Weekly, July 7, 1928)

✦ [It] is simply Liberty; with its normal organ of Property. (G.K.’s Weekly, July 19, 1930)

✦ The alternative to employment is not unemployment … but independence. (G.K.’s Weekly, Feb. 2, 1929)

✦ Property is primary, as the family is primary. (G.K.’s Weekly, Sept. 5, 1935)

✦ The case for property is the case for proportion.( G.K.’s Weekly, July 12, 1930)

✦ Small property normally distributed is the only alternative to Bolshevism or unlimited swearing. (The Listener, Oct. 31, 1934)

✦ The new home must not be only a home but a shrine. (“The Need of a New Spirit,” The Outline of Sanity)

✦ I believe in Home Rule for homes! (“The Banner of Beacon,” Manalive)

8 Volume 24 • Number 2, November/December 2020 Notting Hill

own children to children inventing their which sort of social life is it that wins? he free traditions of Western Europe own games, from the village commune Now, of course, in any place and any in- grew up in a much slower and vagu- to the vin du pays, from practical jokes stance the question is complicated. There er fashion, in a world in which there to pilgrimages and from patron saints are English conservatives who would re- was a great deal of local law, or of to public-house signs. The mark of all ally conserve the little that remains of the T these things is variety and spontaneity, old Christian life of England. There are local custom even stronger than local law. The parliaments were as mediaeval as the the direct action of the individual soul mere creatures of Capitalism who take monarchies, and the monarchies were as on the material environment of mankind. advantage of Fascism. But taken in the mediaeval as the monasteries. Even the The result is a rich complexity of com- bulk, this is broadly true; that to defeat Roman Law rather mingled with than mon things, a wealth of work and wor- Bolshevism in Italy is to save a great mass mastered the traditions of the guilds and ship, a treasure which we refuse to aban- of that old social life of Christendom still the free cities; and the immediate heirs don and are resolute to defend. Now it is unspoilt; a great deal of small property, of of the Roman civic idea were the multi- perfectly true, of course, that Bolshevism popular religion, of custom and courte- tudinous little republics of Italy. (Illustrated would sweep all this away. Therefore, we sy, of dignity and song. But unfortunate- London News, Nov. 1, 1919) say that Bolshevism is a brutal pedant- ly it is not true that defeating Bolshevism ry with which we have no sympathy and in England means saving such a society, no dealings. But we also say that, what- because, alas, it is not there to be saved. e are in the strict sense con- ever we think of anything that would It would doubtless be very right to save servatives; because we hold sweep it away, there is certainly some- England from Bolshevism, if the necessi- that the old creed and culture thing that does sweep it away; something ty arose; but it would not be that particu- of Christendom realise for that is at this moment sweeping it away. lar necessity. The sharp and catastrophic W All over the world, at this moment, the cleavage which divides the case of a hea- men, relatively to all that is reasonable and possible, the great art of life which thing that is really and truly rooting up then and inhuman industrialism from we call Liberty. The truth has made us these liberties, these local varieties, these that of the older cultures is precisely this. free; the tradition has given to men the crafts and creative pleasures, is the thing We have got to create the Christian cul- sort of liberty they really like; local cus- called Big Business. It is not visionary ture again in our sort of society; and not toms, individual craftsmanship, variety Utopias and thin and theoretical nega- merely to save it from being destroyed. of self-expression, the presence of per- tions; it is hard cash and brazen bribery. We have to create it in order to save it. sonality in production, the dignity of What determines our attitude towards And though Bolshevism would destroy it, the human will. These are expressed in a all these different errors is the degree of it was not Bolshevism that did destroy it. thousand things, from hospitality to ad- their actual activity in the world at the It was Protestant and atheist Capitalism. venture, from parents instructing their moment. We ask of any social conflict, (G.K.’s Weekly, June 12, 1926)

CORNER THE IMITATORS Celebrating Famous & Infamous Names with E.C. Bentley’s Elusive Count Dracula Vasco Nunez de Balboa Wielding a spatula First sighted the Pacific Ocean, Light Verse Form Said, “I must stir the pot although a CLERIHEW THE ORIGINATOR Or drat it’ll clot.” Keats poem erroneously says —DAN BURKE, Golden Valley, Minnesota It was Cortez. Edward the Confessor —FILOMENA LANGE, Milton, Wisconsin Slept under the dresser. Mr. Neanderthal When that began to pall, Painted a cavern wall. Bill and Melinda Gates He slept in the hall. To the shame of contemptuous modern Hinge all their debates —EDMUND CLERIHEW BENTLEY curmudgeons, Pushing population decrease He preferred the brush to the bludgeon. But will settle for global disease. CLERIHEW: A humorous, unmetrical, bi- —DILLON STULL, Redwood City, California —LAURIE SCHMITT, Spring Valley, Wisconsin ographical verse of four short lines—two closed couplets—with the first rhyme a play No one did Aristotle like Thomas Aquinas Our dear sister Veronica on the name of the subject. Readers are in- At first his innovations caused quite a fuss, Never learned to play the harmonica. vited to submit clerihews for “The Clerihew Reason prevailed, and a new orthodoxy. Something she shoulda done, Corner,” with the understanding that submis- Not bad for a dumb oxy! She was only ninety-one. sions cannot be acknowledged or returned, —STEVE STRICKLAND, Bulverde, Texas —SR. CHRISTINE EREISER, St. Joseph’s nor will all be published. Monastery, Tulsa, Oklahoma

The Magazine of the Apostolate of Common Sense 9 BALLADE OF GILBERT

Localism ✦ When politics were more local, they were more truthful. (Illustrated London News, Jan. 24, 1925) A Christmas Song

✦ Now when we say that we stand for local government we mean something definite and For Three Guilds deep. We mean that we shall grow more and By G.K. Chesterton more local; that we shall find a larger and larger interest in smaller and smaller places. To Be Sung A Long Time Ago – Or Hence (Daily News, Jan.13, 1906) The Carpenters. ✦ In mediaeval times there was practically no standing army at all; the whole people was St. Joseph to the Carpenters said on a Christmas Day: a sort of feudal militia, called out and con- “The master shall have patience and the ‘Prentice shall obey; trolled by a spirit of locality. The sharp differ- And your word unto your women shall be nowise hard or wild: ence between disciplined and armed troops For the sake of me, your master, who have worshipped Wife and Child. and a democracy entirely disarmed is a to- But softly you shall frame the fence, and softly carve the door, tally modern product. (Daily News, Mar. 9, 1912) And softly plane the table—as to spread it for the poor, And all your thoughts be soft and white as the wood of the white tree. ✦ It is easy to show that liberties are local; But if they tear the Charter, let the tocsin speak for me! it is much less easy to prove that Liberty is Let the wooden sign above your shop be prouder to be scarred universal. (Illustrated London News, Jan. 4, 1930) Than the lion-shield of Lancelot that hung at Joyous Garde.” ✦ Internationalism is hostile to democracy. The Shoemakers. I do not say it is incompatible with it; but St. Crispin to the shoemakers said on a Christmastide: any combination of the two will be a compro- “Who fashions at another’s feet will get no good of pride. mise between the two. The only purely popu- They were bleeding on the Mountain, the feet that brought good news, lar government is local, and founded on local The latchet of whose shoes we were not worthy to unloose. knowledge. The citizens can rule the city be- See that your feet offend not, nor lightly lift your head, cause they know the city; but it will always Tread softly on the sunlit roads the bright dust of the dead. be an exceptional sort of citizen who has or Let your own feet be shod with peace; be lowly all your lives. claims the right to rule over ten cities. (“Wells and the World State,” What I Saw in America) But if they touch the Charter, ye shall nail it with your knives. And the bill-blades of the commons drive in all as dense array ✦ Everybody said the great modern war was As once a crash of arrows came, upon St. Crispin’s Day.” between Capitalism and Socialism. We said there was no war; for it was only between The Painters. Centralization and Centralization. (G.K.’s St. Luke unto the painters on Christmas Day he said: Weekly, Sept. 28, 1929) “See that the robes are white you dare to dip in gold and red; For only gold the kings can give, and only blood the saints; ✦ The ‘homespun’ ideal [is] the idea that it is And his high task grows perilous that mixes them in paints. better to do things inside rather than outside Keep you the ancient order; follow the men that knew the frontier or the fence: that we often lose The labyrinth of black and white, the maze of green and blue; more than we gain by chaffering with strang- Paint mighty things, paint paltry things, paint silly things or sweet, ers, whether they are pedlars on the road or But if men break the Charter, you may slay them in the street. brokers on the Stock Exchange; that there are And if you paint one post for them, then … but you know it well, not only domestic virtues but domestic val- You paint a harlot’s face to drag all heroes down to hell.” ues, in the sense of utility and beauty, which are best safeguarded by purely domestic tra- All together. ditions; that not only dirty linen, but much Almighty God to all mankind on Christmas Day said he: more emphatically, clean linen, is best dealt “I rent you from the old red hills and, rending made you free. with at home. (G.K.’s Weekly, Aug. 10, 1933) There was charter, there was challenge; in a blast of breath I gave; ✦ The way to make a living thing is to make You can be all things other; you cannot be a slave. it local. (quoted in the Walsall Observer, Jan. 3, You shall be tired and tolerant of fancies as they fade, 1931) But if men doubt the Charter, ye shall call on the Crusade— Trumpet and torch and catapult, cannon and bow and blade, Because it was My challenge to all the things I made.”

10 Volume 24 • Number 2, November/December 2020 MISCELLANY OF MEN that the boom-and-bust oil cycles con- tributed to a vision of endless cyclical civ- ilizational rise-and-declines. Howard was Conan the (Formally) set on a writing career early. He wrote his first story at nine and attempted to publish starting in his mid-teens. His first accep- Chestertonian: tance came at age 18 with “Spear and Fang,” Robert E. Howard (1906–1936) a tale of Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals, in Weird Tales. By David P. Deavel While his father wanted him to attend college and perhaps follow in his medical everal books I purchased on When thorn-trees stood at even footsteps, Howard (like Chesterton) dis- my trip,” a 21-year-old Robert Like monks in dusky gowns; dained the forced march of organized ed- Howard wrote to his friend I heard the music Guthrum heard ucation (he also hated math and science Clyde Smith, “among them Beside the wasted towns; courses). He worked odd jobs and took G.K. Chesterton’s The Ballad of professional courses in typing and stenog- When Alfred, like a peasant, the White Horse. Ever read it? It’s raphy but, starting at age 22 with multiple Came harping down the hill, Sgreat.” Apparently Smith didn’t get the mes- acceptances of his poems and stories, be- And the drunken Danes made merry sage quickly enough, for the next month came a full-time writer for the rest of his With the man they sought to kill, Howard wrote with a reminder, “Say, you short life. He produced hundreds of sto- And the Saxon king laughed in their should read The Ballad of the White Horse.” ries with a number of different charac- beards This wasn’t the first Chesterton poem And bent them to his will. ters that appeared in Weird Tales as well as to capture the fancy of the man—now many other pulp fiction magazines. (His known to fans as REH—widely credit- I heard the harp of Alfred work was never collected in a book in his ed with originating the sword and sor- As twilight waned to night; lifetime.) The Ballad of the White Horse, cery genre and known as the creator of I heard ghost armies tramping however, with its combination of different Solomon Kane, Kull the Conqueror, and As the dim stars flamed white; peoples fighting with and against Alfred, most famously Conan the Barbarian. And Guthrum walked at my left hand, probably inspired Howard’s creation of The year before he had written to Smith: And Alfred at my right. the Hyborean Age in which his most fa- “You’re right. There is great poetry being I found this poem in a very interest- mous creation, Conan the Cimmerian, re- written now. G.K. Chesterton, for in- ing essay by Frank Coffman titled “Notes sided. Howard scholar Rusty Burke writes, stance. Especially that ‘Lepanto.’” In 1932 on Some Influences of G.K. Chesterton on “Chesterton’s concept of telescoping histo- Howard had not lost his taste for G.K.C. Robert E. Howard,” that is available at the ry, ‘that it is the chief value of legend to mix In a letter to the horror and fantasy author official Robert E. Howard site (www.rob- up the centuries while preserving the senti- H.P. Lovecraft he included Chesterton in ert-e-howard.org) along with many other ment,’ must have appealed to Howard.” a list of poets he liked. In 1935 he wrote materials for those interested in the man. Howard’s difficulty was that no matter to Lovecraft again about a painting he Coffman’s essay includes a citation of all the how much Chesterton influenced his po- saw of a Crow Indian, “I was reminded of Chestertonian chapter headings as well as etic and mythological form, the substance Chesterton’s lines, about the old Viking: descriptions of how they are used in the of his worldview was that of the pessimists ‘And a man hopes, being foolish, fiction. Coffman’s claim is that in his pub- Chesterton argued against. Conan’s world Till in white woods apart lished poetry, “Howard adopts and adapts and Howard’s is a world of grim war- He finds at last the lost bird dead, several of Chesterton’s inventive meters, in- fare, stuck in the circle of pagan fatalism But a man can still hold up his head, cluding the variations on the ballad from Chesterton argued the cross punctured. As Though nevermore his heart.’” The Ballad of the White Horse and the long- Coffman wrote in his essay on Chesterton’s line syncopated rhythms of ‘Lepanto.’” In The quotation isn’t precise. Like influence, Howard ended up on the side his ideas, however, Howard went a differ- Chesterton, Howard apparently quoted of the pagan Norsemen and not Alfred. ent way. from his own memory. Fear of aging and the sense that the world Robert Ervin Howard was born Janu- Indeed, Howard talked about Chester- was stacked against him brought depres- ary 22, 1906, in Peaster, Texas, the son of ton and also used quotations from The Bal- sion and not courage to Howard. When a country doctor and his very sickly wife lad of the White Horse as headings for some Howard’s mother was on her deathbed, of two years. No siblings appeared due to short stories and chapters in his books. He Howard, who had helped care for her, his mother’s ill health. The family moved even honored Chesterton with homage in committed suicide at age 30. often around Texas when Howard was a poem titled “The Harp of Alfred”: young, but settled in Cross Plains, site of David Deavel is Assistant Professor I heard the harp of Alfred an oil boom—and all the wildness that in Classics and Catholic Studies at the As I went o’er the downs, goes with it. Some biographers speculate University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minnesota.

The Magazine of the Apostolate of Common Sense 11 ALL IS GRIST His characters not only talk to each other. They talk to themselves.” Essays for Today and Tomorrow “Surely you don’t object to his soliloquies?” “People have been put away for talking Berating the Bard to themselves.” By Joe Campbell “In the midst of the action,” I ex- plained, “a soliloquy gives the audience consulted the Internet to find the straight would be difficult. insight into a character’s psychological origin of “Neither a borrower nor a “It could be a comedy of errors,” he state.” lender be.” I wanted to use the quo- said. “Not to mention the other characters’ tation in an essay I was writing. He had a point. If Shakespeare’s char- auditory state.” “When I borrow books,” I told acters lived today, they’d be unlikely to “Their auditory state?” my friend Dingwall, “chances are find each other, let alone interact. Imag- “If the audience hears the soliloquy II’ll neglect to return them. When I lend ine Macbeth searching the phone book and the other characters don’t, they must books, chances are the borrowers will ne- for Macduff’s number. Imagine Antonio have something wrong with their ears.” glect to return them.” stopping his car to ask directions to Shy- “Soliloquies are only a theatrical con- “It’s a common failing,” Dingwall lock’s place. vention, like having boys play women’s replied. “Not only did he fail to give most roles.” “Yes,” I said, “when it comes to return- of his characters more than one name,” “That’s another difficulty I have with ing books, many of us develop a poor Dingwall said, “He failed to give some of Shakespeare. He used underage female memory.” them any names. In King Lear, there’s impersonators.” “Or a lax conscience.” a fool, an old man, a captain, and a her- I told him that since Shakespeare Several websites indicated that the ald; in Macbeth, a sergeant, a porter, and didn’t invent the conventions and cus- quotation originated with Polonius. three weird sisters. They’re just a few of toms of his day, we shouldn’t blame him “Polonius who?” Dingwall asked. the nameless.” for them. “You don’t know?” I agreed it was a significant oversight. “With few exceptions,” I said, “he “Does anybody?” “Can you imagine the confusion if didn’t even invent the plots of his plays. “He’s one of Shakespeare’s best-known some of the people you dealt with were He borrowed them from early or recent minor characters. He’s the father of nameless?” stories, including, sometimes, the actu- Laertes.” I tried to imagine it: “Hello, Opera- al words.” “Laertes who?” tor, can you connect me with the fool? “Borrowed, I take it, is a euphemism “Laertes is a friend of Hamlet. He—” He doesn’t seem to have a listing.” for stole,” Dingwall said. “The man was “Hamlet who?” Dingwall interrupted. Dingwall also questioned Shake- a plagiarist and we laud him as a model I told him I wasn’t in the mood for speare’s use of blank verse. for school children. I’ve a good mind to guessing games. “Nobody speaks in iambic pentame- write a book debunking him.” “Then take it up with Shakespeare. By ter,” he said. “If you do,” I said, “take the advice neglecting to give nearly all of his char- “Iambic pentameter?” of Polonius and don’t lend the book to acters more than one name, he keeps his “It’s the meter he uses most, an un- m e .” readers guessing.” rhymed line of five feet, each of which Joe Campbell, alleged humorist and musi- Although I’d read a number of Shake- contains two syllables, the first unaccent- cian, writes from somewhere in Saskatoon, speare’s plays, the scarcity of names ed, the second accented.” Canada. hadn’t registered with me. “Meter? Feet? I thought we weren’t “He even keeps himself guessing,” supposed to mix measuring systems.” Dingwall said. When he neglected to respond, I “Really?” didn’t press him. I was trying to imagine Help us bring back “In Two Gentlemen of Verona, he in- what it would be like communicating in troduces a song called ‘Who is Silvia?’ blank verse: common sense. Although Silvia is one of the major char- “Is this a finger I see raised at me, Please make a donation today. acters, Shakespeare doesn’t know who When all I did was cross your pick- she is.” et line? Chesterton.org

“And you believe it’s because she has Well I’ve got fingers, too, and know

only one name?” their use.

“Can you imagine the confusion if I’ll show you how it’s done with both

nearly everyone you dealt with had only my hands.” one name?” “A bit wordy,” Dingwall said, when I I agreed that keeping identities wrote it down. “But so is Shakespeare.

12 Volume 24 • Number 2, November/December 2020 All is Grist

the thoughts of a discontent genius, to On Being Moved a forgotten quotation by Tennyson, to the weather, to being exiled to the coun- An Experiential Defeater of try, back to Tennyson, only to leave him Postmodern Deconstructionism again for King Arthur, pagan poets, then to the end of the universe, which is, by Collin Smith naturally, connected back to the weather. And all this is packed in only the first eading an essay by G.K. an “X,” marking some treasure is to be two paragraphs in the essay. Seeing the Chesterton for the first time found. Contented to contemplate this end of the essay on the other page, I sol- is a unique pleasure that is terra firma he so kindly helped us dis- diered on through the tempest, trusting filled with all the familiarity cover, we close the book and continue that I would, somehow, arrive at that of meeting an old friend, but our own common life, though never in solid ground as always. But, instead, at contains within it all the boy- quite the same way. the end, I found only 6 words that did Rish excitement of embarking on an ad- nothing more than confirm my dark venture for buried treasure. A roller- suspicion about all that I had just read: coaster is thrilling precisely because it is “They would take my it was “an article about nothing at all.” unpredictable; an old friend is endear- chair away but for the I will admit to feeling somewhat being precisely because he is so familiar. trayed, and I have never reacted well The experience of reading Chesterton formidable necessity of to treasonous literature. As a child, I is unique because he unites the thrill of sent Louisa May Alcott flying into the adventure with the constancy of a trust- carrying me away in it…” wall after she had the gall to send Beth ed companion, which, by their contrary (Beth!) to her deathbed in the novel origins, we never expected to find so It was, with great distress, then, that Little Women. However, literary friend- delightfully intertwined. An essay will I first read his essay “On Being Moved” ships must go two ways; I pick the essay start with some mundane observations late one evening (www.chesterton.org/ up and read it through again. “On Being about common life. Very quickly, we the-prophet/on-being-moved/). He be- Moved” is filled with descriptions of are swept away in a whirlwind of top- gins innocently enough by bemoaning things that have gained new meaning ics we never expected, or to topics we the paucity of writing material, as mov- for him after they are removed from his did expect, but always in a way we have ers were packing his belongings. Here, home. After the movers take his table, never considered. After being gently the whirlwinds picked me up, but, in- he reflects on it anew, “Who am I that tossed about for some time, the whirl- stead of the usual fun tilting, I was un- the children of men should have shaped wind suddenly stops, and, slightly dizzy, ceremoniously and inexplicably buf- and carved for me four extra wooden we are startled to find ourselves stand- feted about. He quickly moves from legs besides the two that were given me ing on some piece of solid ground with by the gods?” His point, summarized as

The essay “On Being Moved,” referred was no midnight oil about his epigrams. to in Collin Smith’s article above, ap- Young Dixon Scott … wrote beseeching an peared in the Daily News, October 2, interview with him. Though G.K.C. did not 1909, and is collected in Lunacy and then know Scott from Adam, he good-hu- Letters and In Defense of Sanity: The mouredly made an appointment at his Best Essays of G.K. Chesterton. It can Battersea flat. Dixon Scott arrived to find … men carting off furniture, and his liter- also be found at: https://www.chester- ary idol scribbling away at a table in a study ton.org/the-prophet/on-being-moved/ which contained only that and the chair on which The circumstances under which Chesterton wrote the Chesterton was seated. Even the chair and the table were essay were described in a column by “Our London spirited away next. But G.K.C., standing in Olympian ease Correspondent” in the Plymouth and Exeter Gazette, at the fireplace, and using the mantelpiece to continue his June 19, 1936: scribbling, talked for half an hour to Dixon in the kind- est and also most brilliant way. When Scott left, he hand- G.K. Chesterton’s capacity for brilliant work under even ed him the scribble, and asked him to drop it in the of- the most distracting circumstances was amazing. There fice letterbox. It was a coruscatingDaily News column!

The Magazine of the Apostolate of Common Sense 13 All is Grist

“It is the point of all deprivation that it it. “On Being Moved” does nothing of rediscover the meaning they have grown sharpens the idea of value,” is that for the kind. What, then, is the point of it accustomed to seeing in other texts. something to be fully appreciated, we all? The essay itself is an embodiment Even more joyously, it is precisely must first experience not having it. He of the very idea that deprivation sharp- because Chesterton wasn’t in this essay even speculates that “the reason of the ens the idea of value. Chesterton did not that allowed me to rediscover the expe- riddle of death” is perhaps because it is intend for the essay to have a particu- rience of reading him. And what exact- the absence of life that allows us to final- lar point; rather, he intended it to lack ly did I rediscover? In the same circular ly discover life’s fullness. A profound in- any point at all. The absence of any in- motion of that old familiar whirlwind, sight nearly missed in the midst of his terconnected meaning itself is meant to allow me to redirect the experienced conceptual torrent. be used as a tool for reflecting on mean- Chesterton reader, who will, perhaps, The idea of absence being the key ing that is normally present in meaning- never again have the pleasure of read- to rediscovery of a thing’s full value is ful writing. In this essay, we experience ing something by him for the first time, a theme common in his other writings; firsthand what it is to read something to the first paragraph of this essay. Manalive, for example, is a very fun without any meaning. It is an experi- Collin Smith works to develop noninva- elongation of this concept. However, ential defeater to postmodern decon- sive ultrasonic surgical devices as part of even in such stories, he always states this structionism. Chesterton has given us a his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering at the idea in concrete terms after he takes the tool, an experience of meaninglessness, University of Minnesota. trouble to guide the reader naturally to that allows readers to step back and

14 Volume 24 • Number 2, November/December 2020 All is Grist

Prophet succeeds to better clothes (retaining the fez, of course), better venues, and leadership of a cult for ladies of the ruling class. Ivywood employs the Prophet to preach Islam along with prohibition. Indeed, having abandoned his Christian faith for the sake of “progress,” Ivywood falls under the Mohammedan spell: “Islam has in it the potentialities of being The Flying Inn, A Tale the most progressive of all religions … Not in vain, I think, is the symbol of the For The Times faith the Crescent, the growing thing.” Nowadays, the academic jargon calls By Matt Riley all that “privileging” Islam, I think. I envy those about to read The Flying ince the descent of the COVID crusade for normalcy via a loophole in Inn for the first time. My own re-reading crisis and the concurrent at- the law. As long as a sign is in fact on dis- under “stay at home orders,” “mask man- tempts by State, Big Business, play, alcohol may be offered to patrons. dates,” and ukases about which business- and the chattering classes to Outwitting and evading both police and es are “essential” made me hear echoes of extinguish or make “virtual” reporters, the friends travel around the Chesterton’s English ruling class of the most everything normal and nation in a donkey cart loaded with a last century in today’s American ruling Straditional—from handshakes to holy cask of rum, a wheel of cheese—and the class of technolatrous billionaires, Big water to Halloween—Chesterton’s 1914 sign of The Old Ship. Wherever the out- Business globalists, and do-gooder bu- novel The Flying Inn has seemed a tale laws set up that sign, The Old Ship is re- reaucrats ostensibly “concerned” about for the times. vived and the workingmen and country “health.” The heroes of the story are Captain folk of England rediscover refreshment, But with my neighborhood taverns Patrick Dalroy, erstwhile King of Ithaca, fellowship, and their ancient liberties. closed or under tight restrictions, I see and Humphrey “Hump” Pump, inn- The villain of the novel, Lord no “Flying Inns.” keeper. Dalroy is a giant Irishman with Ivywood, appears none too villainous at Why? the strength of Samson and a tenden- first. He is learned, eloquent, and oh-so Perhaps Patrick Dalroy says it best: cy to break into song. Expelled from the genteel. As a member of the ruling class, “Our rulers have come to count on the Royal Navy because of his Fenian sympa- Ivywood says he has the “well-being”— base cowardice of a mass of Englishmen, thies, Dalroy then fights for Christendom if not the freedom—of the working class as a sheep dog counts on the cowardice against the Turk in the Greek isles. When in mind: “The act is specially designed in of a flock of sheep.” he returns to the shores of Britain, the interests of the relief of poverty.” Even The keeper of The Old Ship and the he seeks the shelter of the last inn in Dalroy says, “Lord Ivywood isn’t cruel; King of Ithaca were surely not sheep. England, The Old Ship. but he’s inhuman.” What are we? That inn is kept by Mr. Pump, Dalroy’s At the same time, though, the Captain Matt Riley has taught—mostly Latin—at friend and as English as the Captain is understands the for-their-own-good tyr- colleges and high schools for more than 25 Irish. “Hump” is a master of many skills anny of the ruling rich. He knows “A years. as well as “a certain kind of scientific man sign-board could be a favour granted by that science has really been unfortunate the governing class to itself” for “the rich in losing … the old-fashioned English are the scum of the earth in every coun- Naturalist … who learned things not aca- try.” And so, parliamentarians and plu- Candles demically like an American Professor but tocrats have “medical” exemptions that actually like an American Indian.” allow them to drink; common men only for Gilbert The mission of the two old friends have The Old Ship. Help us demonstrate the is to defy the Act for the Regulation of The uncanny prescience ofThe Flying worldwide devotion to Places of Public Entertainment (the “new Inn comes clear as well through the char- normal” of a century ago had the bu- acter of Misyra Ammon, The Prophet G.K. Chesterton by lighting reaucratic ring of today’s cant), that pre- of the Moon. We meet the Prophet, in a candle online and adding vents the sale of beer, wine, and liquor his fez and wild Eastern attire, among your personal testimony. throughout England by first forbidding other cranks, as he concocts lunatic, the display of signs such as the one that but seemingly harmless, etymologies stands before The Old Ship. explaining that England’s roots lie not Visit Chesterton.org/candles Pump and Dalroy carry out their in Christianity but in Islam. Later the

The Magazine of the Apostolate of Common Sense 15 NEWS WITH VIEWS that mathematics was largely developed by Greeks and other Europeans. Compiled by Mark Pilon And from GKC: Reason was self-evident before Prag- matism. Mathematics were self-evident before Einstein. But this scepticism is throwing thousands into a condition of “When the real revolution happens, doubt, not about occult but about obvi- it won’t be mentioned in the newspapers.” ous things. We shall soon be in a world in which a man may be howled down for Mathematicians Go Mad The committee’s path to this conclusion saying that two and two make four, in includes the following application of the which furious party cries will be raised VIRTUALVILLE—The Mathematical scientific method: against anybody who says that cows have Association of America (MAA), “the horns, in which people will persecute the world’s largest community of mathe- Critical race theory, referenced in recent heresy of calling a triangle a three-sided maticians, students, and enthusiasts,” Executive statements by the President of figure, and hang a man for maddening a has released a statement from the MAA the United States, is an established so- mob with the news that grass is green. Committee on Minority Participation in cial science inquiry which is grounded Mathematics. Its concluding paragraph in decades of scholarship. It is misguid- reads: ed, at best, to reduce this theory to the race-blaming of white people and to de- It is time for all members of our profes- fine it and the discussion of systemic rac- The Loved One sion to acknowledge that mathematics is ism as a “divisive concept.” Furthermore, VANCOUVER, BC—Susan Woolhouse, created by humans and therefore inher- banning training utilizing this scholar- MD, MClSc, CCFP, FCFP, is the author ently carries human biases. Until this oc- ship to raise consciousness, from federal of a paper for the University of British curs, our community and our students and federal contractor workplaces, is an Columbia, entitled Preparing Children cannot reach full potential. Reaching this encroachment on science and the acad- for the Medically Assisted Death of a potential in mathematics relies upon the emy. At the first presidential debate this Loved One. A member of the Faculty academy and higher education engag- year, President Trump’s refusal to disavow of Medicine at UBC, she is also a fam- ing in critical, challenging, sometimes white nationalism and his encouragement ily physician in Toronto, and “provides uncomfortable conversations about the of groups that the FBI has identified as medical assistance in dying (MAID).” detrimental effects of race and racism on the greatest threats of domestic terrorism, (Sometimes a TLA needs a fourth let- our community. The time is now to move only serves to reinforce the sense that his ter.) In her paper she writes: mathematics and education forward in administration seeks to reverse decades I have had the privilege of being involved in pursuit of justice. of progress on civil rights for all citizens. over 70 assisted deaths, either as an asses- These actions frame a current United sor or provider. … In my experience, they The Floriani Collection States leadership that consistently pro- die surrounded by their adult children and, NON-FICTION: FICTION: motes policy in direct opposition to data occasionally, by their grown grandchildren. An Introduction to The Saga DE BELLIS and science-based evidence. One day I received a referral for a 40-year- Heraldry STELLARUM. Q.E.D. old man, and I realized how ill prepared I An Introduction Short story collec- to Logic was to support a family with young chil- tions: We are unsure if Dr. Rochelle Gutierrez, An Introduction to the Professor, Curriculum and Instruction, dren through MAID. Yet, instinct told me History of the Hospital Quayment Short Stories at the University of Illinois, is a mem- that involving children in the MAID pro- Subsidiarity More Quayment ber of the MAA Committee on Minority cess of their loved one was possibly one of A Twenty-first Century Short Stories the most important and therapeutic ex- Tree of Virtues Participation in Mathematics, but she has I Will Lift Up My periences for a child. My past experienc- A Guide to the Eyes made her own contribution to the dis- Ambrosian University Too Classified to cussion, including: es during my palliative care rotations reas- Laboratory of the Name sured me that children could benefit from On many levels, mathematics itself op- Gospels: the Rosary Joe the Control bearing witness to a loved one’s death. Why Science and Room Guy erates as Whiteness. Who gets credit for would MAID be any different? the Gospel. doing and developing mathematics, who The Paradoxes is capable in mathematics, and who is seen She goes on to give a number of tips on of Man. All Floriani as part of the mathematical community is the therapeutic experience, including: Chasubles and works are presently Lab Coats available through generally viewed as White (sic), … curric- Assuming that children are given honest, …and more! Amazon. ula emphasizing terms like Pythagorean compassionate, and non-judgmental in- theorem and pi perpetuate a perception formation about MAID, there is no reason

16 Volume 24 • Number 2, November/December 2020 News with Views

to think that witnessing a medically assist- Diocese of Albany, stated in his presiden- the highest civilisation they have reached ed death cannot be integrate (sic) as a nor- tial address: an enrichment like that of the divine ro- mal part of the end of life journey for their mance of Cana in Galilee. We know that As I reported to the Diocese on October loved one. If the adults surrounding them many critics of such a story say that its 5th, the Hearing Panel has found me normalize MAID, so will the children. elements are not permanent; but indeed guilty of failing to abide by the Discipline it is the critics who are not permanent. A She adds: and Worship of the Episcopal Church, hundred mad dogs of heresy have wor- and thus violating my ordination vows. Here is a suggested way to explain MAID: ried man from the beginning; but it was They issued a 42-page document outlin- In Canada, when someone has an illness always the dog that died. We know there ing their decision, a copy of which has that will cause their body to die, they can is a school of prigs who disapprove of the been posted on the Diocesan Website. wait for this to happen or they can ask a wine; and there may now be a school of doctor help (sic). The doctor or nurse uses The important part of the Summary of prigs who disapprove of the wedding. a medication that stops the body from Opinion of that 42-page document states: For in such a case as the story of Cana, working and causes the body to die. This it may be remarked that the pedants are Bishop Love’s Direction also violated the is done in a way that isn’t painful. prejudiced against the earthly elements as Discipline of the Church in that it vio- much as, or more than, the heavenly ele- And here is what Chesterton says: lated Canon I.18. The canonical legitima- ments. It is not the supernatural that dis- cy of Resolution B012 rendered Canon Like most moderately intelligent peo- gusts them, so much as the natural. And I.18 mandatory, requiring adherence by ple, I read detective stories in preference those of us who have seen all the normal Bishops Diocesan in permitting their to modern novels; but even in detec- rules and relations of humanity uproot- Clergy the option to perform same-sex tive stories I find this queer rudimenta- ed by random speculators, as if they were marriage rites. ry reason creeping up. Even in crime sto- abnormal abuses and almost accidents, ries there is now some comprehension The Hearing Panel unanimously conclud- will understand why men have sought for of crime; that is, of the fact that we are ed that Bishop Love had violated multiple something divine if they wished to pre- all criminals. And now the whole weak- canons of The Episcopal Church, and thus- serve anything human. They will know ness is working the other way; many re- ly his ordination vows, by stating in an of- why common sense, cast out from some cent murder stories are actually justifica- ficial letter that “Sexual relations between academy of fads and fashions conduct- tions of murder. The moment a refined two men or two women was never part of ed on the lines of a luxurious madhouse, respectable gentleman realizes that he God’s plan and is a distortion of His design has age after age sought refuge in the high might want to kill somebody, he jumps in creation and as such is to be avoided.” sanity of a sacrament. to the conclusion that this person ought GKC: The primary laws of man are to to be killed. The fact that Aunt Jane is ob- Mark Pilon is a retired institutional invest- be found in the permanent life of man; viously a nuisance, that Uncle William ment salesman, who grows extremely hot in those things that have been common is becoming a terrible bore, that Cousin peppers and plays the hammered dulcimer. to it in every time and land, though in Hildebrand stands between us and the really sensible family solution, is beginning to look more and more like a real reason for doing them in. That is why, in my own country, some are proposing what is called Euthanasia; at present only a proposal for killing those who are a nuisance to themselves; but soon to be applied pro- gressively to those who are a nuisance to other people. As it applies by hypothesis to an almost moribund or partially par- alyzed person, the decision will presum- ably rest with the other people.

This Triangle of Truisms ALBANY, New York—On October 24, 2020, the Rt. Rev. William Love told the 152nd meeting of the Diocese of Albany synod that he will step down from office as bishop effective February 1, 2021. Love (his real name), Bishop of the Episcopal

The Magazine of the Apostolate of Common Sense 17 THE FLYING INN less detail, but they do look like ducks. Home Rule at Home Most of mine look cross-eyed, some gog- gle-eyed, some like they were clubbed on the head with my lead pipe. I keep changing how I set the eyes, trying dif- Duck Decoys ferent painting and eye materials—nail By David Beresford heads, brass tacks, even carving eyes on the heads. And, while each eye looks perfect when looked at from the side, when …nobody says anything at all about the I hollow the bodies to make them light, I look at the front they are distinctly simpler and saner elements of American and screw a thin cedar board to the bot- cross-eyed. life, which are almost as far from New tom. Because I do not want to cut into All except two. One looks like it is York as from London. (GKC, “Unknown my stash of lead pipe, I bought some lead bearing patiently with an inferior intel- America,” Sidelights) weights. These are used to make them lect, its eyes raised in derision as if I have float at the right height in the water. I just said something stupid. I can live with collect bulk lead, or at least I should hold them in place with an elastic band that. It is the other one that troubles me. say I save lead when I find any. and adjust the weight, checking that the It looks smug, as if it knows about my I have a chunk of lead pipe that I decoys flip right side up, when placed in guilty secrets. I actually do not have any got when I was renovating a duplex the rain barrel upside down. So far so guilty secrets so my conscience is clear, apartment in East City in 1988. I good, my decoys all flip over quickly, and but this wooden duck seems to know bet- am happy about that piece of lead appear to float correctly. ter. Perhaps it knows about that time I Ipipe, and have managed to keep track of Carving the wings is tricky, but with broke my dad’s hammer and hid it back it over two moves, “What’s in this box, each duck I seem to be improving. To in his tool box, or how I used to climb Dave, lead?” paint them, I use rust paint. This is now the garage roof and jump off when no- I have a plan. My lead is going to be the only kind of oil paint we are allowed body was at home. The only other thing used when I finally get a set of working to buy where I live for reasons which are I can think of is that time I broke the fir- decoys carved. The longer I have that senseless except to politicians. My painting pin on my dad’s shotgun by dry fir- lead, the more I treasure it now that it is ing is not very good, and I often console ing it. But these were so long ago, it can’t becoming harder to find lead in bulk. I myself with the thought that these are be these things. used to have a pail of lead wheel weights supposed to be working decoys. I have I can promise you one thing though, that I had collected over the years. a sign in my workshop with my favou- about this wooden duck. If it does not Keeping that pail of wheel weights in my rite saying: “The perfect is the enemy of wipe that knowing, smug, superior look living room behind the TV was not wise. the good.” off its face, it is going to be used for fire- It seems to have disappeared—I suspect So much for the easy part. The real wood this winter. it was tossed into a dumpster. Whenever problem for me is that all of the decoys David Beresford is a biology professor at I am away working up north doing re- I carve look wrong. Other people’s de- OLSWC, an entomologist, and lives on a search, my wife Theresa orders a dump- coys might look a bit rustic with more or farm in Douro-Dummer, Ontario. ster and fills it with my stuff. Usually I never miss it, and do not even know what is gone, but occasionally treasures get tossed. A friend of mine also collects lead and has a chunk of lead pipe that he treasures as well. He has carved over one hundred decoys—blue bills—and I think it was his example that inspired me to get started again. As part of my long-term decoy carving plan, I also have been col- lecting cedar and basswood logs, cedar for the bodies and basswood for the heads. I have a chunk of basswood from the 1970s from a tree that blew down. From this I take pieces, and I have made over a dozen duck heads, most of which are still waiting for their cedar bodies. So far I have carved eight decoys, and it has taken me as many years to do so.

18 Volume 24 • Number 2, November/December 2020 THE GOLDEN KEY CHAIN GKC on Scripture • Conducted by Peter Floriani are close to us, and of great practical importance to us; but they remain far more free and fitful and elusive than the re- motest star. Comets are commonly even Job 38:11-31 more distant than stars; yet they can to a Job 38:11. And said, Hitherto shalt thou great extent be traced, though they have come, but no further: and here shall thy definitions, is the basis of spirituality as no practical importance until they come proud waves be stayed? it is the basis of nonsense. Nonsense and near enough to be something more than faith (strange as the conjunction may practical and decidedly less than useful. One can imagine that some automat- seem) are the two supreme symbolic as- There is much in politics and sociology of ic tendency in biology might work for sertions of the truth that to draw out the this paradox of the comet and the cloud. giving us longer and longer noses. But soul of things with a syllogism is as im- The professor at the garden party can the question is, do we want to have lon- possible as to draw out Leviathan with a stand radiantly explaining, in defiance ger and longer noses? I fancy not; I be- hook. [Job 40:20] The well-meaning per- of the Book of Job, that he can in one lieve that we most of us want to say to son who, by merely studying the logical sense bind the influences of the Pleiades our noses, “thus far, and no farther; and side of things, has decided that “faith is and loose the bands of Orion; but he can- here shall thy proud point be stayed”: we nonsense,” does not know how truly he not tell at what moment the guests at the require a nose of such length as may en- speaks; later it may come back to him garden party will begin to feel the sweet sure an interesting face. But we cannot in the form that nonsense is faith. (“A influences of a steady downpour, or how imagine a mere biological trend towards Defence of Nonsense,” The Defendant) soon he will be driven to loose the bands producing interesting faces; because of his own umbrella. (Illustrated London Job 38:31. Canst thou bind the sweet in- an interesting face is one particular ar- News, July 17, 1926) fluences of Pleiades, or loose the bands rangement of eyes, nose, and mouth, in of Orion? Peter Floriani is a computer scientist and a most complex relation to each other. writer in Reading, Pennsylvania. Proportion cannot be a drift: it is either The man of science can prophesy a comet, an accident or a design. (“The Eternal but he cannot prophesy a shower. Clouds Revolution,” Orthodoxy) … when he [Blake] made in some picture a line between sea and land that does not exist in Nature, he was saying by supernatural right, “Thus far shalt thou come, and no farther, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed.” (William Blake) Job 38:26. Hast Thou sent the rain upon the desert where no man is? Every great literature has always been allegorical—allegorical of some view of the whole universe. The ‘Iliad’ is only great because all life is a battle, the ‘Odyssey’ because all life is a journey, the Book of Job because all life is a riddle. … It is significant that in the greatest religious poem existent, the Book of Job, the argument which convinces the infi- del is not (as has been represented by the merely rational religionism of the eigh- teenth century) a picture of the ordered beneficence of the Creation; but, on the contrary, a picture of the huge and un- decipherable unreason of it. “Hast Thou sent the rain upon the desert where no man is?” [See Job 38:26] This simple sense of wonder at the shapes of things, and at their exuberant independence of our intellectual standards and our trivial The Lord Answering Job from the Whirlwind by William Blake

The Magazine of the Apostolate of Common Sense 19 CHESTERTON UNIVERSITY The bullying bureaucracy means the loss of local liberty and directness, and An Introduction to the Writings of G.K. Chesterton by Dale Ahlquist an increase in irresponsibility and indi- rectness. And abnormal situations it creates will result in people trying “all the Politics and Religion odd things before they think of the ordinary thing.” New Witness, Vol. XVIII As G.K. Chesterton continues to fight July – December, 1921 to restore sanity to a society where everything is going insane, he is also doing he oppressors of the poor have children. The whole object of real educa- battle on the religious front, as godless- been able to perpetuate their tion is a renascence of wonder, a revival ness creeps into education, politics, so- power by ruling the poor so of that receptiveness to which poetry and cial philosophy, and the underlying as- badly that the poor are now un- religion appeal. sumptions that inform the leading able to rule themselves. Chesterton is already noticing that thinkers of the day. GKC is trying to get Thus argues G.K. Chesterton, in America, instead of an emphasis on people to speak those unspoken assump- whoT says that it is Capitalism—not tions, especially when they use words teaching classical philosophy and liter- Socialism—that is most responsible for ature, there is an emphasis on teaching like “purpose.” breaking up the two most fundamen- health. They are “teaching babies to be tal human relationships: the bond be- The purpose of God is an idea, true or hypochondriacs in order that they might tween a husband and his wife, and the false; but the purpose of Nature is mere- be healthy.” bond between a mother and her child. ly a metaphor; for obviously if there is no Along with that he has noted “an State Socialism was only a reaction to God there is no purpose. enormous increase in the machinery of Capitalism, but shares a common char- amusement.” The effect will be to make But Chesterton is also continuing acteristic with commercial anarchy: the population passive. “Meanwhile his own spiritual journey. He is at this “nobody ever wanted it at all.” But, says these same vast urban populations have point in his life one year away from en- Chesterton, “Those who will not even largely lost what used to be the mark of tering the Catholic Church. He is be- admit the Capitalist problem deserve to all mankind; the spontaneous invention coming increasingly disenchanted with get the Bolshevist solution.” of ceremonials and festivities, differing State Socialism has only created more the Anglican Church: “There are some from village to village, and sometimes anarchy by trying to replace the function very queer things taught in the Church from house to house.” A war on local- of the family, especially through the in- of England; and some I think should not ism? Absolutely. From both the commer- stitution of public education, which is a be tolerated by any Christian Church.” cial and the political spheres. relatively recent institution in our histo- He sees the beginning of a long trajecto- ry, and one that revealed its fundamen- The only moral attraction of Socialism ry that has continued to this day. In the tal flaws early on. Chesterton points out is the ideal of equality, or at least of the meantime, he’s also observing the dis- that the fruit of public education is … correction of inequality. There may be integration of the rest of Protestantism lawlessness. He says he heard a magis- men who like centralization because it that seems to correspond with a grow- trate remark that “this new lawlessness will involve officialism, and who like ing enthusiasm for the Catholic faith: was due to the loss of parental control.” officialism because they hope to be the “We know that there are now many But GKC thought rather that “the loss officials. people with a passionate affection for of parental control is in its turn due to The Socialist State gives all power Catholicism, and that there are not many the increase of official control. And this to the government; and therefore cuts people with a passionate affection for is surely the more natural because it is an much deeper than any other govern- Calvinism. There were once, but there increase of official control over parents … ment, in practice, the chasm between are not now.” He even makes a rather This is especially true to the eclipse of the the governor and the governed. In every bold pronouncement: “We have come to father by the schoolmaster.” The school- society there is the public official and the end of an epoch. The heresies have master can only teach morality in theo- the private citizen. But the number of burned themselves out. There is nothing ry. The parent can teach it in practice. But things that the public official can do to but negations and the truth.” the schools even get the theory wrong. the private citizen is increased and not G.K. Chesterton spent his entire life diminished by the collectivist change. writing about politics and religion. The The truth is that all our educational ex- In short there cannot admittedly be po- two, of course, are connected. But there periments are in the wrong direction. litical equality, even if there is economic is also a connection between economics They are concerned with turning chil- equality. Even if we have abolished aris- and religion, though some would deny it. dren, not only into men, but into modern tocracy and plutocracy, there can still be Thinking, says Chesterton, means con- men; whereas modern men need nothing bureaucracy; and perhaps a particularly necting things. And “Every man gets his so much as to be made a little more like bullying bureaucracy. economics from his religion.”

20 Volume 24 • Number 2, November/December 2020 THE DEBATER recent years, scholars have come to question some ethical issues connected to his “We never let a quarrel interrupt a good argument.”—G.K. CHESTERTON cases, such as in Dean A. Strang’s Worse than the Devil. Recently, allegations of Clarence Darrow Darrow promoting jury tampering in the McNamara Los Angeles Times bomb- By Chris Chan ing case have found a new generation of historians concluding that Darrow was larence Darrow is a promi- into mere stereotypes, and the courtroom guilty, though earlier biographers assert- nent figure in American twen- dramatics and impassioned speeches ed Darrow’s innocence. This remains a tieth-century history, yet it’s bear only a tenuous relationship to the controversial allegation. notable that the general pub- real-life legal battle. This is not the place Darrow took his arguments outside lic perception of the man is to go into all of the historical distortions the courtroom, and voiced his opinions filtered through a heavily fic- of Inherit the Wind, except to say that on religion (he was an agnostic) and sci- Ctionalized version of his character. The Lawrence and Lee’s Henry Drummond ence in many print venues and public famous play (and movie) Inherit the is not an accurate depiction of Darrow, Wind introduced Henry Drummond as but instead is an embellished caricature a stand-in for Darrow, based upon the designed to make a socio-political point. real-life Scopes “Monkey” Trial based Darrow rose to fame as a defender of on the battle over teaching evolution in labor rights and civil liberties, and for his schools. role in the defense of some major crimi- In their introduction to a published nal trials, most notably the Leopold and version of their play, Jerome Lawrence Loeb murder case, where two privileged and Robert E. Lee described the Scopes college students slaughtered a teenager in trial as “dramatic,” but it “was not drama.” an attempt to create “the perfect crime.” In a similar vein, Inherit the Wind is his- In many murder cases, he managed to toric, but it is not history. Many writ- win either acquittals or reduced sentenc- ers, including Edward J. Larson in his es. Darrow considered leniency to be a Pulitzer-winning book Summer of the win for him, as he was a staunch oppo- Gods, have pointed out that the char- nent of capital punishment. For many acterizations of the various figures take decades, Darrow enjoyed a reputation as major liberties from their actual inspi- a fearless and hugely successful attorney rations, turning multifaceted characters who fought for his principles, though in

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The Magazine of the Apostolate of Common Sense 21 Chesterton University debates. Darrow debated Chesterton in sparring with a dummy of his own men- my debates with him, and found him a January of 1931 at the Mecca Temple in tal making. When something went wrong man of culture and fine sensibilities. If New York City. The title of the evening’s with the microphone, Darrow sat back he and I had lived where we could have exchange was “Will the World Return until it could be fixed. Whereupon G.K.C. become better acquainted, eventually we to Religion?” Issues such as the Book of jumped up and carried on in his natural would have ceased to debate, I firmly be- Genesis’ account were addressed. voice, “Science you see is not infallible!” lieve.” Chesterton’s approach of respect Though a full transcript of the de- Whatever brilliance Darrow had in his and good humor led to the possibility of bate is not known to exist, several wit- own right, it was completely eclipsed. friendship, rather than bitter animosity, nesses wrote about their experienc- as is so often the case with contemporary es. Joseph J. Reilly, quoted by Cyril A Father Madigan from Milwaukee’s confrontations over important issues. Clemens in Chesterton As Seen by His Marquette University witnessed the de- More information on this debate can Contemporaries, declared that: “Darrow bate, and recorded that after Darrow’s be found here: https://www.chesterton. … seemed heavy, uninspired, slow of opening statement, Chesterton’s rejoin- org/clarence-darrow-debate/. It should mind, while G.K.C. was joyous, spar- der was prefaced with “It may come as a also be mentioned that Darrow’s rela- kling and witty.” A Mrs. Frances Taylor surprise to you, Mr. Darrow, and perhaps tive, Leah Darrow, is a Catholic speak- Patterson judged that Darrow came to all of you in the au- er who once present- across as “positively muddle-headed.” dience, but I agree ed at the Chesterton Other observers suggested that Darrow’s entirely with every- Darrow kept going off Conference. The arguments were pedestrian and geared thing you have said.” themes of the sup- towards shock value. Apparently, this had a at illogical tangents posed conflict be- Clemens also presented Darrow’s discombobulating ef- tween science and re- performance negatively, writing that: fect on Darrow. and becoming choleric ligion continue today, At the end of the over points that were yet unfortunately the Darrow either could not or would not debate, a poll of the debate often hinges on stick to the definitions, but kept going off audience showed not in dispute. false assumptions and at illogical tangents and becoming choler- that Chesterton was flawed stereotypes, ic over points that were not in dispute. He dubbed the winner by much like the ones seemed to have an idea that all religion a more than two-to-one margin. that have formed the image of Darrow was a matter of accepting Jonah’s whale As was often the case, Chesterton in the public imagination. as a sort of luxury-liner. As Chesterton was able to debate an opponent without Chris Chan is a historian, information scien- summed it up, he felt as if Darrow had causing enmity. Darrow declared that, tist, mystery writer, and literary critic from been arguing all afternoon with his fun- “I was favorably impressed by, warmly Milwaukee, Wisconsin. damentalist aunt, and the latter kept attached to, G.K. Chesterton. I enjoyed

22 Volume 24 • Number 2, November/December 2020 FATHER SCHALL’S LAST BOOK econd Readings comes seemingly heaven-sent. For us who find our days grayer since his departure, these essays shine light on topics forever old, forever new, such as truth and beauty, Augustine and Tolkien, Christmas and Easter, cricket and champagne. In them, we again meet our mentor, always the consummate teacher, speaking with humor, insight,

and clarity. Ironically, perhaps most signifiV. SCHALL JAMES - cant is not an essay at all, but the appendix, FATHER SCHALL’ which gives the book its title. By highlightingS LAST BOOK twenty-five S Second Readings comes seemingly heaven-sent. For us who nd our “Second Readings”days grayer since from his departure, the these Liturgy essays shine lightof on the topics Hours,forever JVS old, forever new, such as truth and beauty, Augustine and Tolkien, reminds us Christmasthat no and Easter,one cricket who and champagne.has read In them, a greatwe again meet book but LITERARY once has reallyour mentor, read always it. the Surely, consummate histeacher, priestly speaking with devotion humor, to PHILOSOPHICAL insight, and clarity. Ironically, perhaps most signi cant is not an essay & LITURGICAL

countless secondat all, but the readings appendix, which of gives the the bookDivine its title. ByOffice highlighting disclosesREADINGS SECOND ESSAYS the deepest twenty- source ve “Secondof his Readings” wisdom. from the This Liturgy of thewisdom Hours, JVS breathes reminds us that no one who has read a great book but once has really through theseread it. writings,Surely, his priestly inspiringdevotion to countless us second toward readings of the the “final gladness” ofDivine the O vision ce discloses of the God,deepest source the of themehis wisdom. of is wisdomhis famous breathes through these writings, inspiring us toward the “ nal gladness” last lectureof delivered the vision of God, atthe themeGeorgetown of his famous last lecturewhen delivered retiring at in Georgetown when retiring in . Here in his last book, he preaches 2012. Herein in death his this theme’slast hopebook, and comfort, he evenpreaches as he did in life. in death this

theme’s hope and comfort,— REV STEPHEN even M FIELDS as, SJ he did in life. Hackett Family Professor in Theology Georgetown University– Rev Stephen M Fields, SJ Hackett Family Professor in Theology JAMES V. SCHALL, S. J. ( 1928-2019) was a long time Professor of Political Philosophy at Georgetown University. He previously taught at the Gregorian GeorgetownUniversity in Rome and University SECOND at the University of San Francisco. His previous books include The Life of the Mind; Another Sort of Learning; At the Limits of Political Philosophy; Idylls & Rambles: Lighter Christian Essays; Schall on Chesterton, Political Philosophy & Revelation: A Catholic JAMES V.View; SCHALL, The Universe We Think S. In; J. The (1928-2019) Reason for the Seasons: Why was We Celebrate a long What and When, and The Mod- READINGS time Professorern Age. Among of his Political many honors, PhilosophyISBN: at 978-1-7359966-0-8 Georgetown he was the 2005 recipient of the University,American and Chesterton was Society a regular Life- columnist in Gilbert!. time Achievement Award. AC y(7IB7D5*TTQQKS( He was the 2005 recipient ofS BO OtheKS American James V. Schall

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The Magazine of the Apostolate of Common Sense 23 ALL I SURVEY “It is true that I am of an older fashion; much that I love each morning edition. But aren’t the pa- has been destroyed or sent into exile.” —G.K. CHESTERTON pers increasingly online where bytes are cheap? The problem is not insufficient resources, the problem is an insufficient commitment by the writer and an insufficient concern by the reader. I will conclude with an example of a slippery word from my own experience, in my own field of academic liturgical Digressing for Definitions studies. The reader might be aware that By David Fagerberg there are disputes between liberal and conservative camps in the liturgical range wars, and when I was a young scholar I hesterton was a craftsman with that title in South Africa. “Liberal” has tried to negotiate the fault line by being words. Somewhere in his child- a different meaning applied to religion alert to the players. I was cautious about hood he must have bought than when applied to politics and soci- where I published, and what conferences the Sears Craftsman Toolbox ety. “Freethinker” should mean a man I attended. But in one reckless moment of Vocabulary. We could use who thinks freely, but in actual modern I signed up to attend the conference of someone like him to help us be Europe Chesterton thinks the conclu- a group that would have been brand- Caware of our vocabulary. Are you protect- sions to which such a thinker comes are ed conservative. I did not know what ing or tyrannizing? Is the person replying scripted for him. strange creatures I might meet. I did not or pouncing? Is that liberal or left? Right, Chesterton enjoyed debate, but he know the secret handshake, and per- or were you holding down the alt key at began with the conviction that “it is im- haps I would give myself away. And sure the same time? Chesterton thought that possible to have real debate without di- enough, on the first evening, over sherry “long words go rattling by us like long gression” and “every definition will look after the opening lecture, someone actu- railway trains,” and that the noisy thun- like a digression.” As your math teach- ally asked me, “So, are you a liberal?” As der deafens our inner ear. er used to insist upon you showing your a newly minted PhD did I have a scar- He offers an example. “If you say ‘The work, Chesterton insists upon you de- let L on my forehead, like a Gorbachev social utility of the indeterminate sen- fining your terms. He offers an example. birthmark? tence is recognized by all criminologists “Suppose somebody puts to me some But I had the presence of mind to as a part of our sociological evolution to- journalistic statement, say, ‘Spanish do something which I am recommend- wards a more humane and scientific view Jesuits denounced in Parliament.’ I can- ing to you. I asked my interlocutor what of punishment,’ you can go on talking like not deal with it without explaining to the he meant. A step rarely taken, but being that for hours with hardly a movement of journalist where I differ from him about slowly taught me by Chesterton. He an- the gray matter inside your skull. But if the atmosphere and implication of each swered, “You know, liberal. Like putting you begin ‘I wish Jones to go to gaol [jail] term in turn. I cannot answer quickly if I goldfish in the baptismal font for ecology and Brown to say when Jones shall come am just discovering slowly that the man Sunday.” (Apparently he had seen it.) So out,’ you will discover, with a thrill of hor- suffers from a series of extraordinary de- now I knew the boundary markers! Now ror, that you are obliged to think.” The les- lusions.” Chesterton wants to know what I knew the definitions—despite the short son learned, he says, is that long and com- the speaker thinks about Parliament— digression it had cost—and now we could fortable words have saved modern people that it is actually an actual representa- begin our conversation. By knowing the the toil of reasoning. The only difference tive assembly? Or about Spain—that it lay of the land we could begin on a com- between his day and ours, I suggest, is is decent or decadent? Or about Spanish mon ground. And it turned out to be a that now short and uncomfortable words Jesuits—that they are soft-footed court profitable discussion about conserving save us the toil of reasoning. Say “rac- chaplains, or is the speaker thinking of truth but making progress toward mean- ist” or “inequity” and we are saved from the Spanish Jesuit who anticipated the ingfulness for the modern worshiper. the drudgery of finding further facts. Say whole democratic theory of our day? It would be nice if little thought bub- “science” or “government” and we can put “Each of these explanations would have bles appeared over our heads, like in the our cerebral cortex up on blocks. to be a digression, and each would be funny papers, whenever we started our In this same chapter 8 of Orthodoxy he necessary.” discussions so that we could see our defi- goes on to observe that words mean dif- These digressions would be time-con- nition of terms. ferently in different settings. “Materialist” suming, I admit. But have we anything David Fagerberg is a Professor of Theology is a term of cosmology in the school of more important to do? We might have to at the University of Notre Dame in South science, but it is a moral taunt in ethi- do paper drives, as I did as a child, to pro- Bend, Indiana. cal circles. A man who hates “progres- vide newspapers with enough raw mate- sives” in London always calls himself by rial to print their definition of terms in

24 Volume 24 • Number 2, November/December 2020 BOOK REVIEWS trial. In making his case, he takes seri- ously their commitment to acting in ac- cordance with what Jefferson called the “laws of Nature and Nature’s God.” Therefore, Reilly begins not with the machinations of the first Continental American Made Congress of 1774, but with the “lega- cies of Athens, Jerusalem, and Rome.” America on Trial: A Defense important book. This patrimony may be becoming in- of the Founding. Make no mistake, the title of this creasingly remote to us, but it was not By Robert Reilly book notwithstanding, the American at all obscure to those who gathered in Ignatius Press Founders are not on trial here. We are. Philadelphia in 1776 and again in 1787. 366 pages What Robert Reilly has given us is in- It is commonplace in our highly sec- tellectual ammunition for the battle that ular age to regard the Founders as pre- Reviewed by Chuck Chalberg is upon us. The story that he tells is intel- maturely kindred spirits. After all, they lectual history at its best and most pro- were products of the Enlightenment, as the American found- found. It is not a blow-by-blow account were they not? And we are their inevi- ing flawed from the of the debates among the Founders, but table descendants, are we not? Not so, very beginning? G.K. an accounting of the intellectual and re- asserts Reilly, who boldly dissents from Chesterton didn’t think ligious roots of their creations. such wish-filled thinking. Curiously, but so. And neither does Their achievement of ordered and accurately—and sadly, we are further re- Robert Reilly. If there limited government was, in some mea- moved from our Founders than they Wis a difference between them, it is sure, the result of differences between were from the ancients. this: Chesterton’s focus was on the federalists and anti-federalists, as well To bolster his case Reilly borrows, Declaration of Independence, while as differences between representatives not from Chesterton, but from someone Reilly dwells on the close relationship of large and small states, and differenc- who might be labeled his next best stand- between Jefferson’s handiwork and the es between those of great and minimal in: Fr. James Schall. With Fr. Schall’s ac- accompanying Constitution of 1787. religious faith, not to mention differenc- knowledged assistance, Reilly begins by America, Chesterton asserted, was the es between those who owned slaves and reminding us that Socrates was put on only country with the soul of a church, those who didn’t. trial for believing that there could be a because it was the only country founded But Reilly’s focus is on none of those standard of justice independent of the on a creed. Today that creed is under at- differences. Instead he has concentrat- city’s gods. His placing of the ideal city tack from both the left and the right. The ed on what those differing, even dispu- in the spiritual realm “prefigured” the left would have us believe that the true tatious, founders drew upon to give us Christian separation of the sacred from American founding occurred in 1619 a creed and a constitution very much the secular. Without that separation, when the first black slaves were brought worth defending as we face our current what came to be the United States “would to the North American colonies of Great have been inconceivable.” Britain. Some on the right contend that Moreover, the notion of a powerful the founding of 1776 contained a poi- country grounded in limited govern- son pill, namely a radical individualism ment would have also been inconceiv- set to be time-released on future genera- able. Not coincidentally, this is the very tions of Americans. Witness the ability of country that is on trial today. Can the the Supreme Court to find constitutional United States be a powerful country sanction for abortion and same-sex mar- and yet remain committed to a limited riage. Reilly finds both decisions to be government, especially a federal gov- sadly and badly mistaken, but he refus- ernment of limited reach and power? es to blame our founding documents for Can we be a great country, as well as a them. Most of this book looks at what he good country? Can we be a free coun- takes to be the long road to the American try, but also one in which liberty does founding, rather than the relatively brief not equal license? road leading away from it. Reilly is clearly worried: “The ulti- To be sure, America was on trial mate ordering of man’s soul to the tran- in the late 18th century. It was also on scendent is the principle impetus for trial in the middle of the 19th century. limiting politics.” But Reilly’s immediate concern is the Here Reilly borrows first from trial that the country faces today, which Aristotle and then from Fr. Schall. has prompted him to write this very Aristotle: politics cannot be the highest

The Magazine of the Apostolate of Common Sense 25 All I Survey thing, because “man is not the highest that “God’s will is the first and only cause Instead, they took from Locke “that being in the world.” Schall: “Once we of things.” But if God is primarily will, which was useful to their revolution.” think contrary to Aristotle, that man He does not command certain behav- Locke’s emphasis is on ultimately achiev- is the highest being, it follows that the ior because it is good; instead such being happiness. In Reilly’s estimate, that state is the highest being, if it wants to havior is good because He commands happiness is never to be divorced from be.” (emphasis added) it. Therefore, nothing is objective “in the virtue and never to be an excuse for he- And just who is “it?” Is the source of character of acts themselves.” In sum, donism. But he is not about to give John evil to be located in the world or in man’s moral truth is “relocated to the will.” Locke the last word. Instead, he turns to will? Too many modern projects begin Accompanying this philosophical the American founders themselves and and end by locating evil somewhere progression is the rise of political ab- their “restorative founding on reason.” other than in man’s will. solutism, typically expressed by the di- The result of their work was an “extend- Let’s leave any temptation to resort vine right of monarchs. Luther and then ed federal republic, the likes of which the to political matters right there. Besides, Hobbes argue for the need for strong gov- world had never seen.” In other words, a man’s true home is “not the polis, but ernment. Without it, intoned Hobbes, “Novus Ordo Seclorum,” as is proclaimed the City of God.” That’s Mr. Reilly, not “men would devour one another.” on the Great Seal of the United States, a to mention Sts. Augustine and Paul, Such thinking is the basis for modern “new order of the ages.” In Reilly’s under- and many, many others. And Reilly is totalitarianism. But there is another de- standing the Founders were not bent on surely correct to conclude that most of tour before we get to Stalin and Mao. An creating a “new world order.” Nor were America’s founding fathers implicitly be- Englishman and Anglican priest, Richard they dreaming utopian dreams. But they lieved this. Hooker (1554–1600) reasserted the “in- were hopeful. Their central hope was that Reilly proceeds to take the read- tegrity of reason” and the “authority of America could serve as a new hope for er down deep into the “medieval roots natural law,” both of which he placed in mankind, demonstrating to Americans of constitutionalism,” all in the name of opposition to “pure will and power.” and to the world how political life could confirming a point made in the 11th cen- Next comes John Locke, whom the function “in conformity with human na- tury by Peter Damian, Bishop of Gubbio: American Founders took to be “in the ture, if it chose to do so.” But at that his- “All political authority derives from God, tradition” of Hooker. Neither a nominal- torical moment—and beyond—America but resides essentially in the people.” ist nor a voluntarist, Locke, according to would choose only for itself and not for But the line from the Middle Ages to Reilly, held that “moral rights and duties anyone else. the American founding is not a straight exist in the state of nature and precede There you have it. Is America, the one. Reilly takes us through the de- the formation of government.” only nation with the soul of a church, tours, starting with William of Ockham Of course, Jefferson appealed to a redeemer nation or is it not? And if it and nominalism, which “sundered the Locke, but Reilly adds, no doubt inelucta- is, does America redeem by missionary Thomist synthesis of faith and reason.” bly, that the Founders “did not read Locke deeds or by example? Robert Reilly has Nominalism led to voluntarism, the view and then decide to start a revolution.” no doubt about his answer to that question. Nor does he have any doubts about the answer of the American Founders. And he has no doubt that at this current GOD’S SPEED Being in the right lane historical moment America at home is by Jerry Schroeder very much on trial. We are on trial precisely because ow do we reflect the love of God when we drive? Jesus said, “I have chosen you to we have departed from the vision of Hbe different from those in the world” (John 15:18-19). What does it mean to be in our Founders in so many ways. Will we the world but not of the world when we are behind the wheel? How do we reflect the love of God when we and the people nearest us are man- ever recover it? Can we recover it? Or aging three-thousand pound machines at rapid speeds will we finally succumb to the utopian with little distance between us and almost no ability to temptations that our Founders rejected? communicate? Based on the piercing wisdom of G. K. Will modern efforts to “fundamental- Chesterton, one of Christianity’s ablest apologists, this ly transform” America take us even fur- spiritual guide to driving will inspire and challenge ther away from our founding? In fact, people of faith—and people without—to make driving will an America “on trial” become an a safer and happier adventure for all. In a word, it will America that has permanently lost its challenge you to drive with love. way, leaving its founders forever lost to Available now for $14.99 at lulu.com/shop; history? To avoid that fate, perhaps this use spy-glass icon to search by book title book will be one part of a new American and author’s name. recovery. John C. “Chuck” Chalberg is a retired history professor in Bloomington, Minnesota.

26 Volume 24 • Number 2, November/December 2020 All I Survey

of the citations come from GKC’s specif- Two Completely Different ic and voluminous writings on his social ideas defending human dignity, the Books about the Same Thing common good, subsidiarity, and solidarity. He makes zero references to Hilaire The Church’s Best Kept Secret no other issue can be maintained or sup- Belloc and only one passing reference to By Mark Shea ported without it. And sometimes it is a Pope Leo XIII and one to Pope Pius XI, New City Press question of proportion of what should whose writings really are the basic brick- 159 pages be emphasized because of the size of the work of Catholic Social Teaching, which problem. Mark says a true pro-life posi- is itself a modern development deal- If You Can Get It tion would be opposed both to abortion ing with the social problems created by By Brendan Hodge and capital punishment, and he has the the modern world. Maybe Mark doesn’t Ignatius Press recent popes back him up on this. Good. think the history lesson will resonate 282 pages True. But consider that last year there with the basically uninformed readers for were 22 executions. There were 860,000 whom the book is intended. Or maybe Reviewed by Dale Ahlquist abortions. Each of the executions are he’s kept the secret to himself. Or from human tragedies, and if an innocent man himself. Or maybe it’s been the best kept he subtitle of Mark Shea’s book was put to death, all the more tragic. But secret because there needs to be a better is “A Primer on Catholic Social all 860,000 babies were innocent. It may name for Distributism. Teaching,” and it serves very explain why some Catholics are more well in that capacity. If some- vocal about abortion than about other one has no idea what Catholic social issues. he best way to present a picture Social Teaching is (and that Secondly, why is Catholic Social of the real world is … through constitutesT a large portion of the popu- Teaching the Church’s best kept secret? fiction. It is in Brendan Hodges’ lation), this book lays it out clearly and I know an organization that has been excellent novel that we move crisply. Mark explains each of its four pil- talking about it for the last two decades, from the theoretical to the prac- lars: The Dignity of the Human Person, publishing books about it, committing tical and have an encounter The Common Good, Subsidiarity, and magazine space to it, giving time and at- withT two very authentic people whom we Solidarity. And for that, I’m happy to rec- tention to it at its national conference, will instantly recognize because, if they’re ommend the book to all. but Mark doesn’t mention it. And al- not members of our family, they belong But two bits of criticism must not go though he quotes G.K. Chesterton, none to some family we know. unmentioned. First, Mark calls Catholic Social Teaching the Church’s Best Kept Secret, implying that Catholics don’t know about it. And neither do non-Catholics. He’s right. But as he unfolds it, he argues that in a divided Church, here is something that should unify. Everyone can agree on these things, right? Well, yeah, but they sort of don’t because of abortion. Mark spends time talking about abortion by not talking about abortion but rather about those who do talk about it. Though he is certainly pro-life, he finds himself opposing those who oppose abortion, and he gets into an unnecessary bladder war with them because they choose to emphasize the evil of abortion and not the evils of poverty, capital punishment, racism, insufficient healthcare, abuse of natural resources, and so on and on and on. But there is no defending the dignity of the human person if we do not defend the right to life. It comes before all the other social teaching of the Church and

The Magazine of the Apostolate of Common Sense 27 All I Survey

Jen is an experienced business pro- white-knuckle terror, the psychological Jen starts asking herself what real- fessional in the middle strata of a major warfare of job interviews at the high cor- ly matters. She keeps getting the thing international corporation on the west porate level. There is a huge preparation she wants and then realizing it is not the coast. Her sister Katie has recently gradu- for what amounts to a very paltry gauge thing she had hoped for. “Is following the ated from college with a worthless major for success. Jen is let go from one position dollars,” she wonders aloud to an associ- and turns up at Jen’s door without warn- and hoisted into another, while retaining ate, “always the right thing to do?” The ing, having found it unbearable to live an agent to keep an eye out for some- question applies not only to the business with her parents back in the Midwest. thing better. She has a nightmarish trip world, where ridiculous and bizarre sac- She has no plan and no aims and makes to China to negotiate terms with a manu- rifices are made merely for an account- bad decisions. Now she needs a place to facturer, and the people in each link of the ing entry, but also to the “real” real world, stay. “Home,” as Robert Frost said, “is the chain along the way do not behave quite where there must be something better place where, when you have to go there, like normal human beings because noth- than the airport, the elevator, and the they have to take you in.” ing is normal about the process. Jen her- board room. The “real world” is not so much the self is forced into the necessity of keep- When Jen returns to the Midwest real world as the realization that the real ing a routine “in defense of sanity.” The and then finally returns to Mass with her world isn’t real, that is, not what it is sup- phrase jumped off the page for obvious family on a special occasion, she sudden- posed to be. It falls short. It falls because reasons, but mostly for the paradox that ly has a new appreciation for something of the Fall. It needs to be restored, re- the routine that supposedly protects us that she had forgotten, as the words renewed, regained. And it starts at home. from insanity is itself nearly insane. It is turn to her: “Enter under my roof … Say But we first have to figure out that we’re life just on the edge. Or the ledge. the word and my soul shall be healed.” homeless. A hotel is not a home. But nei- In the meantime, the sisters are in The grueling picture of globalism, the ther is a condo. Modern housing with its the drama of dating and the dynamics of comforting portrait of home and family, four white walls is characterless. Soulless. the family, which is cracked but not bro- and the profound invitation of the spo- Both Jen and Katie have been chewed ken, recovering, coping, bonded not just ken words, “Enter under my roof” com- up by the system, both chasing after by blood but by cooking and eating and bine to form one of the best and unex- they know not what, and fleeing from drinking and fixing things, by who else pected arguments for Catholic Social what they think they know. In this per- crosses the threshold, and by gradually Teaching that I’ve read in a long time. fectly crafted novel, which unfolds nat- rediscovering something that had been And a good argument for something we urally with all the right surprises, we neglected and abandoned in their lives: might call Localism. get engrossing accounts of the almost the Catholic Faith.

modeled his way of life on St. Francis’, Easy Writer practicing voluntary poverty, manu- al labor “given as a gift,” and ceaseless The Forgotten Radical Peter Maurin: by English Distributists, such as Hilaire prayer. Through discussions with any- Easy Essays from the Catholic Worker Belloc, Fr. Vincent McNabb, and one willing to listen, lectures at Catholic Edited by Lincoln Rice Chesterton himself. He wrote in a colleges, and publication in The Catholic Fordham University Press unique style for a largely American au- Worker newspaper, Maurin promoted a 584 pages dience in the 1930s and 1940s. Maurin’s three-point program. thoughts about recreating a First, came Round- Reviewed by Matt Riley just society out of the ruins Table Discussions “for the of the Great Depression res- clarification of thought.” mong 20th-century religious onate today, as the United Similar to GKC, Maurin and social movements with States is mired in economic was eager to debate with affinities to the thought of malaise and captured by cul- anyone, seek goodwill and G.K. Chesterton, the Catholic tural confusion. Peter Maurin common ground where Worker Movement is one may have almost as much to present, but also proclaim that continues to this day. teach us as does Gilbert Keith forthrightly the truth of AOne founder of the Worker, Dorothy Chesterton. the Faith. Day, is well known. Day’s co-found- With his thick accent and Second, Houses of Hos- er, Peter Maurin, receives less acclaim. “Bowery bum” appearance, pitality, wherein the Works The Forgotten Radical is a step towards Maurin was as eccentric as of Mercy could be prac- changing all that. his favorite saint—Chesterton’s, ticed. The needy would be Maurin was a French peasant who too—Francis of Assisi. During the years fed, clothed, and counseled, by Catholics emigrated to the U.S. He was influenced when he wrote, Maurin consciously “at a personal sacrifice,” rather than be

28 Volume 24 • Number 2, November/December 2020 All I Survey left to what Day scorned as “Holy Mother Rice, who teaches theology at Marquette The bulk of the big book belongs to State.” As Chesterton looked to the Middle University and is a member of the Casa the Easy Essays. Rice also includes: 87 Ages for models, so did Maurin see Hous- Maria Catholic Worker in Milwaukee, previously unpublished Essays about es of Hospitality as modern versions of an- never mentions the possibility of “Cult, Culture, and Cultivation” that are cient Christian hospices. Chesterton’s stylistic influence, but does “essential for anyone hoping to increase Third, Agronomic Universities—one capture the quality of Maurin’s writing: his or her appreciation of Maurin’s vi- of those phrases awkward at first but “At first glance Maurin’s Easy Essays ap- sion”; an introduction with a brief biog- sure to stick in one’s mind. Maurin saw pear only simplistic and preposterous. raphy of Maurin; five interviews that help those places as modern versions of vil- Further investigation reveals complexi- clarify Maurin’s thought; a list of books lage life, family farms with private prop- ty and nuance.” he recommended; and a Biographical erty, but also including shared common Rice has done fine work in editing Glossary valuable for readers who might land and resources. Renewed life on the and annotating the Essays, with notes fail to understand Maurin’s references to land was, in Maurin’s opinion, the only and commentary simultaneously schol- formerly famous politicians and writers solution to the collapse of industrial cap- arly and accessible. He often brings up of the Thirties. italism during the Depression, an idea in new information about the texts. For ex- The Forgotten Radical is a book best accord with the “back to land” ideas of ample, Rice points out that the Essays fol- read slowly. Even a single Easy Essay read Distributists. low the teaching method of St. John the each day can offer rewards if one ponders Peter Maurin presented his ideas by Baptist De La Salle (Maurin was taught Maurin’s point of view, follows up his means of 482 Easy Essays that take the by Christian Brothers, as was I), and that sometimes-veiled references, and con- form of “phrased paragraphs,” and at the “Green Revolution” Maurin promot- siders how to put Maurin’s plan into ac- first resemble lines of Whitmanesque ed along with Agronomic Universities tion in 2020. If one mark of a good book free verse. They abound in almost was less about “environmentalism” and is that it makes the reader think, then The Chestertonian humor, word play, and more about the model of the Irish (hence, Forgotten Radical surely succeeds. alliteration. One cannot help wonder- green) monks who preserved European ing whether Maurin’s English was in- civilization after the collapse of the fluenced by Chesterton’s style. Lincoln Roman Empire.

An Easy Essay by Peter Maurin

Secularism

When religion has nothing to do with education, education is only information, plenty of facts and no understanding. When religion has nothing to do with politics, politics is only factionalism— “Let’s turn the rascals out so our good friends can get in.” When religion has nothing to do with business business is only commercialism. And when religion has nothing to do with either education, politics, or business, you have the religion of business taking the place of the business of religion.

The Magazine of the Apostolate of Common Sense 29 TRUTH IN THE STATE OF TRANSMISSION As Chesterton says: “If children see that their teachers despise what their parents The Soul of Education desire, there is and must be a conflict of authorities. And there is, and must be, in the modern State, a monstrous dis- covery; that it is the more new and un- A Radical Idea That Might natural authority that has the power.” Chuck knows where the natural au- Not Be So Radical thority is: By Dale Ahlquist The best bet for a good society is strong families. And parental control of edu- I should naturally be inspired to sympa- cation is evidence of strong families at versed on the warts, but not much else.” thy with the ideal of turning all the rising work. After all, who is more invested in He understood, of course, that the found- generation into good citizens, if I could and concerned about a child’s success and ing fathers “were white, male and flawed. believe that what we call education real- well-being than the child’s parents? Many were also wealthy slave owners.” ly was turning them into good citizens, or In What’s Wrong with the World, G.K. into any kind of citizens. —G.K. CHESTERTON, But they gave us a creed and a constitu- Chesterton prophetically lists the four NEW WITNESS, DEC. 27, 1918 tion of ultimate benefit to all. Our true main problems that we still face: Big founding was 1776, not 1619, as the New n a recent essay entitled “Taking Government, Big Business, Feminism, York Times wants to insist. To be sure, Advantage of a Crisis” (written and Public Education. The first two, also our national birth came with a serious for the Center for the American known as Hudge and Gudge, have cer- defect: slavery. But it also offered—and Experiment) our own Chuck tainly made a show under the Covid delivered—great promise. Chalberg had a novel response to Plague to crush freedom and indepen- To believe that our country was the proposal floating around here dence. Feminism has given us abortion founded by slaveholders for slavery is Iin Minneapolis to defund the police. and the disintegration of the family. But to believe that what became the USA Instead of disputing the notion, Chuck the steady and spectacular decline of was rotten at its core. Such a country asked: Why stop with the police? “Maybe public education in America has been cannot be defended. More than that, it’s also time to ‘de-fund’ the K-12 sec- undeniable even though some still deny such a country does not deserve to be tor of what passes for public education it. The people who have been burning defended. in Minnesota.” down our cities are not uneducated; That country is not the United States they are badly educated. They were edu- The idea is to fund parents directly, of America, but a troubling number cated in our own schools. They absorbed rather than schools directly. Let the of its young clearly believe otherwise. the philosophies of the day, and as G.K. state legislature decide the going rate Therefore, they have come to believe Chesterton observes in Orthodoxy, every for the education of a K-12 age child, that it must be fundamentally trans- modern philosophy is not only crazy, but and then let the parents decide where formed, if not destroyed. self-destructive. Behold the results. that child should be educated and how This is a serious problem. How do that money should be spent. It’s called They talk a great deal about education, we even begin to solve it? Chuck sug- school choice. because it is compulsory education. gests that ceasing to fund public educa- A radical idea? No doubt. But this is Whether or no they can educate, they are tion might be a good place to start. After a radical idea that will directly empow- always eager to compel. But as a fact their all, why should we keep paying for pub- er parents, which is something that de- aim is the very contrary of education. It lic schools to teach our children a de- funding the police will not do. is the destruction of education, and even liberately distorted picture of the past Defenders of the status quo tout of experience. It is to make men forget and reasons to hate their own heritage? the virtues of public education. Once the past, forget the facts, forget the very (Not to mention our schools turning out upon a time those virtues were real. But memories of their own lives. And if their ill-thinkers in general.) Chuck calls it today? … Our public schools … today compulsory culture spreads successfully, “taxpayer funded non-teaching.” … are transmission belts for a political it is very likely that we shall be alone in The philosophy behind Chuck’s agenda that features such “isms” as mul- knowing what was known to every man, radical solution is not so radical at all: ticulturalism, environmentalism, secu- woman, and child, in the hour of our dan- Give parents more power to determine larism, and anti-Americanism. ger and deliverance. (New Witness, Sept. how their children are educated. Make 24, 1920) Chuck explains that when he taught teachers accountable to the parents of American history at a community col- the students rather than accountable to Like most of the giant problems fac- lege, his philosophy was to tell the story the State. What makes a society strong? ing our society, people feel helpless to de- warts-and-all. But he noticed how, over The artificial props of state machinery, feat the Goliath called Public Education, time, his students became “pretty well or the natural foundation of the family? and they are merely resigned somehow

30 Volume 24 • Number 2, November/December 2020 to cope with it. Slaying the giant might movement to defund public education? bad schools—which are already unsus- be the quick solution, but there seems no Who will join in our crusade? tainable—will find themselves with not quick way to do it. Cutting off the life- In the meantime, however, there is a enough students even to pretend they are blood to public schools (i.e. taxes) would local solution to our education problem: worth public support. We can shut down effectively kill them, but that requires a start your own school. (We can show public education by eliminating not only political upheaval. We’ve been having you how to start a classical Catholic high the excuses for it, but the demand for it. a lot of those lately and it seems that school, if you’re interested.) If enough And we can do it from the bottom up. more are brewing. Well, why not start a people start good small schools, the big

CHESTERTON’S MAIL BAG reason, was a monument about the dignity of those who suffered under the op- Gilbert Keith Chesterton Answers His Mail pression of racist white Christians, and it avoided giving offense to the feelings and faiths of others. Local Issues Such as Signed, Stonehenge, Public Mr. Ellison Dear Mr. Ellison, To put the meaning more plainly, it did Monuments, and Peasants not offend any religion except our own religion. Dear Mr. Chesterton, without fixity of tenure, and practically Your friend, For all your arguments against Central- quite without religion. They may monkey G.K. Chesterton ization, you don’t seem to understand about with old monuments, and small (New Witness, Aug. 20, 1920) we need a central authority to protect blame to them; they are taught no his- important cultural sites that are vital tory, and they are forced to make their to world heritage. For instance, unless pleasures feverish. But millions of other Stonehenge were protected it would have people before them have passed over been defaced by tourists. Salisbury Plain: blue Britons and rigid Dear Mr. Chesterton, Signed, Romans and Danish pirates and medi- You far too much praise the virtue of the Mr. Ernest eval pilgrims and ordinary, everlasting local peasantry. Peasants, no less than human yokels going about their own Dear Mr. Ernest, business. There was never any earthly Until a year or two ago, Stonehenge reason why any of them should have was never protected; Stonehenge was destroyed Stonehenge; and in point never defaced. You are laying upon the of fact, none of them did. crime-laden centuries the burden of Your friend, one particular complication of which G.K. Chesterton we and we alone have ever been guilty. (Daily News, June 22, 1912) The creation of big populations in ugly towns, without personal property, without continuity of residence, without experience of natural beauty or leisure for the milder emotions—this is entirely a Dear Mr. Chesterton, new phenomenon. It has never existed These local monuments that you before, not in pagan slavery. The three seem so concerned about pro- things that make a man respect a pic- tecting probably should never turesque spot are primarily the sense of have been erected in the first landscape, the sentiment of locality, and place. They were a certain feeling of sacredness which is offensive. One akin to religion. The poorer populations more recent public in the great industrial groups are the monument that re- first people who have ever lived who are mained standing, quite without land or agriculture, quite and for good Chesterton’s Mail Bag other men, have itching palms, and it is perhaps ever will produce. I hope I need millionaire. I hardly know a single his- sheer sentimentalism to describe as hon- not say that I do not compare stockbro- torical case of one peasant swallowing up est or honourable in a peasant what is de- kers and street-walkers; but I do compare all the rest, as one shopkeeper swallows nounced as dishonest and dishonourable marriage and property, especially peas- up all the rest. Thus the self-respect of a in a stockbroker. ant property; and I do mean that there peasant is something differing very prac- Signed, is all the difference in the world between tically from the self-satisfaction of a fi- Mr. Ervine appetite, or even avarice, that does pro- nancier; because it actually does a social duce a real responsible heritage, and ap- service, in that it prevents that gross in- Dear Mr. Ervine, petite and avarice that does not. Some equality which now endangers all civili- You might as well say it is sentimental- peasants are selfish, because some men zation. Peasant property is not only well ism to distinguish between sex as sym- are selfish; but the selfishness may be distributed, but remains well distributed, bolized in a wife and as symbolized in a lifted, in a producer, into a self-respect which is surely the social result at which street-walker. Both have a practical side, which is impossible in a gambler. And we all sane men are aiming to-day. So it is and may have practical vices. A wife see the result in the great reality which quite vain for Mr. St. John Ervine to sug- may nag, as a peasant may haggle; for is the root of all this argument: the bet- gest, in however kindly a manner, that I the healthiest institutions do not elimi- ter and more permanent proportion of idealise the peasant as an Arcadian shep- nate human sin. But surely there are no property. I have known many stockbro- herd; because I do the very reverse. As I such things as healthy institutions, as dis- kers who shone with virtues; and I mean say, I can salute virtues in a stockbroker; tinct from unhealthy ones. There is such no flippancy at their expense. But it is and I am quite prepared for the chance of a thing as using sex and property in a a historical fact that of twenty stockbro- vices in a peasant. And I see that there is sane and fruitful way, instead of a fever- kers living in a suburb, when one grows more solid social utility in the very vices ish and fruitless way. A peasant produc- wealthy as “a great financier,” he is ad- of a peasant than in the very virtues of a es and protects something real; as mar- vertised in all the papers the stockbro- stockbroker. riage produces and protects children. A kers read, and even in all the talks in the Your friend, mere financier deals at best with some- trams and tubes they frequent; the so- G.K. Chesterton thing somebody else has produced, or cial atmosphere helps him to become a (The Observer, Nov. 13, 1919)

New Chesternitions — S1 ✦ Sabbath: (Jewish) ✦ spade: an agricultural implement with a handle, shaft, and the particular obser- flat blade for lifting soil. What on earth is the good of calling vance of sitting still and doing no work, which suits my tem- a spade a spade? As long as the nature of a spade is agreed perament down to the ground. (Daily News, April 24, 1909) upon; it is mere tautology, and the moment its nature is dis- puted you must have another definition. It is not a triumph ✦ Sabbath: (Puritan) Worshipping God with inconvenienc- of wisdom to be able to say the same word twice over. (Daily es; leisure without liberty. (Daily News, April 24, 1909; New Witness, News, June 11, 1903) Feb. 21, 1919)

✦ sacrilege: a topsy-turvy superstition. (Illustrated London News, Mar. 31, 1917)

✦ sage: the sayer of things. (Daily News, Sept. 23, 1905)

✦ satirist: a man who can see that a fashion is funny even while it is still fashionable. (Listener, Jan. 4, 1933)

✦ schism: an impersonal quarrel (G.K.’s Weekly, Sept. 3, 1932)

✦ scientific method: reaching success by experimenting in an infinite number of failures. (Illustrated London News, July 15, 1916)

✦ sect: a section; a separated part of something that is not a sect. (G.K.’s Weekly, June 11, 1927)

✦ seeing: ascertaining the actual existence of some independent external object through the optical process. (Illustrated London News, June 20, 1931)

✦ sentimentalism: tame sensationalism. (G.K.’s Weekly, May 12, 1928)

32 Volume 24 • Number 2, November/December 2020 The Chesterton Review the journal of the G. K. Chesterton Institute for Faith & Culture Founded in 1974

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The Magazine of the Apostolate of Common Sense 33 THE SIGNATURE OF MAN making more shepherds. It might be put defiantly by saying that the great modern Chesterton on Art need is to uneducate the people. I do not mean merely uneducate the populace; I mean more especially uneducate the educated. It might be put much more truly by saying, as we have to say at the end of so many entirely rationalistic inquiries, that what the modern world wants is religion or something that will create a certain ultimate spirit of humility, of enthu- “Are the Artists siasm, and of thanks. It is not even to be done merely by educating the people in Going Mad?” the artistic virtues of insight and selec- tion. It is to be done much more by ed- erely to wish for advanced feels that there might yet be a surprise ucating the artists in the popular virtues art is not anarchism; it is in the drawing of ugly faces. To judge by of astonishment and enjoyment. It is not simply snobbishness, and some of the society beauties he paints, to be achieved by the artist leaving the snobbishness more vul- we might say that he is trying to fright- crowd further and further behind in his gar than the vulgarest wor- en himself. And there would be this de- wild-goose chase, nor even by the crowd ship of rank and wealth. gree of serious truth in it, that this typ- running hard enough to keep up with MFor, after all, there is at least a low sort of ical sort of modern artist, whatever else the artist; but rather by the artist turn- sincerity in that sort of snobbery. Rich he is, is primarily a self-tormentor. At the ing round and looking at the crowd, and people can give their sycophants solid best he is pinching himself to see if he realizing that it is rather more interest- pleasure of a sort, for which they can be is awake, not having about him the real ing than a whole flock of wild geese. thanked without falsehood; and it is a white daylight of wonder to keep him (Century Magazine, December, 1922) shade more honest for men to praise a wide-awake. At the worst he is sticking patron for the champagne and cigars they pins all over himself to find the one live do enjoy than for the pictures and statues spot, as the witch-finders of a livelier age they only pretend to enjoy. But as these did it to find the one dead spot. I am not great revolutions in art are never patron- sure that even the old picture of the live ized by anybody except the very rich, we people brought to death is more horrible shall all be relieved to hear that the two than the new picture of such dead peo- different types of snobbishness can gen- ple brought to life. Anyhow, it is sure- erally be practised at the same dinner-ta- ly obvious that there is no permanent ble. Anyhow, the fashion in these things progress that way; that we cannot really is almost always some form or other of be rejuvenated by becoming more and intellectual cowardice, and many emi- more jaded, or making mere insensibili- nent persons say to one another, “A very ty a spur to sensations. Still less, of course, interesting experiment,” or, “An attempt do we so come any nearer to our problem to approach life from a new angle,” when, of the revival of popular art. If the mob if they were moved suddenly to candor, does not always enter into the feelings they would look at one another and say, of geniuses, at least it cannot be asked “Are all the artists going mad?” to enter into all the feelings of lunatics, In one respect at least the artists are or men whose methods are as individu- really to blame. al and isolated as the maniacs of an asy- The real weakness of the best of the lum. The real solution does not lie that new Primitives is that their quaintness way, but exactly the opposite way. It does does not arise out of a universal world of not lie in increasing the number of artists wonder, but rather out of a world with- who can startle us with complex things, out wonder; it comes not from simplic- but by increasing the number of people ity, but from satiety. The shepherds who who can be startled by common things. watched the first sketches of Giotto were It lies in restoring relish and receptivi- surprised that he could draw a face, and ty to human society; and that is anoth- therefore still more surprised that he er question and a more important one. Muse Inspiring the Poet (Portrait could draw a beautiful face. But the mod- It is enough to say here that it not only of Guillaume Apollinaire and Marie ern Giotto is tired of beautiful faces, and means making more Giottos, but also Laurencin), by Henri Rousseau

34 Volume 24 • Number 2, November/December 2020 VARIED TYPES How clear is your vision at the end of 2020? Can you see? If not, are your “No Devil Worshipers Please.” —G.K. CHESTERTON eyes closed, or are you sleeping? Have the distractions caused you to lose your focus? Is the smoke in your eyes? Can you find a pair of pince-nez glasses? Are you reading Chesterton? Do you see the beam of light piercing the dark- 20/20 ness ahead of us? Are you experiencing a life of Orthodoxy? By Victoria Darkey Proclaiming, building, and supporting Chesterton’s 20/20 vision for rom the beginning of this year, is willing to loan me his pair of pince- Classical Education, Domesticity, as turmoil and change have nez reading glasses. Putting them on, Distributism, and Local Communities unfolded, I have mused at the the air clears and I begin to see. is how The Society of Gilbert Keith fact that this is 2020. “20/20” is Most of the painful realities of Chesterton is working to fulfill its mis- the value given to a measure- 2020 are not really novel. In fact, our sion. Despite 2020’s best efforts to un- ment of visual acuity. The un- be-spectacled friend saw them, and dermine, suppress, and redefine the Ffortunate symbol for this year is a mask. wrote about them 100 years ago. It turns familiar ways of communication and When wearing it, my eyes remain un- out G.K. Chesterton has 20/20 vision. connection, the local communities of covered. By virtue of its name, the year When I read him, with the light of his the Society of Gilbert Keith Chesterton 2020 is challenging me to open my eyes insight (and with the loan of his lenses), keep growing. The Chesterton Schools and see what is going on. I gain focus, and a sense of perspective. Network, Teach for Christ, Local It’s not easy to see through the haze Reading Chesterton, it is clear that Chesterton Societies, and the Frances cast by the various novelties, conflicts, orthodoxy is what is true. Orthodoxy Chesterton Rosary League are each lies, and losses of 2020. Media outlets (which literally means “right view” or finding ways to stay connected and have become a cacophony of conflict- “correct seeing”) is home to everything keep functioning. Are you connected ing propagandas driven by commer- that is important. in one or more of these communities? cial interests. Big business is busy as Reading Chesterton, I see with clar- If not, do you need to find one, or start ever, fattening itself by devouring small ity the vital importance of three other one? businesses. Governments and institu- things: love for home and family life Here are some questions for anyone tions seem to be most concerned with (Domesticity), the proper ordering of already immersed in a local Chesterton monetizing or weaponizing whatever work and property (Distributism), and community of some kind. What if or whomever they can in order to pro- the transmission of a whole truth of our different kinds of Chesterton tect themselves and keep control. And things, centered on the Incarnation of Communities were more connect- the education system, cut loose from Christ (Classical Education). Since the ed? What if each Local Chesterton the moorings of truth, is careening beginning of Christianity, experience Society had some members who con- into an abyss, and taking the minds of proves that these endeavors are best ac- nected outside of their society meet- countless young people with it. Peering complished and thrive with the support ings to pray as a chapter of the Frances over my mask, I realize I am straining and fraternity of others who are pursu- Chesterton Rosary League? What to see through the smoke-filled air of a ing the same things, in the same place if each Frances Chesterton Rosary battlefield. (Local Communities). League group prayed for the needs of With 2020 almost in the rear view Looking up from my reading, I Teach for Christ, and for the founding mirror, it is time for reflection. Do I focus on this connection: Domesticity, of a Chesterton Academy in their area? have clarity? With so much of the fa- Distributism, Classical Education, What if every Chesterton Academy in miliar and the comfortable stripped and Local Communities. It means liv- the Schools Network had a chapter of away in 2020, do I have “20/20 vision” ing a life of Orthodoxy. From a life of the Frances Chesterton Rosary League of what is true … of what is important Orthodoxy springs Faith, Hope, and for their school families? And what if in life? How accurately do I see myself, Charity. Hidden within it is unbound- every Chesterton Academy was home or my neighbor? Do I see the big pic- ed Joy. This is the beam of light pierc- to a Local Chesterton Society so the ture presented to me in the context of ing the darkness. This is something for parents could get to know Chesterton, the past? Does anything about the fu- which to be immensely grateful. too? Could this be the 20/20 way for- ture look clear? Am I sufficiently grate- Now I must take what up to this ward from 2020? ful for the good that has been revealed point has been a self-talk session, and Victoria Darkey serves as the Local this year? Looking ahead, can I see the turn it over to you, my dear reader. Chesterton Societies Liaison from her home light beam piercing the darkness? Here are some questions, which you in Harmony, Pennsylvania. Thankfully, I have an old friend who can answer for yourself.

The Magazine of the Apostolate of Common Sense 35 LETTER TO AMERICA brings back that feeling of the varied and unlimited earth that our fathers had be- G.K. Chesterton in the New York American fore there was all this nonsense about communal communications. Henceforth traveling will really be a risk, and therefore a romance. Do we not all remember the fasci- nation of that old fairy tale or adven- Back to Fairyland ture story in which the hero crossed a range of mountains and came into a By G.K. Chesterton new kingdom; where the king’s daugh- ter was frozen into a statue till a strang- sometimes have faint and fantastic machines pay, or whether they can pay er should disenchant her; or where the hopes that the topsy-turvy revolu- for them, or whether they produce any- king was cutting off everybody’s beard tions now going on all over the earth thing to speak of; they simply want to see to make a ladder of hair to the moon; or will lead us at last, not (thank God) the wheels go round. where every man must hop on one leg to Utopia, but rather back again to In other words, they have new idols because the king’s eldest son was lame? Fairyland. I mean to that wonderful to worship, rather like the idols the The world, I am happy to say, is becom- Iworld in which the three sons of the mill- Mexicans and Peruvians worshipped being very like that again. er went out to seek their fortunes; that fore the Spaniards came. They fulfill all In the boys’ adventure tales of my primitive world of which we read in our the requirements. They are huge, they youth I often read of savages who wor- childhood, in which traveling in foreign are inhuman, they are hideous; and they shiped a steam engine. I know the countries really meant in strange coun- worshiped with human sacrifice. But that Bolshevists are only savages worship- tries; countries in which we ourselves is only another of the local varieties the ing a steam engine. I often read of white would be strangers and all the life and modern world will show. men cheating black men by predicting an landscape splendidly strange. There is a very prosperous and well- eclipse; I know that all scientific social Once more giving thanks to God, we governed state today, of which travelers prophecy is exactly like the prophecy in may record that, whoever else is right, say that you can go through it in comfort my old story book; with the slight differ- the scientific prophets are always wrong. if you do not actually mention the name ence that it doesn’t come true. But if the We were told immediately after the Great of its ruler; as, for instance … all travelers world is going mad, it is not going mono- War, we were told up to quite a short time in America … That is exactly like some maniac. It is going mad in twenty differ- ago, that everything would be united in a old story of wandering in a magic king- ent ways; and traveling will be some fun World State, governed by the same prin- dom. There is another country where ev- after all. ciples from Pole to Pole. And though, erything has been abolished except the From The New York American, August 26, since then, many disasters have fallen on name of the ruler. 1933 the world, at least we have been spared After all, in a way, it is great fun. It that disaster. Anyhow, it has been exactly the opposite event. Nation after nation CHESTERTON’S SKETCHBOOK has sprung up, starting schemes of their own, which are at any rate quite independent, and often appear to other people to be quite insane. The great Irish leader proposes to make a new Ireland by making it simply support itself, so far as possible, in the manly dignified and logical manner of Robinson Crusoe. Personally, I have great sympathy with him; but I am not talking about sympathies; I am talking about varieties. At the same time, the people who are called Communists in Russia do not really seem to care very much for Communism, but care enor- mously for clockwork. Give them great Courtesy of the Kelly big iron machines that make a noise Library, University of St. night and day, and they are perfect- Michael’s, Toronto ly happy. They do not care whether the

36 Volume 24 • Number 2, November/December 2020 THE REVIEWS ARE IN! “Well, I started to read Orthodoxy, but I couldn’t figure out what he was talking about and I never finished it…” “I recommended Orthodoxy to a friend, and he said he just couldn’t get into it …” “Confusing…” “I don’t understand why you like it so much. In fact, I don’t understand anything about it…” “It might have been good in its day, but that day isn’t t o d a y…” “I’ve been meaning to pick it up and try again sometime because I’ve heard it’s supposed to be good…" “Who is Hanwell anyway?” “ Um …” Photo by Dima Valkov rom Pexels Photo by Dima Valkov

ven G.K. Chesterton’s most ardent defenders have to admit that many readers they know have had those exact reactions to what is perhaps Chesterton’s most E important book. But now there is a solution: AN AMERICAN TRANSLATION OF ORTHODOXY By Dale Ahlquist, Peter Northcutt, and Kevin O’Brien YES! IT’S TRUE! It is what you have wanted, and what you did not even know you

wanted, and now you can have it, and you will love it!

It preserves the beauty and wit and grace of

Chesterton’s poetic prose, but … you’ll see! Get your

copy today, and then start getting copies for your family and friends. ONLY $12.95 MEMBER $10.35 PRICE www.chesterton.org Non-Profit Gilbert! U.S. Postage The Society of Gilbert Keith Chesterton PAID 1320 Mainstreet, Hopkins, MN 55343 Permit No 333 CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED New Haven, KY www.gilbertmagazine.com

An Invitation from Dale Ahlquist

Knights of the Apostolate of Common Sense Dim drums throbbing, in the hills half heard … —Lepanto by G.K. Chesterton Just as Don John of Austria was called to defend Christendom at the history- changing Battle of Lepanto, I believe we are called to fight and defeat the newest enemy of our civilization. The degradation of our culture has inflicted damage on young, formative minds. In the midst of the pandemic and nation-wide violence, this evil has accelerated. Of great concern is the devastating impact on our Catholic schools, many disappearing for lack of funds. Yet, praise God, we are experiencing what approaches a miracle. In the midst of this darkness, we have been opening new Catholic, classical high schools through the Chesterton Schools Network. Demand is overwhelming and we now have 33 schools operating across the United States, Canada, and Italy. The Chesterton Schools Network has been reclaiming Christendom by teaching truth, beauty, and goodness. As the demand and need for our schools is exploding, we need help to create a strong and sustainable source of monthly donations to support them. That is why we have established the elite fighting corps, The Knights of the Apostolate of Common Sense. I am calling upon you to become a Knight or Lady of the Apostolate. By joining, you’ll receive: ♦ Personally-signed copy of the annotated Lepanto, edited by Dale Ahlquist ♦ Quarterly, virtual cocktail hour with Dale Ahlquist ♦ Annual Knights’ Dinner ♦ Special invitations to pilgrimages and events

Become a joyful warrior with us! Join today at www.Chesterton.org/knights

Our effort to restore affordable, classical Catholic education is emerging as the most important work of the Society of Gilbert Keith Chesterton.