At the G.K.Chesterton conference held on May 27 Fr Ian Boyd and Prof. Dermot Quinn made an impassioned plea against the mental fatigue that is sapping the vitality of a society which is in bad shape.
Above all, it was an appeal for the restoration of property, which is the only guarantee to enable us to achieve our full potential and enjoy authentic democracy and economic freedom.
Unfortunately, Chesterton used the clumsy and unattractive term ‘distributism’ to express this ideological concept. Despite the mockery and scorn with which this concept was received and eventually dismissed, Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc remained its leading exponents, as they believed distributism was the key to redeeming people who were at the mercy of the State or powerful capitalist interests.
As Fr Boyd said, “liberty is the highest gift of God”. In order to be exercised, man needs property so as to realise his economic independence and become responsible for his destiny. Fr Boyd quoted Chesterton’s powerful statement that “property is the sacramental solidification of liberty. Property is to liberty what arithmetic is to algebra, what art is to beauty, or, if I may use the highest example what Christ is to God”.
He pointed out Chesterton’s prophecy, made over 80 years ago in 1927, that the peril we face is the downgrading of culture that would lead to “standardisation by a low standard”. Needless to say, Chesterton’s prophesy has been proved right and we are seeing the results of having neglected his exhortations.
One need only look at the degradation of the physical environment, at the pollution of the air, water and the corruption of the food chain, combined with the accompanying moral decadence that has undermined the stability of family and religious life to recognise that we cannot carry on with the current state of affairs.
The post-war euphoric belief that the all-powerful State would liberate people collapsed with the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989. It has now been followed by the deep disenchantment in the idolatry of the so-called ‘free market’ and globalised capitalism.
Chesterton’s appeal to recover the dignity of man by creating a social and political framework that rewards responsibility and which curbs exploitation by powerful economic interests is as relevant as ever.
Man needs property to realise his economic independence
Although it upholds private initiative and independence, distributism does not imply the abdication of government intervention. On the contrary, government must encourage economics on a human scale that promotes policies that favour small businesses, that stands up to monopolies, penalises environmental abuse and encourages economic independence and safeguards the integrity of the family.
Prof. Quinn pointed out that despite his apparent impractical idealism, Chesterton had very clear-cut and concrete suggestions as to how distributism could be introduced.
The talks of Fr Boyd and Prof. Quinn interlocked beautifully. Prof. Quinn also referred to “that mental fatigue – the expectation that the State, or an employer, or a patron would always provide – was the disease for which distributism proposed itself as the cure”.
Both speakers passionately underpinned the primacy of religion and the spiritual renewal that Chesterton had championed as he strongly believed it indispensable to realising the fullness of human dignity.
As Fr Boyd stressed: “Chesterton saw social reform as primarily a religious work. To awaken and preserve a sense of wonder and thanksgiving was for him the basis for all reform. To lose or neglect this sense of wonder and gratitude was the most serious weakness that can afflict an individual or a people and leads to the death of civilisation.”
As Aidan Mackey, a foremost Chesterton scholar said: “We live in disturbed and, largely, unhappy times. I am neither diffident nor apologetic in saying that one major factor in finding a path back to social and religious stability and sanity may well depend upon how attentively we are prepared to listen to the wisdom of G.K.Chesterton.”
One hopes that the conference served its purpose to sensitise public opinion here in Malta to the wisdom of Chesterton, a prophet of the 21st century, a man whose time has come.
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