Distribute the Machinery (GK Chesterton 6-Video)

April 4, 2021

In the fourth part of The Outline of Sanity, GK Chesterton deals with “Some Aspects of Machinery” in his usual ironic and witty way, making some solid points. I try to update his points and apply them to our current state of technology, noticing with Chesterton along the way that capitalist practices are not the most efficient or equitable way to go. Chesterton proffers his ideas on when to let go of technology and how the machinery we do want (or more accurately the fruits thereof) could be distributed. … More Distribute the Machinery (GK Chesterton 6-Video)

GK Chesterton: Agrarian Communalist (5-Audio)

March 29, 2021

In this podcast I cover the section of GK Chesterton’s book, The Outline of Sanity, that deals with agriculture. Chesterton does not agree that the industrialization of England was a good thing, and points out the flaws of massive urbanization. He defends the settled way of life as in some ways superior to the urban way of life. He also defends a mixed economy with some degree of socialism and a greater degree of private property, spread out by state edict. … More GK Chesterton: Agrarian Communalist (5-Audio)

GK Chesterton: Agrarian Communalist (5-Video)

March 29, 2021

In this video I cover the section of GK Chesterton’s book, The Outline of Sanity, that deals with agriculture. Chesterton does not agree that the industrialization of England was a good thing, and points out the flaws of massive urbanization. He defends the settled way of life as in some ways superior to the urban way of life. He also defends a mixed economy with some degree of socialism and a greater degree of private property, spread out by state edict.. … More GK Chesterton: Agrarian Communalist (5-Video)

On Rousseau, Authenticity, Sincerity and Self-Deception: An Interview with John Warner (Audio)

March 20, 2021

As a sequel to my series on Charles Taylor’s The Malaise of Modernity, I asked John Warner in to discuss Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s thoughts on the development of the modern self. Warner is an expert on Rousseau’s political thought. He is the author of Rousseau and the Problem of Human Relations (2018) and many articles on Rousseau. His most recent article deals with Rousseau on sincerity and self-deception. Charles Taylor’s book attempts to discern the original meaning of the concept of authenticity and invokes Rousseau as a source, arguing that along the way the concept of authenticity was corrupted into mere shallow narcissism. Warner’s views help us to understand to what extent Rousseau should be seen as contributing to the contemporary rendition of authenticity and how Rousseau can help shed light on the modern unsettled sense of self. … More On Rousseau, Authenticity, Sincerity and Self-Deception: An Interview with John Warner (Audio)

On Rousseau, Authenticity, Sincerity and Self-Deception: An Interview with John Warner (Video)

March 20, 2021

As a sequel to my series on Charles Taylor’s The Malaise of Modernity, I asked John Warner in to discuss Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s thoughts on the development of the modern self. Warner is an expert on Rousseau’s political thought. He is the author of Rousseau and the Problem of Human Relations (2018) and many articles on Rousseau. His most recent article deals with Rousseau on sincerity and self-deception. Charles Taylor’s book attempts to discern the original meaning of the concept of authenticity and invokes Rousseau as a source, arguing that along the way the concept of authenticity was corrupted into mere shallow narcissism. Warner’s views help us to understand to what extent Rousseau should be seen as contributing to the contemporary rendition of authenticity and how Rousseau can help shed light on the modern unsettled sense of self. … More On Rousseau, Authenticity, Sincerity and Self-Deception: An Interview with John Warner (Video)

“If they served their God as they have served their Pork King…” (4)

March 14, 2021

Chesterton says of Christians “…if they had served their God as they have served their Pork King and their Petrol King, the success of our whole Distributive democracy would stare at the world like one of their flaming sky signs and scrape the sky like one of their crazy towers.” (p. 123, The Outline of Sanity) Part 2 of this book includes discussion of how Christians actually think about topics like capitalism, socialism, and Distributism, and how Chesterton wishes they’d think. Characters like the “old gentleman” and the “poor old clergyman” show how focusing on the favored target (socialism) or simply living in an imaginary world (the land of competitive capitalism) keep many such characters in a situation that amounts to giving up and rolling over. … More “If they served their God as they have served their Pork King…” (4)

“If they served their God as they have served their Pork King…” (4-Video)

March 14, 2021

Chesterton says of Christians “…if they had served their God as they have served their Pork King and their Petrol King, the success of our whole Distributive democracy would stare at the world like one of their flaming sky signs and scrape the sky like one of their crazy towers.” (p. 123, The Outline of Sanity) Part 2 of this book includes discussion of how Christians actually think about topics like capitalism, socialism, and Distributism, and how Chesterton wishes they’d think. Characters like the “old gentleman” and the “poor old clergyman” show how focusing on the favored target (socialism) or simply living in an imaginary world (the land of competitive capitalism) keep many such characters in a situation that amounts to giving up and rolling over. … More “If they served their God as they have served their Pork King…” (4-Video)

GK Chesterton’s Distributist Vision (3-Audo)

March 8, 2021

I delve deeper into GK Chesterton’s late work, The Outline of Sanity, as criticizes more deeply the prevailing capitalist free market imaginary and, more importantly, lays out what distributism would be like and the steps he proposes to get there. One of the strongest recommendation he gives is to break up monopolies and protect experimental uses of property from innovation-destroying competition. … More GK Chesterton’s Distributist Vision (3-Audo)

GK Chesterton’s Distributist Vision (3-Video)

March 8, 2021

I delve deeper into GK Chesterton’s late work, The Outline of Sanity, as criticizes more deeply the prevailing capitalist free market imaginary and, more importantly, lays out what distributism would be like and the steps he proposes to get there. One of the strongest recommendation he gives is to break up monopolies and protect experimental uses of property from innovation-destroying competition. … More GK Chesterton’s Distributist Vision (3-Video)

GK Chesterton on Capitalist Despair (Audio)

February 28, 2021

In Chapters 2 and 3 of GK Chesterton’s The Outline of Sanity (1926) we get perhaps one of the first identifications of and arguments against capitalist realism, the idea that we can do no better. He also anticipates some aspects of neoliberal capitalism which we are all too familiar with today, particularly the idea that workers must simply sacrifice for the greater good rather than hope to really get ahead and be happy themselves. Chesterton lays the groundwork for his proposal of a third way economy of Distributism. … More GK Chesterton on Capitalist Despair (Audio)