VITAL SIGNS

man who has not only a faith in democ- its accidental, allusion to ideals. I judge
racy, but a great tenderness for revolu- many things by their parentheses.
tion, may nevertheless stand outside the Now, I wish to say first that socialistic
movement commonly called socialism. idealism does not attract me very much,
Why I Am Not a If I am to do this, I must make two prefa- even as idealism. The glimpses it gives
tory remarks. The first is a short plati- of our future happiness depress me very
Socialist tude; the second is a rather long personal much. They do not remind me of any ac-
explanation. But they both have to be tual human happiness, of any happy day
by G.K. Chesterton stated before we get on to absolute doc- that I have ever myself spent. No doubt
trines, which are the most important there are many socialists who feel this,
Though Chesterton disliked socialism in- things in the world. and there are many who will reply that
tensely, he did not regard it as the most se- The terse and necessary truism is it has nothing to do with the actual pro-
rious danger facing Western civilization. the same as that with which Mr. Belloc posal of socialism. But my point here is
Writing in 1925, he describes the socialist opened his article in this paper. It is the that I do admit such allusive elements in-
state as something "centralized, imperson- expression of ordinary human disgust at to my choice. I will take one instance of
al, and monotonous" but suggests that this the industrial system. To say that I do not the kind of thing I mean. Almost all so-
is also an accurate description ofthe societ- like the present state of wealth and pover- cialist Utopias make the happiness or at
ies in the modem industrialized West that ty is merely to say I am not a devil in hu- least the altruistic happiness of the future
regard themselves as enemies of socialism. man form. No one but Satan or Beelze- chiefly consist in the pleasure of sharing,
The coming peril was something Chester- bub could like the present state of wealth as we share a public park or the mustard
ton called "standardization by a low stan- and poverty. But the second point is rath- at a restaurant. This, I say, is the com-
dard," and that danger was as much a er more personal and elaborate; and yet monest sentiment in socialist writing. So-
characteristic of the West as it was of the I think that it will make things clearer cialists are collectivist in their proposals.
Soviet East. The next great heresy, Ches- to explain it. Before I come to the actu- But they are communist in their ideal-
terton insisted, was not Bolshevism but an al proposal of collectivism, I want to say ism. Now there is a real pleasure in shar-
attack on morality, especially sexual mo- something about the atmosphere and im- ing. We have all felt it in the case of nuts
rality. The locus of that attack would not plication of those proposals. Before I say off a tree or the National Gallery, or such
be in Moscow but in Manhattan. Hence anything about socialism, I should like to things. But it is not the only pleasure, nor
the paradox: In one sense, socialism repre- say something about socialists. the only altruistic pleasure, nor (I think)
sented a fantasy that could never be fully the highest or most human of altruistic
I will confess that I attach much more pleasures. I greatly prefer the pleasure of
realized; in another, it represented an evil importance to men's theoretical argu-
that was already present. "It is," he writes, ments than to their practical proposals. giving and receiving. Giving is not the
"only a thing that is as distant as the end If you will, I attach more importance to same as sharing: Giving is even the op-
of the world and as near as the end of the what is said than to what is done; what posite of sharing. Sharing is based on the
street." idea that there is no property, or at least
is said generally lasts much longer and no personal property. But giving a thing
Perhaps the best summary of Chester- has much more influence. I can imag- to another man is as much based on per-
ton's critique of socialism is found in his ine no change worse for public life than sonal property as keeping it to yourself If,
contribution to a debate that took place in that which some prigs advocate, that de- after some universal interchange of gen-
1908 in the pages of an influential Lon- bate should be curtailed. A man's argu- erosities, everyone was wearing someone
don socialist weekly called the New Age. ments show what he is really up to. Until else's hat, that state of things would still
The protagonists in the debate were Ber- you have heard the defense of a propos- be based upon private property.
nard Shaw, H.G. Wells, and Belford Bax al, you do not really know even the pro-
as spokesmen for socialism, and Chester- posal. Thus, for instance, if a man says to Now, I speak quite seriously and sin-
ton and Hilaire Belloc as its critics. In me, "Taste this temperance drink," I have cerely when I say that I, for one, should
this piece, Chesterton presents an outline merely doubt slightly tinged with distaste. greatly prefer that world in which every-
of the social philosophy that came to be But if he says, "Taste it, because your wife one wore someone else's hat to every so-
known as distributism. The underlying dis- would make a charming widow," then I cialist Utopia that I have ever read about.
tributist idea is the need for private proper- decide. Or, again, suppose a man offers It is better than sharing one hat, anyhow.
ty as a guarantee of human freedom and a new gun to the British navy, and ends Remember, we are not talking now about
of human dignity. Chesterton claims to be up his speech with the fine peroration, the modern problem and its urgent solu-
speaking for ordinary people whose deepest "And after all, since Frenchmen are our tion; for the moment, we are talking only
needs are ignored by both the socialists and brothers, what matters it whether they about the ideal—what we would have if
the defenders of corporate capitalism. win or no," then again I decide. I could we could get it. And if I were a poet writ-
decide to have the man shot with his own ing a Utopia, if I were a magician waving
- F r . Ian Boyd, C.S.B.
gun, if I could. In short, I would be open- a wand, if I were a god making a planet, I
ly moved in my choice of an institution, would deliberately make it a world of give
not by its immediate proposals for prac- and take, rather than a world of sharing.
I have been asked to give some exposi-
tion of how far and for what reason a
tice, but very much by its incidental, even I do not wish Jones and Brown to share

50/CHRONICLES

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG
ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED
the same cigar box; I do not want it as an important human matters in the telling of
ideal; I do not want it as a very remote a leisurely tale, I think it very likely that
ideal; I do not want it at all. I want Jones, you will forget them in the scurry of a so-
by one mystical and godlike act, to give cial revolution. You have left certain hu-
a cigar to Brown, and Brown, by another man needs out of your books; you may
mystical and godlike act, to give a cigar leave them out of your republic.
to Jones. Thus it seems to me, instead of Now, I happen to hold a view which is
one act of fellowship (of which the mem- almost unknown among socialists, anar-
ory would slowly fade), we should have chists, liberals, and conservatives.
a continual play and energy of new acts I believe very strongly in the mass of
of fellowship keeping up the circulation the common people. I do not mean in
of society. Now I have read some tons their "potentialities"; I mean in their fac-
or square miles of socialist eloquence in es, in their habits, and their admirable
my time, but it is literally true that I have language. Caught in the trap of a terrible
never seen any serious allusion to or clear industrial machinery, harried by a shame-
consciousness of this creative altruism ful economic cruelty, surrounded with an
of personal giving. For instance, in the ugliness and desolation never endured
many Utopian pictures of comrades feast- before among men, stunted by a stupid
ing together, I do not remember one that and provincial religion, or by a more stu-
had the note of hospitality, of the differ- pid and more provincial irreligion, the are the ancient sanities of humanity; the
ence between host and guest and the dif- poor are still by far the sanest, jolliest, ten commandments of man.
ference between one house and another. and most reliable part of the communi- Now I wish to point out to you that, if
No one brings up the port that his father ty. Whether they agree with socialism as you impose your socialism on these peo-
laid down; no one is proud of the pears a narrow proposal is difficult to discover. ple, it will in moral actuality be an impo-
grown in his own garden. In the less non- They will vote for socialists as they will for sition and nothing else; just as the cre-
conformist Utopias there is, indeed, the Tories and Liberals, because they want ation of Manchester industrialism was
recognition of traditional human liquor; certain things, or don't want them. But an imposition and nothing else. You
but I am not speaking of drink, but of that one thing I should affirm as certain, the may get them to give a vote for socialism;
yet nobler thing, "standing drink." whole smell and sentiment and general so did the Manchester individualists get
Keep in mind, please, the purpose of ideal of socialism they detest and disdain. them to give votes for Manchester. But
this explanation. I do not say that these No part of the community is so specially they do not believe in the socialist ideal
gifts and hospitalities would not happen fixed in those forms and feelings which any more than they ever believed in the
in a collectivist state. I do say that they are opposite to the tone of most socialists: Manchester ideal; they are too healthy
do not happen in a collectivist's instinc- the privacy of homes, the control of one's to believe in either. But while they are
tive visions of that state; I do not say these own children, the minding of one's own healthy, they are also vague, slow, bewil-
things would not occur under socialism. business. I look out of my back windows dered, and unaccustomed, alas, to civ-
I say they do not occur to socialists. I over the black stretch of Battersea, and I il war. Individualism was imposed on
know quite well that your immediate an- believe I could make up a sort of creed, a them by a handful of merchants; social-
swer will be, "Oh, but there is nothing in catalogue of maxims, which I am certain ism will be imposed on them by a hand-
the socialist proposal to prevent personal are believed, and believed stiongly, by the ful of decorative artists and Oxford dons
gift." That is why I explain thus elaborate- overwhelming mass of men and women and journalists and countesses on the
ly that I attach less importance to the pro- as far as the eye can reach. For instance, Spree. Whether, like every other piece of
posal than to the spirit in which it is pro- that an Englishman's house is his eastie, oligarchic humbug in recent history, it is
posed. When a great revolution is made, and that awful proprieties ought to reg- done with a parade of ballot boxes inter-
it is seldom the fulfilment of its own ex- ulate admission to it; that marriage is a ests me very little. The moral fact is that
act formula; but it is almost always in the real bond, making jealousy and marital the democracy definitely dislikes your fa-
image of its own impulse and feeling for revenge at the least highly pardonable; vorite philosophy, but may accept it like
life. Men talk of unfulfilled ideals. But that vegetarianism and all pitting of an- so many others, rather than take the trou-
the ideals are fulfilled, because spiritual imal against human rights is a silly fad; ble to resist.
life is renewed. What is not fulfilled, as a that, on the other hand, to save money Thinking thus, as I do, socialism does
rule, is the business prospectus. Thus the to give yourself a fine funeral is not a sil- not hold the field for me as it does for oth-
Revolution has not established in France ly fad, but a symbol of ancestral self-re- ers. My eyes are fixed on another thing
any of the strict constitutions it planned spect; that, when giving treats to friends altogether, a thing that may move or not;
out; but it has established in France the or children, one should give them what but which, if it does move, will crush so-
spirit of 18th-century democracy, with they like, emphatically not what is good cialism with one hand and landlordism
its cool reason, its bourgeois dignity, its for them; that there is nothing illogical in with the other. They will destroy land-
well-distributed but very private wealth, being furious because Tommy had been lordism, not because it is property, but
its universal minimum of good manners. coldly caned by a schoolmistress and then because it is the negation of property. It
Just so, if socialism is established, you may throwing saucepans at him yourself All is the negation of property that the duke
not fulfil your practical proposal. But you these things they believe; they are the on- of Westminster should own whole streets
will certainly fulfil your ideal vision. And ly people who do believe them; and they and squares of London; just as it would
I confess that, if you have forgotten these are absolutely and eternally right. They be the negation of marriage if he had all

AUGUST 2 0 0 6 / 5 1

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG
ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED
 living women in one great harem. If ever Life, the big planning fads of the day were
the actual poor move to destroy this evil, COMMONWEAL those advanced by the likes of New York
they will do it with the object not only of planner Robert Moses. The poor should
giving every man private property but, not be forced to live in ugly tenements,
very specially, private property; they will
probably exaggerate in that direction; for
Death and Life of a with their kids playing in the streets. They
shouldn't have to endure the awfulness of
in that direction is the whole humor and Great Urban Thinker crowded streetscapes with too few parks
poetry of their own lives. For the Revo- and a mixture of business and residential
lution, if they make it, there will be all by Steven Greenhut uses. The planners knew that what the
the features which they like and I like: poor needed was lots of open space, mod-
the strong sense of English cosiness, the
instinct for special festival, the distinc-
tion between the dignities of man and
T he death on April 25 at the age of ern apartment buildings, and residential ar-
89 of Jane Jacobs, author of The eas cordoned off from the unseemly world
Death and Life of Great American Cities of commerce. Big, broad boulevards and
woman, responsibility of a man under his and several other books, has already set freeways were in, as were tall, Bauhaus-
roof If you make the Revolution, it will off a debate over her legacy. Admirers style office buildings and unadorned hous-
be marked by all the things that democ- from the New Urbanist movement see ing blocks.
racy detests and I detest: the talk about her primarily as an advocate for com- Today, we all shake our heads in dis-
the inevitable, the love of statistics, the pact, vibrant cities. They cite Jacobs as may at urban renewal. I remember the
materialist theory of history, the triviali- inspiration for their war against urban fruits of it back East, where public hous-
ties of sociology, and the uproarious folly sprawl. These folks have been the ones ing was plopped in the middle of settied
of eugenics. I know the answer you have; mostly called upon to eulogize her, and ethnic neighborhoods, where poor but vi-
I know the risk I run. Perhaps democra- the casual observer would be left to think brant areas were cleared away by bulldoz-
cy will never move. Perhaps the English that she was one of them. ers to make way for new offices. Some ac-
people, if you gave it beer enough, would
Others—myself included—recognize tivists referred to urban renewal as "Negro
accept even eugenics. It is enough for me
that Jacobs was, of course, an advocate removal." I recall one Eastern city where
for the moment to say that I cannot be-
for urban life, compact cities, and other a couple of old buildings stood amid a sea
lieve it. The poor are so obviously right,
things the New Urbanists promote but be- of government parking lots, with most of
I cannot fancy that they will never en-
lieve her biggest legacy is one of standing the city's downtown destroyed—all thanks
force their rightness against all the prigs
up for the average urban citizen against to the planners and their powers of subsidy,
of your party and mine. At any rate, that
the coercive designs of city officials, plan- eminent domain, and central planning.
is my answer. I am not a socialist, just as
ners, architects, and bureaucrats. She Many older cities saw their downtowns
I am not a Tory; because I have not lost
was, first and foremost, an advocate for obliterated as four-lane freeways blasted
faith in democracy.
freedom and individual decisionmaking. through the neighborhoods, often block-
Her blasts against government planners ing the waterfronts from the streetscape.
G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936) was a are as stinging as those written by Ayn Urban renewal, the epitome of top-down
playwright, poet, novelist, journalist, Rand, although they display a subtle- government planning, was a disaster that
editor, theologian, philosopher, and ty that Rand could never master and an wrecked countless communities, many of
Christian apologist. Fr. Ian Boyd, C.S.B., understanding of community that Rand which have never recovered.
is the editor of the Chesterton Review. could not grasp. Jacobs was at first something of a gad-
In 1961, when Jacobs wrote Death and fly in her hometown of New York City.
The Los Angeles Times obituary recalls
LIBERAL ARTS- the incident in which Robert Moses an-
nounced a plan to put a freeway through
Washington Square in Manhattan, and
PRESIDENT EXPECTED TO REMEMBER LOT'S WIFE Jacobs and other protesters rushed the po-
dium. The Times cites an AP interview
"With This Ring, the world's first magazine catering to every kind of wedding—be that in which Jacobs recounts the imperious
same sex, interracial, or interfaith—continues with Launch [sic] plan despite obvious Moses arrogantly dismissing those who
lack of support from White House. opposed the destruction of their neigh-
"President Bush is slated to strongly [sic] reaffirm his opposition to gay marriage to- borhood as "a bunch of mothers!" (How
day and once again attempt to push through a constitutional amendment defining mar- dare a group of mere mothers stand up
riage as a union solely between a man and a woman, putting yet another obstacle in the
way for those interested in same sex marriage. against the designs of the elite!)
"Jonathon Scott Feit, Chief Editor and Publisher oiWith This Ring magazine, says In Death and Life, Jacobs describes an
that 'President Bush is, once again, out of touch with the pulse of the people he is sup- interview with the residents of an East Har-
posed to represent.'... lem housing project. Officials couldn't
"With This Ring will be thefirst-everbridal publication to broaden the scope of the understand why the tenants particularly
traditional 'White Wedding' and reach—both from an editorial and advertising stand- despised the rectangular lawn at the proj-
point—an open-minded audience that views same sex couples, interfaith couples, in- ect. Then one articulate tenant revealed:
terracial couples and even couples looking for a non-traditional wedding as fundamen-
tally equal."
"Nobody cared what we want-
—from a press release for With This Ring, by Rachel Cone-Gorham
ed when they built this place.
They threw our houses down and

52/CHRONICLES

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG
ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED