Chesterton Redivivus

Here’s a fascinating piece on how Chesterton’s economic ideas are finally getting a hearing in Britain as the regnant economic theories of the recent past keep demonstrating their ability to maximize misery:

Most people would never think that an economic theory based in large part on G.K. Chesterton and his contemporaries would become the talk of British political circles. Yet, one man is helping to make that a reality.
That man, Phillip Blond, has become one of the most effective proponents of Catholic social teaching in politics and yet, surprisingly, is an Anglican.
Blond, is a former philosopher and theologian from the University of Cumbria and leader of new British think tank inspired by the economic thought of Catholics such as Hillaire Belloc and G.K. Chesterton (former Anglicans); Now, he is also one of the most influential advisors to Conservative Party leader and current British Prime Minister David Cameron.

When most people think of a Catholic politician, they think of a series of social issues: pro-life, traditional marriage, dignity of human life, etc. Blond has gained much attention for a new way of thinking not simply on social issues, but the broader economic and macro-level issues as well.
The new ways of thinking Blond represents will probably find acceptance neither from conservatives nor liberals (in the American sense). Blond argues that the separation of morality from economic and civic improvement is a fiction, and we must consider both together. He argues that big government statism and capitalism are both founded on amoral individualism and the same faulty “monopoly logic.”

This leads him to a view that can best be described as a communitarian or more specifically, distributist, with a heavy emphasis on restoring the vitality of the civil society, voluntary organizations, and broadly distributed ownership (in other words, expanding the ranks of the small business, entrepreneur class by using the power of the state if necessary).

In many ways, this is an old way of thinking, which is why Blond laments that Britons have “killed our history” by losing touch with this rich foundation of Catholic social thought. He admires and draws heavily on Catholic giants such as Belloc and Chesterton. Many of these same themes are present papal encyclicals such as Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum.

There’s more. Read on MacDuff.