I asked for, and received The Quotable Chesterton for some holiday - a birthday, a Christmas before this last - and it has been lying around while I read other, "more important" things. I picked it up today, and this was the first entry:
ACADEMIA
Though the academic authorities are proud of conducting everything by means of Examinations, they seldom indulge in what religious people used to describe as Self-Examination. The consequence is that the modern* State has educated itself in a series of ephemeral fads.
Well, that was so good that I thought I'd have another.
ACCOMMODATION
When modern sociologists** talk about the necessity of accommodating oneself to the trend of the time, they forget that the trend of the time at its best consists entirely of people who will not accommodate themselves to anything. At its worst it consists of many millions of frightened creatures all accommodating themselves to a trend that is not there.
*This was a century ago
**I suspect we would identify this group somewhat differently now than confining it to academic sociologists. Yet it will do, it will do.
“Modern” means “approximately 18th century” in my context— after Newton is absorbed, Kant and Hegel. Mozart. Rationalism and mathematical precision in art and music. It’s all wrong in a particular way, though it is also very interesting.
ReplyDeleteChesterton means something more like “since the mistake that was the Reformation.” It includes the modern period in my sense, but also the romanticism and occultism that followed. He’s sort of against everything after the Middle Ages, which is what makes his thinking so healthy.