Recovering The Lost Art of Common Sense

Recovering The Lost Art of Common Sense | Dale Ahlquist | An Excerpt from Common Sense 101: Lessons From G.K. Chesterton

The most famous thing Chesterton said is something he didn't say. He is always quoted as saying that when a man stops believing in God he doesn't believe in nothing, he believes in anything. It is a great line, and it is well worth quoting, and I have no doubt that Chesterton would agree with it and would be pleased to hear it quoted. But it's just not what he said. What he said was, "The first effect of not believing in God, is that you lose your common sense." [1]

Since the line never gets quoted correctly, let's quote it correctly again: "The first effect of not believing in God, is that you lose your common sense." That means that in order for us to recover our common sense, we have to recover our faith. In order for us to recover our faith we need religious renewal and reform. History shows that reform is a thing that is indeed needed from time to time. And usually it is botched up every time it is needed.

In the matter of reforming things, as distinct from deforming them, there is one plain and simple principle; a principle which will probably be called a paradox.  There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road.  The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, "I don't see the use of this; let us clear it away." To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: "If you don't see the use of it, I certainly won't let you clear it away. Go away and think.  Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it." This paradox rests on the most elementary common sense. The gate or fence did not grow there.  It was not set up by somnambulists who built it in their sleep.  It is highly improbable that it was put there by escaped lunatics who were for some reason loose in the street. Some person had some reason for thinking it would be a good thing for somebody.  And until we know what the reason was, we really cannot judge whether the reason was reasonable. It is extremely probable that we have overlooked some whole aspect of the question, if something set up by human beings like ourselves seems to be entirely meaningless and mysterious. There are reformers who get over this difficulty by assuming that all their fathers were fools; but if that be so, we can only say that folly appears to be a hereditary disease. But the truth is that nobody has any business to destroy a social institution until he has really seen it as an historical institution. If he knows how it arose, and what purposes it was supposed to serve, he may really be able to say that they were bad purposes, or that they have since become bad purposes, or that they are purposes which are no longer served.  But if he simply stares at the thing as a senseless monstrosity that has somehow sprung up in his path, it is he and not the traditionalist who is suffering from an illusion. [2]

So, the problem with the reformers is that they so often want to do away with things they don't understand. They apparently regard their lack of understanding as proof that the thing is not needed. It does not occur to them that the tradition they are trying to destroy may have been put into place for a very good reason. Chesterton says, "A tradition is generally a truth", [3] and, "Common sense often comes to us in the form of a tradition." [4] The successful reforms in history have occurred when people reconnected with their roots and where they recovered their lost traditions. It is not the tradition that has gone wrong; it is we who have gone wrong.

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Comments

[MMajor Fan]

This was totally excellent.

[Ana Braga-Henebry]

I have thsi book! It helps the reader plow through a lot of Chesterton's (scattered) thought without much effort! Great!

[Brian]

Sadly, cultural tradition has historically dictated that blacks exist only to serve whites. That's just one of the pitfalls of cultural traditionalism. How does one go about explaining that historical reaility?

[Charles E Flynn]

There is a detailed explanation of how the confusion over this alleged quotation arose at:

http://www.chesterton.org/qmeister2/any-everything.htm

[LJ]

Brian,

The answer to your question is right in the text.

"If he knows how it arose, and what purposes it was supposed to serve, he may really be able to say that they were bad purposes, or that they have since become bad purposes, or that they are purposes which are no longer served."

Chesterton's point is not to oppose all reform, only to oppose the mentality of reform for the sake of reform. Some things, like slavery, are manifestly evil and were justified in the context of the British Empire and her colonies by the equally evil notion that black men were not fully human. This form of racism, ie. white vs. black, which you rightly identify, still lingers in the hearts of some. And it also must be remembered that slavery all through the centuries of recorded history, right up to the slavery that still exists today, has had the same root, such that one group of people, often based on tribe, has de-humanized another group in order to enslave them. One just has to look at the history of the Jewish people to witness this over and over right up to the Third Reich. This is the same mental construct that justifies abortion.

It is by understanding the roots of this evil that you can avoid it in the future. Clearly, in the west, it was not fully understood, as millions of babies are killed each year in the womb. The lesson of slavery has been lost to many, ie. the de-humanizing of another human being in order to use, abuse or kill them for your own purposes. It was once legal here on the basis of color, and now it is legal on the basis of age and stage of development.

Does that mean that every American cultural tradition is therefore evil? Must everything be tossed out because of slavery? "Change, change, change?" Or does it mean that every institution must be overthrown? Or that every practice of every institution must be updated? Absolutely not. And that is what Chesterton is saying. You must know the reasons for things before you can judge whether they should be changed.

St. Paul said it very succinctly in 1 Thessalonians 5:21;
"Test everything; retain what is good."

[Rick]

Sadly, cultural tradition has historically dictated that blacks exist only to serve whites.

What cultural tradition? If you read Cornell West or others who have written on modern forms of slavery, you will see that there were many "cultures" involved and some of those were non-white.

[MenTaLguY]

Brian: just for such reasons, we must examine our traditions in light of Tradition.

[Brian]

Thank you, everyone.