GK Chesterton and Monarchist League Conferences
“Tradition means giving a vote to most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead… Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about. All democrats object to men being disqualified by the accident of birth; tradition objects to their being disqualified by the accident of death. Democracy tells us not to neglect a good man’s opinion, even if he is our groom; tradition asks us not to neglect a good man’s opinion, even if he is our father.” — GK Chesterton
Earlier this month the Australian Chesterton Society held its 2024 Conference titled “The Rebirth of GK Chesterton — Insight and Foresight” held at Campion College. I went last year, and don’t remember much of it, but I’m so glad that I went again this year!
I used to go to the Australian Libertarian Society’s Friedman Conferences, but that has died out in recent years, and as for CPAC Australia, well, it’s a bit cringe to be honest. After all, Henry T Buckle once said, in his dogmatic way: “Men and women range themselves into three classes or orders of intelligence; you can tell the lowest class by their habit of always talking about persons; the next by the fact that their habit is always to converse about things; the highest by their preference for the discussion of ideas.”
I’ll leave it to you to figure out where Friedman and CPAC sit on this Buckle spectrum. Chesterton of course most definitely sat on the ideas end of the spectrum. Lots to read, so little time to do so, so I highly recommend a yearly Chesterton conference crash course on a beautiful campus, where you can network with like-minds and be tempted to buy books from the Cardinal Newman Faith Resources stand.
Lots of Chesterton ideas and fun facts were covered, including:
- Steve Jobs was into calligraphy, and believed that computer science is a liberal art (not surprising)
- Umberto Eco argued that Macintosh is Catholic and that DOS is Protestant (again, not surprising)
- Economics has metaphysical roots, Western economics is materialist, both socialism (French Revolutionism, not solidarist) and capitalism is materialist (Hudge vs Gudge), and authentic Catholic Social Thought (Jones’ localism)
And finally, the monarchy from a Chestertonian perspective. Speaking of which, last weekend I went to the Australian Monarchist League’s National Conference, and here are my notes:
Crown or Republic: Key Issues
- What sort of Republic is proposed?
- Our Constitution cannot be meddled with and still function
- Our Constitution was built on the Crown
- Republics cannot replicate Monarchical conventions
- All constitutions need umpires
- Subjects of constitutions also need guardians against predators
- Constitution — designed for the worst days
Crown or Republic: Concluding Thoughts
- Constitutions are not about ‘relevance’
- One can loyally serve the Crown while despising the political class
- Our Constitution provides for Crown and Parliament
- Our Constitution does not provide for a permanent political class
Crown or Republic: Final Thoughts
- Rule of Law once lost is hard to regain
- Remember the brief republics of Kerensky and Weimar
- Our Constitution is supported by the Crown — not the political class
- Who would resolve an extended Parliamentary crisis?
“I am the last monarch of the old school. It is my duty to protect my people from their politicians!” — Franz Joseph I
Indeed, the Australian Republican Movement was born out of a lie: I previously wrote that, “The modern Australian Republican Movement was born out of the Whitlam Dismissal in 1975, because apparently the Australian system of government was rotten to the core and needed an overhaul, such as a republic that would prevent a foreign power from interferring with Australian politics. Or should I say, the politicians’ republic. Whilst Australian republicans continue to fail to reach a consensus as to what an Australian republic should look like, world history shows that republics usually end up being the politicians’ republic. Why should we the people give more politicians more power?”
