Chester Belloc #2
Whimsy and Distributism
by Connor Mortell
The producer for the Catholic podcast, Josiah—formerly known as Thursday—tweeted almost a year ago that he was starting a movement called the Boscoists. The premise of this movement was based on the St. John Bosco quote:
“My children, jump, run and play and make all the noise you want but avoid sin like the plague and you will surely gain heaven.”
The idea, put more simply, is: “Have all the fun you want, but do not sin.”
As silly as the simple tweet may seem, it actually sparked a great devotion to St. John Bosco in me. In my morning prayers, I started adding a quick “St. John Bosco, ora pro nobis” every day. I bought a copy of TAN Books’ Forty Dreams of St. John Bosco and thoroughly enjoyed every page. I got an icon of St. John Bosco that sits on my windowsill. I even went as far as to dedicate my book to St. John Bosco. And in a more whimsical decision, I bought a pair of St. John Bosco socks that I wear at least once a week that say, as a reminder, “Run, jump, shout, but do not sin.” All this is to say that this silly tweet actually directed me to a deeply impactful saint.
When reading about St. John Bosco, starting from that quote, one feels a little bit of whiplash because St. John Bosco is constantly warning his boys against their sins in what feels like a very heavy manner. But reading between the lines, one realizes that in most of his dreams, before it becomes heavy with the presence of sin, he is constantly playing with his boys. It is so clearly one of the most important parts of his life, and it is sin that ruins the play always. Hence the important “but do not sin” part of the quote. But for the sake of this article, I want to point to the play itself. St. John Bosco was a man who understood fun and whimsy, and he understood it was vital to teaching the Gospel.
Part of the reason for this is that the life that the Gospel calls us to is difficult. In many ways, it goes against what we think we want to do. At early stages, showing the Gospel as playful and whimsical makes it much easier to go against our more sinful instincts, telling us they’ll be more fun.
I bring all this up to say there is a similar lesson for Distributism. Distributism values a society built on Catholic Social Teaching more than a society with material wealth. This leads to a difficulty because the natural economic incentives will push us toward the second option. For this reason, Hilaire Belloc wrote in his An Essay on The Restoration of Property that in order to lead to a distributist society, the state must be invoked because it is needed to flip incentives away from economic centralization and towards localization. However, this point is his third proviso regarding the restoration of property. His previous and more important proviso is that:
“We cannot even begin such a reform unless there is a favourable state of mind present in society, a desire to own property, sufficient to support and maintain the movement and to nourish institutions which will make it permanent.”
This favorable (outside of his quote I refuse to indulge his British unnecessary u) state of mind is never going to be achievable if the movement is not fun. Economic tendencies already push people from the movement, and people as a whole have forgotten what real property ownership looks like. As a result, there is no reason to look to the movement. There would be, however, if the movement looked to the Boscoists and implemented a sense of whimsy and play.
This can be seen better than anywhere in the writings of another of the most important Distributist thinkers, G.K. Chesterton. He famously once said:
“Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly.”
His sense of joy and levity was one of his most important traits. This shows in so many of his works. Manalive is literally about how good it is to be alive. We see Innocent Smith burst into the scene on people living boring modern lives and constantly flipping their world on its head to make life fun again. We see his never-ending pursuit of his own wife in a way that is constantly playful—though not always realized as playful at first. Then in another Chesterton work, The Napoleon of Notting Hill, we meet Auberon Quin. This is one of the most whimsical characters ever written. He becomes king and implements localism everywhere in the world by giving each town its own points of pride and its own rule. However, he does not do this as the most serious of kings but rather as a joke, but it catches on completely. He even states that:
“Seriousness sends men mad.”
A movement that requires a shift away from economic incentives must be fun if one wants to change hearts and minds. So read your dense books and run for local government, sure. But first and foremost, jump, run, and play, but do not sin.
Not Peace but the Sword
by Colby
Matthew 10:34-36:
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword. For I have come to set man ‘against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s enemies will be those of his household.’”
I have been encouraged by the faith of a man I’ve yet to meet on X. I’ve been following him for a few weeks. He’s a recent convert from Islam to Catholicism—a Morisco Catholic. He went to talk to his Muslim family to reveal his conversion, knowing it might jeopardize his livelihood as he still lives with his parents.
His father told him that he can have no relationship with him. His mother cried. He was kicked out of his home with nowhere to go. All of this would be grounds for many of us to go off in a rage and flail about in our anger. Stefan has not taken this path.
“I have officially been disowned. I won’t talk too much about the details, but I’m safe and have a place to stay, so please don’t worry too much. Pray for my family, especially my sister, who uttered many vile things against the faith.”
A few minutes after this post came his response:
“Blessed be God. Blessed be His Holy Name.”
“Do not be sorry or sad for me, but thank God that I can suffer this with joy. The Lord has done great things for me.”
Oh, to have this kind of faith. Division has seemingly destroyed his life, but he is at peace. He has absolutely nothing at this moment, yet he has everything. It is only when we truly grasp the reality of Christ on the cross, Christ risen from the grave, and Christ present here in the Church, that we can leave the world behind, pick up our cross, and follow Him.
And why shouldn’t we? If we believe that Christ is Lord, should this not radically transform our beliefs? Should we not be willing to part with the people and things we cherish most in this world? Most of us can’t even part with our phones long enough to let Christ pierce through our hearts.
Picking up your cross is not easy. In fact, that’s kind of the point. The world is against you. My family and I have lost friends over something as silly as who we’ve voted for or didn’t vote for. We’ve lost family to satanism and the false religions of the world. We’ve been derided for having too many kids too young. We work more hours than are required of us just to afford shoes for a kid for the next time he outgrows his.
I don’t say this for pity. I say all this because as tired as we are by life, as sad as we are over the loss of friends and family, and as much as we don’t want to get out of bed and take on the challenge the world sets in front of us today, my family has never felt more peace, love, or joy than we do in this moment. That’s because every day of our lives, we listen for God’s call, take up our cross, and follow Him.
Please pray for Stefan that he may remain steadfast. I leave you with the words of St. Paul:
Galatians 6:9:
“Let us not grow tired of doing good, for in due time we shall reap our harvest, if we do not give up.”
No Poems this month as Connor and I have been far too busy being Whimsical in life.
Caleb