The Chester Belloc #1

By Caleb Brown and Connor Mortel

Greetings Ya’ll This is a little different than the normal Substacks posted on the Thomist Review substack. See Connor and I have started a new Podcast Called the Chester Belloc Hour where each episode we read a Poem From Belloc, and a Poem from Chesterton and we cap it off with an essay from one of the two. the reason Connor and I started the podcast was twofold.

One. We felt like the poetry of Gk Chesterton and Hailre Belloc was being ignored and we wanted to do our part in bringing back not just the political ideas of the ChesterBelloc but also their great Litiariy achievements. and

Two. It’s time the Right retake the culture and I don’t mean we pump out the same level of slop the modern left puts out but simply slap some conservative talking points in it (looking at you Mr. Birchum) It is time for the right to move culture through Beauty to quote Dante Alighieri “Beauty awakens the soul to act” now that beauty can come from Clean streets, complex architecture, wonderful music, or beautiful words stung together to invoke awe in the soul. Now we all know how ugly the modern world is and how completely captured the art of poetry has become by leftist freaks. we can not leave this craft to the devices of the left it must be reclaimed and it must be defended. But we can’t retake Poetry by just reading fantastic poems from those who came before us. if we are to win back the arts we must create new art. which is why we are starting the Chester Belloc substack. where once a month (hopefully) we will upload a post with a collection of writings some poems some essays. now I’m not saying these poems below will save Western civilization. but “Anything worth doing is worth doing badly” to Quote Chesterton.

Rome Awaits by Connor Mortel (Best selling author)

I walk to Rome beneath a dawning sky,

And step by step, I wade through waters deep.

I stumble once, but rise, though bruised and dry,

Then break my fast with bread to so endure.

With steady stride, my journey starts anew,

Two roads ahead—one shared by hand in hand.

Another leads, with sheep beside me, through,

Yet Tiber’s tide brings night upon the land.

But with the dawn, a gleam of walls appears—

The city shines beneath the rising light.

Around me walk the holy, wise, austere,

I kneel with them in Mass, the prayerful rite.

At last, my rest is found, my journeys done,

In peaceful Rome, where stars and silence run.

On the Mountain View By Caleb Brown

Mountain view so wide and varied,

With snowy valleys and fields of plenty,

I sit in awe of your serene beauty,

Knowing when I turn, you’ll be but memory.

Your quiet energy, mesmerizing,

A peaceful sky, so vast, so calming,

The heart quickens from the climb’s exertion,

Eyes blurred by the sheer perfection,

Though you’re a memory to me,

To you, I am but a passing breeze.

A fleeting thought in your timeless grace,

While I linger, lost in your embrace.

Sliding down the snow 

I look back once more 

To sow your view

Into my soul for memories to hold 

Soul and Leaf by Connor Mortel (Best selling author)

I crave the taste of bread, both soft and warm,

The pull of flesh, a longing deep and wild,

To fill my needs with haste and quench the storm,

I light a cigarette and clench my wrist.

To rise above and wear a crown of gold,

Injustice rears its head; I raise my hand,

To win, to shout my name before it’s old,

I puff a thick cigar as flames persist.

The good, a path that draws us toward the skies,

The truth, a burning force that leads me on,

The beautiful, a gleam in weary eyes,

I light my pipe and watch the smoke twist.

The soul, in three, is split—desires fight,

With smoke, the parts ignite in shared delight.

The Church Triumphant by Connor Mortel (Best selling author)

I will live on beyond all earthly time,

I’ll outlast every corporation’s might.

I’ll survive each government’s brief climb,

And rise above society’s lost fight.

I will endure while oceans ebb and flow,

And outlast skies that turn from blue to gray.

I’ll stand when earth itself no longer shows,

A testament to life that will not sway.

I will watch as St. Michael thwarts the dark,

And see Our Lady crush the serpent’s head.

I’ll witness triumph’s glory leave its mark,

The final victory, where hope is fed.

For nothing crafted lasts through times embrace,

While souls endure forever, filled with grace

The Woman by Connor Mortel (Best selling author)

Your hair, a river flowing soft and bright,

The dress you wear, it captivates my eyes.

If I could ask one thing, a lock of light.

The dress you wear, a lovely shade of blue skies.

You are my life, the pulse within my chest,

My sweetest joy, the essence of my days,

You are my hope when all the world’s at rest,

In you, perfection shines through purest rays.

Though love for you feels far beyond my touch,

But then I see the trials you’ve faced alone,

A sword of pain has pierced your heart too much,

Not just one blade, but seven you have known.

She is the one all men adore and prize,

Whether they know or not, her love applies.

And that Ends the Poetry part of the Substack. If any of you readers find yourself inspired to write some poetry we here at the Chester Belloc would love to publish it. you can make your submissions to ChesterBelloc@gmail.com

Localism Tools By Connor Mortel (Best Selling author)

G.K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc’s philosophy of distributism, or as we call it here, following the example of Dale Ahlquist and Joseph Pearce: localism, is a beautiful application of Catholic Social Teaching with a particular emphasis on the principle of subsidiarity. However, it has always had one major flaw. Chesterton and Belloc were men of whimsy who enjoyed a pub conversation over a pipe much more than the nitty-gritty of what localism would actually look like. They wrote great works such as The Outline of Sanity and The Servile State and many other great essays. But even with all of this, we don’t necessarily get a clear picture of how to get from point A to point B. One of the most clear suggestions we get is that localism is fighting against monopolization, and the best thing to do is resist. As an encircling movement, monopolization cannot win if it cannot complete the circle, so as long as there is still one mom-and-pop restaurant, there is still something worth fighting for — to quote Samwise Gamgee: “There’s still some good in the world, Mr. Frodo, and it’s worth fighting for.”

However, even this leaves us wanting. There has to be more that we can do than simply go to our local pizza place to keep them alive. There certainly is more, but it all feels minimal and at best defensive. However, there are tools that are arising with time that allow us offensive positions.

The first of which is the spreading of Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOP). The concept here is that one of the benefits of employment at a company is a retirement plan, which allows for the option of partial or even entire ownership of a company over time simply by working for the company. It is worth noting that anything we get from Hudge and Gudge (Chesterton’s names for big government and big business, respectively) are undoubtedly not intended to be for our use. The pitch for ESOPs is not for steps away from wage slavery into more propertied peasants and employees. Rather, the pitch is that ESOPs allow for succession planning and financing for the business, and the benefits to employees are often thrown in as a selling point to get them on board and keep them from quitting. However, that does not mean that it cannot be useful for us. Such plans allow far more localist companies the opportunity to exist. More information on ESOPs can be found in Joseph Pearce’s latest appearance on Pints with Aquinas.

A similar concept is that of “rent-to-own” contracts. A rent-to-own contract works in such a way that one still pays rent; however, they pay rent at a rate in which the higher payments have part put away for the down payment for ultimately buying the house at a previously agreed-upon price. Why Hudge and Gudge would want this is obvious: it still requires you to get a mortgage at the end of the ordeal. However, it sets a skeleton framework for a workaround. One could very well set up a thirty-year rent-to-own style contract with the owner of the property that functions similarly to a mortgage but avoids the bank entirely. This would be more expensive because you’d owe the rent payments and then the additional payments not just for a few years to get a down payment but for a few decades. For that reason, it needs to be improved upon by better economists than I, but it shows that the framework is there and it can be done.

Lastly, for the sake of this article anyway, is the group purchasing organization (GPO). GPOs mostly exist to get costs down for massive healthcare providers and banks; however, that does not have to be the end for them. The way GPOs work is actually fairly simple: healthcare providers group together to aggregate their purchasing volume so they can pay at a discount. HSCA claims this saves the healthcare system up to fifty-five billion dollars per year. We’re told by Hudge and Gudge that this helps us, but anyone who has had to deal with our healthcare system has good reason to doubt. However, this also sets a useful framework. Imagine applying this to more than just healthcare. One’s local community could very well get together and form their own GPO — or some variation of it — and purchase groceries for the entire community as a whole straight from the supplier at a discount. Local businesses could very well purchase inputs together in the same manner (Chesterton’s description of guilds would very much include such a thing). This would not necessarily localize inputs and groceries and would only be an intermediary stepping stone, but it would finally allow mom-and-pop shops to compete with names like Walmart and Amazon in a way they previously could not.

All of this harkens from the simple concept that the best weapon against Sauron was his own ring. However, it was not in the way that Boromir wanted, using it as Sauron would, but rather against him. Each of these concepts requires tweaking these tools to not be utilized just as Hudge and Gudge want us to, but rather destroying their initial use and using their framework in a way that is good for Jones — Chesterton’s name for the common man. Hudge and Gudge think that ESOPs would be used just to pass companies from one man to the next, rent-to-own would just be used to lead to Jones getting more mortgages, and GPOs would exist simply for Jones to get convoluted, hyper-regulated healthcare. “That we should try to destroy the Ring itself has not yet entered into his darkest dream.”

I did not have time to write a new piece myself so I am going to republish one I already wrote. Signed Caleb.

In pursuit of wandering by Caleb Brown

Not all those who Wander are lost." This phrase by Tolkien might be his most popular, but in our increasingly digital world, our ability to wander is being lost. Of course, one can still wander about town or their nation, but true wandering, I believe, involves some quality of the unknown. With modern GPS, travel blogs, and all those YouTube vacation accounts, one has to purposely avoid all the modern "advancements" that have been made to traveling.

But there is another kind of wandering still available to us. Each of us has this gift, and yet we spend so much time and energy running away from it, as if it were some invisible specter in perpetual pursuit. The specter’s name is Boredom. But let’s see if this specter is a fairy in disguise. In our modern digital society, we are all building to burnout by constantly consuming content. “Excessive positivity and overproduction are creating new forms of suffering.” to Quote Korean born philosopher Byung Chul Han one of these new forms of suffering I believe, is the pervasive and insidious anxiety born from the relentless need to escape boredom, which is increasingly disguised as a fear of unproductivity and a compulsive drive to remain perpetually engaged. How many of us leave a headphone in when going about the day? How many people do we know that leave music on their Alexa or google device even when they leave home so that their return is accompanied by fanfare? It is as if we lived in some horror film where music prevents the Monster from finding us.

Music is everywhere. As Sir Roger Scruton said, "In almost every public place today the ears are assailed by the sound of pop music in shopping malls, public houses, restaurants, hotels, and elevators. The ambient sound is not a human conversation but the music disgorged into the air by speakers, usually invisible and inaccessible speakers that cannot be punished for their impertinence." Now, dear reader, I am not making an anti-music argument. I am not a Puritan; I believe their views are not only wrong but evil in so far as they reject the goodness of creation. But when music permeates every moment of life, we are left consuming and reacting, our minds never truly at rest. If our bodies need sleep in order to recharge and reset, then what is the effect of this constant consuming and reflecting? It is a mind that is never truly at rest. Boredom is to the mind what sleep is to the body.

But it is not just music that happens to be playing as we go about our day. Whether it be thoughts of work, plans for the weekend, a podcast, or leaving some TV show on in the background as we go about our daily tasks, even friendship can be a part of this system of consumption. Where we text, call, or check the Group chat hoping our friends have said something that Keeps that specter off our back. In the digital age, even friendship can be turned into just another piece of content we consume. 

we all run from this specter of boredom. Many people today even pride themselves on their constant consumption with some faux "edge’’ saying, "Oh, I can’t be alone with my thoughts. It gets dark." Are we, as citizens of the digital age, so weak that we can’t control, let alone confront, our own minds? Chesterton said “Fairy tales do not tell children that dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children that dragons can be killed” how far have we fallen from the Children of Chesterton’s time if we not only fail to believe in dragons we are to scared to confront them. A remedy to this modern plight may be found in the life of G.K. Chesterton and the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien.

G.K. Chesterton’s Absent Mind and Tolkien’s Fairy Land

The great G.K. Chesterton was notoriously "absent-minded," He once stopped in the middle of a busy street to contemplate an argument. but to him, absent-mindedness doesn't mean one’s mind is absent but merely present elsewhere. Another time, Chesterton famously sent a telegram to his wife from a distant location saying, "Am in Market Harborough. Where ought I to be?" This whimsical mix-up highlighted his tendency to lose himself in thought, oblivious to his surroundings and even his intended destinations. Chesterton allowed his mind to wander, to be whisked away. If the expression "I had a thought but the train left the station" holds any truth, then Chesterton often took the train not knowing the destination

To Tolkien, this experience of the mind floating along its own path would be akin to entering a fairy story, where one steps beyond the ordinary world into a realm of enchantment and wonder, finding deeper truths and unexpected adventures in the realms of imagination. This practice of mental wandering came naturally to these two great men. In their time, it was easier because they did not have the many distractions we suffer from in the digital age. What came naturally to them, we must actively seek out. We must shun the many flashing pixels in favor of dancing pixies.

Now do not interpret this call for mental wandering and absent-mindedness as a call for some new-age practice of  Mindfulness or some other cringe activity. If you believe you can sit down crosslegged with your eyes closed and through force of will break into Fairyland you may find something far more dangerous than faires waiting on the other side. I can’t tell you how best to get into that enchanting world for each mind must find its own path. But I can give you some tips that may be of use. If you find yourself bored after completing a task instead of running from that Specter look out a window, or perhaps gaze upon a painting you enjoy, for me, it is La Belle Dame sans Merc (The Beautiful Lady without pity) by John William Waterhouse. Part of the Charm and Beauty of this Painting to me is that I am Unable to express in sentences why I find it so lovely, I can only express it in one-word Emotions like “Nobility” “Honor” “Love” “danger” but it is the indescribable aspects that make it such a great window into fairyland.

 “But Caleb you said we need to put our mind at rest and to not be consuming content, Isnt looking at the painting just consuming more content” And yeah it is. But many of us still run from that specter of boredom. Looking at a painting or a landscape doesn’t stop our flight but it slows us down enough to see that maybe that specter is really a fairy trying to whisk us away on some adventure we can’t yet imagine. 

If staring at Paintings isn’t for you try smoking. Grab a cigarette, cigar, or Pipe and stand outside. Hold “the fire of Prometheus in your fingertips” as Ayn Rand said watch the smoke drift up into the air and blow away. Witness the embers slowly burn as if looking deep into the Flame of a campfire. Smoking is a great tool in this fight against the constant consumption of content. Smoke Breaks force us out of whatever task we are doing and provides us the opportunity to breathe deliberately, take in the moment, and appreciate the passage of time. The act of lighting the cigar is akin to the sparking of new ideas, the inhaling of smoke is the deep breath before a plunge and the exhale of smoke is a sigh of love with Tobacco. The act of smoking covers the 3 parts of an adventure. The igniting of aspirations, the deep inhale in preparation for the struggle and the exhale a sigh of relief in coming home. The whole act inspires an opportunity for wandering. (travelers tip, offer the fairy a cig, who knows where you may end up) .

In the end, we all have the key to unlock the door to fairyland; we just have to take a break and find it. But Remeber  ““It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.” but "To live is to face the fear of uncertainty and to take risks, for only in doing so do we truly experience freedom and authenticity."