The Reluctant Anarchist
My
arrival (very recently) at philosophical anarchism has disturbed
some of my conservative and Christian friends. In fact, it surprises
me, going as it does against my own inclinations.
As a child
I acquired a deep respect for authority and a horror of chaos. In
my case the two things were blended by the uncertainty of my existence
after my parents divorced and I bounced from one home to another
for several years, often living with strangers. A stable authority
was something I yearned for.
Meanwhile,
my public-school education imbued me with the sort of patriotism
encouraged in all children in those days. I grew up feeling that
if there was one thing I could trust and rely on, it was my government.
I knew it was strong and benign, even if I didn’t know much
else about it. The idea that some people – Communists, for
example – might want to overthrow the government filled me
with horror.
 G.K.
Chesterton, with his usual gentle audacity, once criticized Rudyard
Kipling for his “lack of patriotism.” Since Kipling was
renowned for glorifying the British Empire, this might have seemed
one of Chesterton’s “paradoxes”; but it was no such
thing, except in the sense that it denied what most readers thought
was obvious and incontrovertible.
Chesterton,
himself a “Little Englander” and opponent of empire, explained
what was wrong with Kipling’s view: “He admires England,
but he does not love her; for we admire things with reasons, but
love them without reason. He admires England because she is strong,
not because she is English.” Which implies there would be nothing
to love her for if she were weak.
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the rest of the article
March
13, 2009
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