Maggie's Farm

The above is a G.K. Chesterton quote.  Prof. Deneen considers Chesterton's essay, What I Saw in America. A quote:

In Chesterton’s eyes, democracy and Christianity shared similar worldviews, and with the rise of religious doubt, he believed, one could expect to see a concomitant rise in doubts about the prospects of local self-governance, and instead increasing reliance upon experts and elites, in bureaucratic structures, in a growing divide between the rich and poor and the triumph of abstraction over “reality” (WA, 257-263).

Peter Lawler at The Ashbrook Center offered some response to Deneen's piece, and Deneen responded to Lawler's piece here.

That sort of scholarly exchange is a wonderful example of what blogs have to offer. In the pre-internet world, that exchange would have been by letter, and only the two people involved would have had the chance to read them.

Photo: Chesterton