"Wisdom comes out of the mouth of children"
My 3 year old grandson's most recent interest is "super heroes." Not long ago, when we were together, he designed the game "du jour."
First, we gathered up all the super heroes placing them on the couch, we were to stay put on the couch as well, (as the "unmoved movers!") Then, he explained the objective; defend our territory against the "bad guys," (the anti-heroes.) It was an exacting struggle, as first one super hero, then another, fell off the couch arms, only to be quickly rescued by another super hero, just in the nick of time. In the end, we won.
According to G K Chesterton, what my grandson was doing in this little game, was creating his own version of "self-limitation."
Children play "stepping stone" games, arbitrarily limiting the stones on which they can step. We've all played "hopscotch." We've all heard the story of Noah's Ark, perhaps we played our own version of it as children. Most of us have read Robinson Crusoe. GK makes the point that what makes it such a great tale is not that a boy makes an explorative step outward, but that he becomes a man, surviving alone, on the self-limiting environment of an island.
Have you ever been asked the perennially intriguing question: if you could only have one book, while stranded on a desert island, which one would you choose?
Self-limitation, as Chesterton calls it, seems to be innate. Chesterton's first novel, a political allegory, concerns Adam Wayne, a man living in a future authoritarian England, the culture of which, is drowning in ennui and apathy. Given the opportunity, he re-ignites the entire country with a sense of vigor and life, by patriotically defending his own little hamlet, Notting Hill.
We all have our "Notting Hill."
However, most on the political Left, as well as the intellectual elite brooding on college campuses, or, the "sophisticated Europeans," like Barack Obama is wont to be, tell us, who are still steeped in the pride of patriotism and love of America, that we are backward buffoons! Could it be true? Is patriotism only a parochial prejudice that leads to Imperialism?
Chesterton would say, "No!" In fact, as he traces the evolution of his own thoughts on the subject, in his autobiography, he comes to the conclusion that patriotism is necessary, nurturing and spiritually edifying to man's nature.
Man, is at his best when he is rooted, ideally, within the context of his own "means of production," contributing to the larger society. Hillaire Belloc wrote: "Give a man a farm, a small business, an artisan's anvil, a boat to sail, wine to drink-suffuse all this with the love of Christ; center man's life around liturgical rhythms; and that man....is happy..."
Patriotism, in this context, does not contribute to the "aggrandizement of power and territory," characteristic of Imperialism; on the contrary, it celebrates the liberty and dignity of every man to his own "Notting Hill."
We have enshrined these principles of the Natural Law in our founding documents. Thousands of Americans have sacrificed their own lives so that other human beings, in distant lands, could have the opportunity to thrive on their own Notting Hills.
God forbid that patriotism should die in our land, because if it dies here, the lofty principles upon which it rests, will have met their demise as well.
The kind of patriotism that invigorates Americans is the life blood of humanity, and our Father would not have us take it lightly!
As Father Brown states, in Chesterton's famous "Father Brown" series:
"Reason and justice, grip the remotest and the loneliest star"
Therefore, you are right to keep a firm grip on them as well, on your own, "Notting Hill."
