More Chesterton this Election

You can add my name to the long list of people who are dreading this election season. Like you, I’ve grown tired of the radioactive rhetoric and the polarizing partisanship. How can we make to November and beyond?

G.K. Chesterton once pointed out a particular burden for those seeking a better way. He said, “There is a corollary to the conception of being too proud to fight. It is that the humble have to do most of the fighting.” It’s a good reminder that we can’t merely hide our heads in the sand until the diplomatic dust settles.

For readers wanting to engage in positive ways, Chesterton’s life offers helpful principles. First, stay humble. When asked what topic he would choose if he could give only a single sermon in his lifetime, Chesterton said he would preach against pride. He describes pride as the chief of all sins. C.S. Lewis described humility, not as thinking less of ourselves, but thinking of ourselves less.

A second principle for thriving in a heated election season is to stay curious. Chesterton once quipped that “there are no uninteresting things, only uninterested people.” Chesterton cultivated public friendships with many who differed from him in terms of values, philosophy, and politics. What he held in common with thought leaders like H.G. Wells and George Bernard Shaw was not ideology, but sincere care and respect. Our lack of interest in why people hold different positions than us, says more about ourselves than others. He once wrote, “Bigotry is an incapacity to conceive seriously the alternative to a proposition.”

Finally, it’s impossible to mention Chesterton without a passing reference to his effervescent joy. I love his statement that angels fly because they take themselves lightly. If we cannot think of ourselves less, and take ourselves lightly, we will carry the heavy burden of seeking to justify our positions and cudgel our adversaries into submission.

These virtues of humility, curiosity, and joy can give us a framework for not only maintaining our sanity but for spreading some goodness. We get it all right, that’s for sure. But we can seek to add to our foibles something far more lasting than politics, something that will last forever. As Chesterton said, “Because our expression is imperfect we need friendship to fill up the imperfections.” Above all things, let us love one another during these loveless times.