Reasons to be Cheerful:
Living in the Best of All Impossible Worlds
by Joseph Pearce
G. K. Chesterton once remarked that we don’t live in the best of all possible worlds but in the best of all impossible worlds. Such apparent optimism might seem a little glib, at best, or outrageously naïve at worst. Wouldn’t it be much more true to say that we are in the grip of vice-like evil, which is growing in power, and that,pace Chesterton, we are moving towards what seems to be the worst of all possible worlds, escape from which is the only impossible thing about it?
From Islamic barbarism, at one extreme, to unbridled hedonism, at the other, we seem to be on the brink of the abyss. Switching metaphors, we might see our civilization as being akin to an ocean liner, transformed into the proverbial ship of fools, which is moving dangerously close to the iceberg of narcissism. This iceberg looks “nice” enough on its glistening and glittering surface but, beneath the surface, its ugly underbelly brings death and destruction to any ship of civilization that strays too close to it. As for our own ship of fools, it seems to be careering heedlessly towards the iceberg, or, perhaps, might have already struck it with the devastating force that dooms the ship to sink ignominiously to the bottom. As it lists and lurches, taking in water at an alarming rate, the wise are already taking to the lifeboats, or the boats of life, seeking to conserve life itself from the forces of death.
Such is the situation in which we might perhaps see ourselves today.
In the midst of such a titanic struggle for survival, how can anyone say that we are living in the best of all worlds, possible or otherwise? Is Chesterton as mad as the Emperor Nero, fiddling with fantasy while Rome burns?
In order to answer these questions, we need to look a little closer at the questions themselves and ask some questions about the sort of people who ask them.
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Read more: /www.theimaginativeconservative.org
by Joseph Pearce
G. K. Chesterton once remarked that we don’t live in the best of all possible worlds but in the best of all impossible worlds. Such apparent optimism might seem a little glib, at best, or outrageously naïve at worst. Wouldn’t it be much more true to say that we are in the grip of vice-like evil, which is growing in power, and that,pace Chesterton, we are moving towards what seems to be the worst of all possible worlds, escape from which is the only impossible thing about it?
From Islamic barbarism, at one extreme, to unbridled hedonism, at the other, we seem to be on the brink of the abyss. Switching metaphors, we might see our civilization as being akin to an ocean liner, transformed into the proverbial ship of fools, which is moving dangerously close to the iceberg of narcissism. This iceberg looks “nice” enough on its glistening and glittering surface but, beneath the surface, its ugly underbelly brings death and destruction to any ship of civilization that strays too close to it. As for our own ship of fools, it seems to be careering heedlessly towards the iceberg, or, perhaps, might have already struck it with the devastating force that dooms the ship to sink ignominiously to the bottom. As it lists and lurches, taking in water at an alarming rate, the wise are already taking to the lifeboats, or the boats of life, seeking to conserve life itself from the forces of death.
Such is the situation in which we might perhaps see ourselves today.
In the midst of such a titanic struggle for survival, how can anyone say that we are living in the best of all worlds, possible or otherwise? Is Chesterton as mad as the Emperor Nero, fiddling with fantasy while Rome burns?
In order to answer these questions, we need to look a little closer at the questions themselves and ask some questions about the sort of people who ask them.
...............
Read more: /www.theimaginativeconservative.org
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