What’s Wrong With The World

What is a blog for? I begin this one in the aftermath of a very nasty scandal, in which, it will be remembered, one Damian McBride, a close friend and adviser of the Prime Minister, was revealed to have been plotting with another New Labour luminary to set up a new blog, for the purpose of spreading revolting lies about political rivals and and their families. I don’t want, here or at any time, to adopt a party political stance in this blog: I say nothing about the politics of this scandal . What it vividly demonstrates, though, is the freedom of the blogger to say what he likes, to present as fact any fevered invention of his own, without any need to substantiate it. Print journalists, these days, have a low reputation for accuracy and reliability. All the same, when I was earning my living by journalism in such papers as the Daily Telegraph or the Sunday Times my editors, whenever in an article I presented some new and possibly controversial information not generally known, would always want to know if I could ‘stand up’ my facts. A blogger is under no such restraint, unless it is self-imposed.

So I have given this blog the general title ‘What’s Wrong with the World?’ to remind me of the unseen presence of the greatest journalist of his, and probably any, generation and also to pose a general question: ‘what would Chesterton have said about the times we are living in’? He has never seemed more relevant; I hope over the next few months and years that with your help this blog will explore that relevance. Please contribute to the debate by adding your own comments. (If you don’t want them published here, write to contactus@gkchesterton.org.uk).

To start the debate: I am reminded, in the general context of the credit crunch and the behaviour of some of our bankers, of something Chesterton wrote (in the Autobiography) about his father’s generation, which was, he said ‘dangerously deaf and blind upon the… question of economic exploitation; but it was relatively more vigilant and sensitive upon the … question of financial decency. It never occurred to these people that anybody could possibly admire a man for being what we call “daring” in speculation, any more than a woman for being what we call “daring” in dress.’

Does that remind you of any knighted banker you may have heard of?

–William Oddie

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This entry was posted on Thursday, April 23rd, 2009 at 11:12 am and is filed under Politics and Society. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.