What were the crimes of England? According to G.K. Chesterton, writing in 1915, they were mostly to do with England siding with Prussia. This bias towards Germany, going back at least to the days of Frederick the Great, helped cause the Napoleonic conflict, barbarism against the Irish, the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 and the then unfolding horrors of World War I. Nothing quite like a bold call, thank you GKC.
With the caveat that "a little Chesterton can go a long way" and whether you agree with him or not, he writes with a bravado that can be startling. Here he is on "the idea of the Citizen."
The idea of the Citizen is that his individual human nature shall be constantly and creatively active in altering the State. The Germans are right in regarding the idea as dangerously revolutionary. Every Citizen is a revolution. That is, he destroys, devours and adapts his environment to the extent of his own thought or conscience.
Every Citizen is a revolution? There are times when GKC is like a charge, a very clever, quick-footed and amusing charge, but a charge nonetheless.
I love that,
LSP
