What's Wrong With the World

We can talk about what is wrong all day long. And we usually do. But we cannot really talk about what is wrong, unless we determine what is right. We all dislike poverty, but we don't really love the poor. We all disapprove of prostitution, but we don't all approve of purity. Chesterton says, "The only way to discuss the social evil is to get at once to the social ideal. We can all see the national madness; but what is national sanity?" He answers that question right at the outset: the Christian ideal is the ideal. It is sanity.

But Chesterton was commissioned to write this book for a "broad" audience, and therefore was asked to leave religion out of it (even though he puts it in right at the beginning). He has to focus, however, on what is wrong with the world not from a religious or moral perspective but from a social perspective.

He identifies the four main things that are wrong with the world: Big Government, Big Business, Feminism, and Public Education. Big Government he calls Hudge, Big Business he calls Gudge. Feminism, surprisingly, is the tool of Big Business, as women are identified as a source of cheap labor and thereby "liberated" from their more important and influential and powerful role as mothers. And Public Education, not surprisingly, is the tool of Big Government, as compulsory education gives the State more power and influence than it has ever had in the history of civilization.

Hudge and Gudge have conspired against Jones. But who is Jones?

Read this classic by the great G.K. Chesterton and find out.