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Chesterton, G. K. (Gilbert Keith), 1874-1936

"Utopia of Usurers and Other Essays"


They fight; and they fight fair.
Every religion, apart from open devil worship, must appeal to a virtue or
the pretence of a virtue. But a virtue, generally speaking, does some
good to everybody. It is therefore necessary to distinguish among the
people it was meant to benefit those whom it does benefit. Modern
broad-mindedness benefits the rich; and benefits nobody else. It was
meant to benefit the rich; and meant to benefit nobody else. And if you
think this unwarranted, I will put before you one plain question. There
are some pleasures of the poor that may also mean profits for the rich:
there are other pleasures of the poor which cannot mean profits for the
rich? Watch this one contrast, and you will watch the whole creation of a
careful slavery.
In the last resort the two things called Beer and Soap end only in a froth.
They are both below the high notice of a real religion. But there is
just this difference: that the soap makes the factory more satisfactory,
while the beer only makes the workman more satisfied. Wait and see if
the Soap does not increase and the Beer decrease. Wait and see whether
the religion of the Servile State is not in every case what I say: the
encouragement of small virtues supporting capitalism, the discouragement
of the huge virtues that defy it.


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