I’m coming increasingly to think that the entire Alpha, Beta, Sigma, etc. typology is bullshit. People end up worrying about which box they fit in. Who cares? The boxes are make-believe. We would all be better off talking about which virtues and vices people have, which we each have, and how we respond to the circumstances of our lives, in particular, contemporary circumstances, and how to do that, better or worse, than to create these boxes.
Imagining a conversation between the mature Chesterton, and a mature, pre-insanity Nietzsche would be a fun exercise. It would be interesting to see them debate the question: Resolved, God is dead. Because Nietzsche was not wrong, that God was largely dead in the heart and mind of his European contemporaries. But of course God is external even to the large majority of people who no longer believe in him. And God wasn’t dead to Chesterton. And those of us who try to know, love, and serve God in this life so we can be happy with Him forever in the next, are in the same boat that Chesterton was in over 100 years ago. We are Chestertonian souls in a God-denying world. I wonder if a miraculously resurrected Chesterton and Nietzsche, looking at the weather, loathsome prospects of 2024, might not find that they had more in common than they did, with the average man of our own age?
Thanks. Like you said, I‘m sure the resurrected Chesterton and Nietzsche (assuming his insanity was not resurrected with him) could have an interesting conversation about the state of the world today.
From my limited understanding of the system, I’d say Chesterton was a Sigma. He did what he wanted and avoided leadership positions. His relationship with his wife was supposed to be tremendous, and enviable. Though I truly don’t think he cared what other men thought of his wife (caring what other people think is a gamma thing)
Chesterton and Tolkien are supposed to have had very good marriages. C. S. Lewis not so much, although I think God cornered Lewis into marriage.
"I’m coming increasingly to think that the entire Alpha, Beta, Sigma, etc. typology is bullshit people end up worrying about which box they fit in. Who cares? The boxes are make-believe. We would all be better off talking about which virtues and vices people have, which we each have, and how we respond to the circumstances of our lives, in particular, contemporary circumstances, and how to do that, better or worse, than to create these boxes."
Orthodoxy is a good one. It's in the public domain now. In the post, I linked the free electronic versions at Project Gutenberg. If you're like me and need a physical book rather than a screen for anything longer than a blog post, it's in print and readily available.
Orthodoxy had a profound effect on me, and played no little part in helping me out of a prolonged bout of depression.
Chesterton would have been exactly as you describe him, chortling away at his own roast. But still, he was a formidable critic of the so called great thinkers of the age. Heretics, which preceded Orthodoxy, is an astute take down of such luminaries. Orthodoxy is his response to their reaction to it.
Orthodox is definitely a more effective antidepressant than the stuff Big Pharma provides. Chesterton is similar to the Stoics in his ability to profoundly reframe a set of circumstances to show you what you've been missing.
I’m coming increasingly to think that the entire Alpha, Beta, Sigma, etc. typology is bullshit. People end up worrying about which box they fit in. Who cares? The boxes are make-believe. We would all be better off talking about which virtues and vices people have, which we each have, and how we respond to the circumstances of our lives, in particular, contemporary circumstances, and how to do that, better or worse, than to create these boxes.
Imagining a conversation between the mature Chesterton, and a mature, pre-insanity Nietzsche would be a fun exercise. It would be interesting to see them debate the question: Resolved, God is dead. Because Nietzsche was not wrong, that God was largely dead in the heart and mind of his European contemporaries. But of course God is external even to the large majority of people who no longer believe in him. And God wasn’t dead to Chesterton. And those of us who try to know, love, and serve God in this life so we can be happy with Him forever in the next, are in the same boat that Chesterton was in over 100 years ago. We are Chestertonian souls in a God-denying world. I wonder if a miraculously resurrected Chesterton and Nietzsche, looking at the weather, loathsome prospects of 2024, might not find that they had more in common than they did, with the average man of our own age?
Good post.
Thanks. Like you said, I‘m sure the resurrected Chesterton and Nietzsche (assuming his insanity was not resurrected with him) could have an interesting conversation about the state of the world today.
From my limited understanding of the system, I’d say Chesterton was a Sigma. He did what he wanted and avoided leadership positions. His relationship with his wife was supposed to be tremendous, and enviable. Though I truly don’t think he cared what other men thought of his wife (caring what other people think is a gamma thing)
Chesterton and Tolkien are supposed to have had very good marriages. C. S. Lewis not so much, although I think God cornered Lewis into marriage.
"I’m coming increasingly to think that the entire Alpha, Beta, Sigma, etc. typology is bullshit people end up worrying about which box they fit in. Who cares? The boxes are make-believe. We would all be better off talking about which virtues and vices people have, which we each have, and how we respond to the circumstances of our lives, in particular, contemporary circumstances, and how to do that, better or worse, than to create these boxes."
Agreed. Vox Day's system is silly.
Taking oneself lightly may be related to Samuel Johnson’s observation:
“The size of a man’s understanding may always be justly measured by his mirth”
One’s mirth is surely related to how one takes oneself. It is precisely the loss of any
sense of sustainable humor that is the chief symptom of the disease of our age.
Finally, some sanity in the slog through Gammadom.
Armagammon.
Is there any particular book I should start with?
Orthodoxy is a good one. It's in the public domain now. In the post, I linked the free electronic versions at Project Gutenberg. If you're like me and need a physical book rather than a screen for anything longer than a blog post, it's in print and readily available.
Good versions for ereaders here:
https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/g-k-chesterton
Also the excellent H. Belloc:
https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/hilaire-belloc
There's a trilogy that reads as follows:
Heretics
Orthodoxy
The Everlasting Man
Orthodoxy had a profound effect on me, and played no little part in helping me out of a prolonged bout of depression.
Chesterton would have been exactly as you describe him, chortling away at his own roast. But still, he was a formidable critic of the so called great thinkers of the age. Heretics, which preceded Orthodoxy, is an astute take down of such luminaries. Orthodoxy is his response to their reaction to it.
Orthodox is definitely a more effective antidepressant than the stuff Big Pharma provides. Chesterton is similar to the Stoics in his ability to profoundly reframe a set of circumstances to show you what you've been missing.