WHEN it comes to his role as a great humourist and master of paradox, I like G.K. Chesterton a great deal, but his views in The Conversion of an Anarchist (see video, above) are unfortunately clouded by his assumption that all Anarchists are themselves irresponsible and therefore he rarely understands the more realistic side of our worldview.

To suggest, as the lady in this sketch does, that Anarchism is all about ‘negation,’ is false. Anarchy is also about affirmation, particularly when it comes to celebrating authentic existence and the restoration of natural order. Indeed, the Anarchism she addresses is that of nihilism and the belief in nothing. Nihilists are certainly very useful when it comes to sweeping aside the dead wood of modern civilisation, as both Nietzsche and Evola have noted, but contrary to this charge National-Anarchists believe in all kinds of things. In fact it is our recognition of other beliefs and opinions that truly defines us.

In many ways, Chesterton’s narrow interpretation of Anarchism – or at least his focus on the more negative and distorted opinions of its worst exponents – is like filling in one of those online questionnaires that inevitably yields poor results because the questions are not designed for people who operate outside the usual parameters of the political spectrum. When, for example, the Anarchist woman in the play denounces marriage, her opinion is purely subjective. She is certainly at liberty to do so, but then other Anarchists might wish to get married, after all. Similarly, the discussion about getting married in a Church is too simplistic because there is such a thing as Christian Anarchism.

One thing the Catholic gentleman does get right, however, is the fact that the people in the club have set a limit on liberty and that is clearly hypocritical. Again, National-Anarchism is the perfect answer to such limitations because our belief in separate development means that ideological or theological disagreements are easily settled when you don’t have to live in one another’s pockets. indeed, those who are ‘orthodox’ can thus express themselves in their own distinct way.

Finally, although it is said that ‘the man in the street’ who wants a wife, a house and a baby merely seeks ‘the humdrum things God thought of when he created the world’, the Anarchist desire to live in accordance with nature fulfils this notion far more faithfully than the ‘humdrum’ existence of the modern streetcleaner or shoe-shine boy. If you believe in a Christian god, therefore, you should not have to accept that such mundane tasks – not to mention modern civilisation itself – are part of God’s plan. In many ways, the true Christian is also an Anarchist.