Soggetto particolare, Slavoj Zizek: è marxista della specie più marxista, ma nel contempo è un estimatore ed ammiratore di Chesterton. Lo stima tanto da citarne un noto brano all'inizio di questo scritto:
»A century ago, Gilbert Keith Chesterton ironically proposed to install a "special corps of policemen, policemen who are also philosophers":
"The work of the philosophical policeman /…/ is at once bolder and more subtle than that of the ordinary detective. The ordinary detective goes to pot-houses to arrest thieves; we go to artistic tea-parties to detect pessimists. The ordinary detective discovers from a ledger or a diary that a crime has been committed. We discover from a book of sonnets that a crime will be committed. We have to trace the origin of those dreadful thoughts that drive men on at last to intellectual fanaticism and intellectual crime."
"The work of the philosophical policeman /…/ is at once bolder and more subtle than that of the ordinary detective. The ordinary detective goes to pot-houses to arrest thieves; we go to artistic tea-parties to detect pessimists. The ordinary detective discovers from a ledger or a diary that a crime has been committed. We discover from a book of sonnets that a crime will be committed. We have to trace the origin of those dreadful thoughts that drive men on at last to intellectual fanaticism and intellectual crime."
Would thinkers as different as Popper, Adorno and Levinas, also not subscribe to a slightly changed version of this idea, where actual political crime is called "totalitarianism" and the philosophical crime is condensed in the notion of "totality"? A straight road leads from the philosophical notion of totality to political totalitarianism, and the task of "philosophical police" is to discover from a book of Plato's dialogues or a treatise on social contract by Rousseau that a political crime will be committed. The ordinary political policeman goes to secret organizations to arrest revolutionaries; the philosophical policeman goes to philosophical symposia to detect proponents of totality. The ordinary anti-terrorist policeman tries to detect those preparing to blow up buildings and bridges; the philosophical policeman tries to detect those about to deconstruct the religious and moral foundation of our societies… The same insight was already formulated by Heinrich Heine in his History of Religion and Philosophy in Germany from 1834, although as a positive, admirable fact: "Mark you this, you proud men of action, you are nothing but the unconscious henchmen of intellectuals, who, often in the humblest seclusion, have meticulously plotted your every deed."
Can we still continue this endeavor? As a Hegelian, I say: yes, but with a twist missed by Chesterton (…)».
Anni fa segnalammo sul blog un articolo su di lui tratto da Il Sussidiario:
Qui trovate delle possibili tracce. Giusto per vedere che effetto fa il signor Chesterton… Passa sempre come l'elefante nella cristalleria. E meno male.
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