IT IS THE SNOBS who insist on being foolish, with bizarre theories and unthinkable behavior. They attack common sense. Chesterton said that all of life's great questions should be asked in words of one syllable - and answered in words of one syllable. The snobs of the world avoid words of one syllable because they avoid common sense, plain words, clear thinking. They prefer long words, which are a substitute for thinking.
And the one-syllable words that they most avoid are these: sin and faith. They do not want to face these simple, gigantic truths: that we have taken a good world (at Creation) and spoiled it. That we have to repent and return to the faith. Instead they attack the faith or ignore the faith or try to carry on without the faith.
In one of his typical paradoxes, Chesterton said sometimes a thing can be too big to be seen. Waht the world can no longer see is that it was the Catholic Church that laid the foundation for Western civilization. The world has tried to push the Church aside, but, in the meantime, the world is still living off its Catholic capital.
- G. K. Chesterton - The Apostle of Common Sense
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