¶This online edition of The Outline of
Sanity is adapted from the plain text copy at gkc.org.uk. Published with
Pollen. The source code is on GitHub. No trackers, analytics or
JavaScript.
¶Many of us have a love/hate relationship with Chesterton. He is annoyingly precious, his flourishes frequently obscure his points rather than illuminate them, and his analogies are usually overloaded and contrived. This book in particular would benefit from a careful translation into the English language. But despite its ugliness, it contains ideas about autonomy, ownership and decentralization that break across typical “left-right” fault lines, and which have been tried with success (e.g.). These ideas can still shine through to a persistent reader. I thought it was worth having them online in a form where we can reference and share them easily.