Chesterton the Cartoonist, on "When the Revolution Comes"

When the Revolution Comes | John B. Buescher | CWR blog

Did you know that G. K. Chesterton was
not only an essayist, novelist,
raconteur, and possibly a saint, but
also a cartoonist as well?

In 1911, as he was publishing his
Father Brown stories and just before his intermittent debating
opponent George Bernard Shaw would write, Pygmalion, the
London magazine, The Sketch, published a series of
Chesterton’s cartoons, all on the theme of “When the Revolution
Comes.” Here’s a selection of three of them, illustrating his
humor, as well as his unerring ability to find the absurd nub of the
radical Progressivist cause.

Chesterton’s friend and fellow
writer, Hilaire Belloc, of course, often confronted Leftists with
what would, in our day, come to be known as “hatefacts.”

Chesterton here
is making fun of his own avoirdupois. However, under nationalized
medicine, unhealthy activity, like smoking cigars or carrying excess
weight, is positively anti-social and counter-revolutionary.

Shaw, Chesterton’s antagonist, the
great socialist Progessive, is here hoist on his own petard, as one
who refuses to stoop to the ritual of solidarity with the People.