The Chesterton Maniac: The Sri Lankan Patriot vs. The Sri Lankan Sage
By Romesh Hettiarachchi –March 16, 2015
Romesh Hettiarachchi
Writing in 1908, the English communitarian and contrarian, G.K. Chesterton, defined the madman as one who sees too much of cause in everything, whose intellect was rarely delayed by things that go with good judgment, such as humor or charity. To Chesterton, the madman’s most sinister quality is a horrible clarity of detail, reading conspirational significance into every activity, connecting one thing after another in a map more elaborate than a maze.” While most assert the madman is one who has lost his reason, Chesterton concludes by arguing the mad man has lost everything excepthis reason.
The Sri Lankan Patriot: A Chesterton Maniac?
The characteristics of the Chesterton madman come to mind when reading recent writings by Dayan Jayatilleka. Engaging with Dayan is clearly fruitless; his quest for public affirmation is insatiable. Complicating matters is that the many circular arguments Dayan develops are difficult to respond to. When detractors deny the conspiracy, Chesterton posited that the conspiracy theorist would assert that denial of the conspiracy is evidence of the conspiracy i.e. “only conspirators would deny the conspiracy.” Similarly, in this instance, the failure of critics to take a public stand against the “Genocide Resolution” is perceived by Dayan as evidence that critics are attempting to “lull the majority of this country into a false sense of security.”
Dayan should rest assured: most Sri Lankans aren’t going to feel more secure simply because they read an article in the Colombo Telegraph. Most Sri Lankans are more intelligent than Dayan gives them credit for. That said, opinions can be held without writing publicly about it. One does not need to demonstrate they have a political opinion by treating every flight of political fantasy as something that ought to be published, using the Colombo Telegraph as their personal diary.
Simply because one has many opinions and expresses all these opinions publicly doesn’t make those opinions more or less true. it simply means he/she is a loudmouth.
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