day no. 17,502: nurseries, nations, and nuance

“The punishments of the State must be sweeping generalisations. It is only the punishments of the home that can possibly be adapted to the individual case; because it is only there that the judge can know anything of the individual. If Tommy takes a silver thimble out of a work-basket, his mother may act very differently according as she knows that he did it for fun or for spite or to sell to somebody, or to get somebody into trouble. But if Tomkins takes a silver thimble out of a shop, the law not only can but must punish him according to the rule made for all shoplifters or stealers of silver. It is only the domestic discipline that can show any sympathy or especially any humour. I do not say that the family always does do this; but I say that the State never ought to attempt it.” — G.K. Chesterton, The Drift from Domesticity

The civil government has been given the sword and assigned the task of being God's deacon of wrath. The metric by which it is to determine when to wield it is given in the law of God. Justice is a function of aggressively guarding the general equity of the law. Sweeping generalizations, like "anyone convicted of rape, kidnapping, or murder should be executed by the State," must be maintained. The State has no business making excuses for the rapist, kidnapper, or murderer. In other words, it doesn't matter why they raped, kidnapped, or murdered the other person, it only matters that they did it. That kind of investigation may be appropriate on the home front where individual temperament and extenuating circumstances can be fairly assessed and applied, but that kind of approach at a corporate level is a disaster. It leads to victims being robbed of justice, criminals being robbed of consequences, and society as a whole being robbed of a sense of stability. The State is best equipped to work with sweeping generalizations, whereas the home is best equipped to consider particular circumstances.

“My complaint of the anti-domestic drift is that it is unintelligent. People do not know what they are doing; because they do not know what they are undoing.” — G.K. Chesterton, The Drift from Domesticity

Trying to make the State like the home is a surefire way to ensure that no homes will survive. Homes have their own sphere of sovereignty, but if the State will not stay in its lane or attempt to govern its sphere according to the jurisdictional prerogatives of a different sphere, the results will be disastrous. The home has not taken over the state, the state has co-opted the home's privileges and by so doing has brought the home to the brink of collapse. The nursery may require nuance, but the nation needs resolve.