The modern state

A close friend sent me the following remarks and links.

In the first [excerpt], Fr. Baxter gloats that, in Benedict XVI, the Catholic Peace Fellowship has found a comrade in the struggle "against the pretensions of the modern state." I don't claim to know what other topics Fr. Baxter writes on, but it seems the only evil perpetrated by the modern state, in his mind, is making war.

Hence, the second excerpt from a lengthy article by Theodore Dalrymple from City Journal. Dalrymple (a pseudonym) is an agnostic Jew whose mother arrived in England from Germany in 1938. Dalrymple writes quite critically and knowledgably especially about the Underclass in England: he is a prison doctor who clearly knows the seamier sides of London from direct experience. This article, and numerous others he has written, show that the pretensions of the modern state extend into the domestic realm: its seeming solicitude has in fact corrupted much of the populace of, e.g., England. (Dalrymple cites Belloc on this approvingly.)

I think people like those at the New Pantagruel are much more attunded to the problems described by Dalrymple than is Fr. Baxter. Indeed, Benedict XVI's past writings on politics--and that nod to Tocqueville--show he is quite aware of the evils wrought by a benevolent total state.