From The Screwtape Letters (probably one of my favorite book)
Dear Wormwood,
Democracy is the word with which you must lead them by the nose….You are to use the word purely as an incantation…
Under the influence of this incantation those who are in any or every way inferior can labour more wholeheartedly and successfully than ever before to pull down everyone else to their own level….
To accept might make them Different, might offend against the Way of Life, take them out of Togetherness, impair their Integration with the Group. They might (horror of horrors!) become individuals.
All is summed up in the prayer which a young female human is said to have uttered recently: “O God, make me a normal twentieth century girl!” Thanks to our labours, this will mean increasingly: “Make me a minx, a moron, and a parasite.”
What I want to fix your attention on is the vast, overall movement towards the discrediting, and finally the elimination, of every kind of human excellence – moral, cultural, social, or intellectual. And is it not pretty to notice how “democracy” (in the incantatory sense) is now doing for us the work that was once done by the most ancient Dictatorships, and by the same methods?
You remember how one of the Greek Dictators (they called them “tyrants” then) sent an envoy to another Dictator to ask his advice about the principles of government. The second Dictator led the envoy into a field of grain, and there he snicked off with his cane the top of every stalk that rose an inch or so above the general level.
The moral was plain. Allow no preeminence among your subjects. Let no man live who is wiser or better or more famous or even handsomer than the mass. Cut them all down to a level: all slaves, all ciphers, all nobodies. All equals.Thus Tyrants could practise, in a sense, “democracy.” But now “democracy” can do the same work without any tyranny other than her own. No one need now go through the field with a cane. The little stalks will now of themselves bite the tops off the big ones. The big ones are beginning to bite off their own in their desire to Be Like Stalks.”
Your Affectionate Uncle
Screwtape
5 comments
Wow, no posts huh? Perhaps people don’t understand…or don’t care. I live in the great state of Wisconsin, perhaps you’ve heard of our struggle in the news. People are doing exactly that, we are legislating ourselves into poverty where we can all be equal. Our governor is trying to prevent that, but people just don’t understand. They want the rich to pay more so they can get more, but don’t take away their lavish benefits package or they will protest, send death threats, boycott business, etc. until they get their way. When will people wake up and realize that a government big enough to give you everything you want, is also big enough to take away everything you have?
Very, very true! THe only acceptable way to be ‘different’ is the way that demands tolerance from others…
Have not read these in a while. Perhaps I should, just to see if any stinging goes on. It is an easy way to figure out where I am blowing it.
A clear analsyis of how screwy the president’s men are now.
I think I need to read The Screwtape letters. I’m sure I have a copy in the house somewhere. My husband and I were just discussing this topic this morning in regards to a relative who thinks we need to take from the rich to give to the poor.
This is a fabulous post! In my mountain of books yet to be read, this is one of them. My husband read this book and raved over it! Perhaps I should put it nearer to the top…