STL Chapter 7

Letter seven seems to foreshadow an internal battle that the patient will have to face. With regards to the War, he apparently is really confused, and does not know which way to turn. It is interesting to note that he could become anything from an extreme patriot to an extreme pacifist. Even more interesting is screwtape’s advice to his nephew on making sure that the patient chooses one of these extremes, and not something in the middle. It seems that powers in the world often push for one extreme or another to be recognized as the correct answer. Either a country is making war because the cause is the purest and truest in history, or they’re making war because they’re the biggest war-happy nation in history.

Religion comes in here since religious texts are confusing and have tons of stories that can be interpreted to mean about anything. If someone wants to prove that a war is good or bad based on religious scripture, they’re going to have absolutely no problem convincing themselves of it. Yet, the fact that someone else can prove to themselves the complete opposite based on the same texts should give a clue that one’s reasoning has to be deeper than that. What screwtape definitely doesn’t advocate is allowing the patient to take his time figuring out based on values and beliefs he wouldn’t trade for anything, how he feels about the war situation. This would lead to the best decision being made, even if it is a somewhat extreme position. Although screwtape does seem to disagree with my analysis, if the analysis is done correctly, I feel the patient would have the confidence and knowledge that unlike the masses in the extreme position, he would not conform to the crowd that also agrees with him when he decides how he views the war.

SL Letters 1-3

One of the key concepts the third letter presents is the power of double standards. Early on in the letter the point is made that one can so easy examine one’s own life with an incredible amount of effort and notice nothing wrong. However, the same person may be able to look at someone else and find a large number of aspects that seem less than perfect. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this is the quality of analysis that can be done by a person on their own being, opposed to someone else. Everyone has traits, beliefs, and ideas that they keep to themselves for various reasons. This is not to say they’re necessarily bad, because they may be great or harmful. The key in this is that they are hidden and make it impossible for someone else to analyze how these things affect someone as a person. This leaves the less secret identity to be looked at.

These identities can easily turn into unimportant things such as the tone of voice, as Lewis gives as an example. If a person desperately needs help, they are probably not going to care a great deal if their doctor has a funny voice or not. They will care if that doctor has the skills, desire, and motivation to save their life. Yet, why does it often take great events and circumstances to get around the tendency to let little traits about a person get in the way of seeing their actual value, especially when everyone has a few traits that are bound to be annoying to someone else? Why do we struggle so much to understand that we are all so different and annoy each other in one way or another, no matter how much we might want to deny it? Why does this turn into judgment and circumstances that are really bad and would be best avoided? It seems to be a simple fact of life, part of the human condition. It would be wonderful if this could be changed, but that hasn’t happened yet.

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