STL Proposes Toast

This was an interesting read for me since after reading the introduction and the first few pages I I figured this would be Lewis writing in a way that was more enjoyable for him. The first part of the passage made Screwtape look like an absolute fool in my opinion. There was no real message that I could identify, just a bunch of mumbo jumbo about how wonderful he and everyone who follows the same ideals is. However, just when I thought the story had reached a proper pathetic ending for Screwtape, things changed and he started making sense. Not only did he start making sense, but I started agreeing with the premise of what he was saying. The point that sent shivers down my spine was about education, done in such a way that students would be expected to jump off a bridge, not because their friend did, but because a highly paid fool of an administrator felt it was a good idea. This is an extreme example, but I really feel this is the way we're going. The democracy lecture Screwtape gives has many elements that I take into consideration with questions such as Walmart. For example, don't like the kind of kind of labor practices Walmart is using to give you cheap prices? Guess where a lot of medications and such are being made? How about the same types of places Walmart gets their stuff. While this may not be advertised, just watch in the news for stories about tainted medicines. What Screwtape seems to be pointing at is an ideal sense that it's realistic that everyone in the world will live the same, which really doesn't work but can be considered as a philosophy. Screwtape sees the chance for hypocrisy to get the best of some who try and follow the mentality of living equally to others, when it is a real lie. In essence, it is an ugly situation that simply exists and can be a great place for problems in the world.

STL 28

Last week in another post and the comments that followed it the nature of how Screwtape speaks came up. Screwtape is arrogant, condescending, and really wants to think of himself as being some huge owner of power. My response to this was to think of the difference between the power he wants to possess, and the power he really possesses. The reality for him is that "the Enemy" has a lot more power over things than he does, yet he doesn't like to admit it. The first page and a half of chapter 28 really struck me because the way I read it, it sound a lot like a weird letter of defeat. Here are thousands of people In England likely to be killed in the near future and Screwtape knows he's in trouble. "The Enemy" he knows is at work and his own powers are really not doing too well. His main message for his nephew is that the patient had better survive the bombings or they're toast. They've thrown everything and the kitchen sink at him and it's not turning out well. This really struck me as strange as I read it since Screwtape's power was on my mind when reading posts from last week. But it gets even better. At the end of chapter 30 Screwtape talks how the patient is toast due to another one of his schemes if, "properly handled." Forget everything Screwtape said before, now everything is going to be alright, which lasts a whole sentence. In chapter 31 Screwtape decides that everything that failed with the patient was due to Wormwood messing up and the Enemy working, as though his ideas were so wonderful and only needed someone to "properly handle" the patient. Perhaps if Wormwood was so difficult Screwtape should have handled him himself? Give Wormwood the kind of person he was supposed to find for a wife. The more and more I read, it seems like Screwtape is exposing himself as an egotistical loser who really needs and ego check. He has ideas that seem good but they really just don't work as well as he claims.

STL 27

The concept that seems to rule this chapter is over-complication. The patient has come to value the power of prayer, and Screwtape is quick to note how bad this is for his nephew's efforts. The response he takes to prayer is to point out the number of ways prayer can be twisted into something that is a whole lot less appealing. The patient is supposed to think that his prayers are doing absolutely nothing and the fact that things don't always go his way are proof of that. Instead of sticking to faith, Screwrapes hopes the patient will essentially start a checklist of when his prayers have or have not been answered, and become frustrated at the number of times they are not answered.

The second part of over-complication comes from reading old books, and figuring out that the world has changed so much over time that the authors were a bit crazy by modern standards. In both instances it is possible to see just how uncertain things are in the world. We cannot remember when we were a week old. We often even have a hard time remembering what we did yesterday. Not knowing everything is just part of life. However, over-complicating things we don't know can also become a part of life. Through doubt and such, the simplest aspects of faith can be destroyed miserably. This is what Screwtape seems to want to see happen with the patient. The more the patient over-analyzes things that should have a level of faith to them, the better for Wormwood.

STL 24

This chapter is probably one of the most sobering chapters I recall reading in this book. The patient has found the perfect women, the exact type of person Screwtape was hoping the patient wouldn't come across. The people the patient is spending time with due to his relationship also seem to be very good in nature. It seems many of the usual tricks Screwtape would recommend do no good with this group, and they know it. The problem this group faces is distinguishing knowledge from judgment. Compared to the many people in the world today, this is the kind of group that really does not need lectures about the difference between good spiritual decisions and bad spiritual decisions, except for the critical judgment detail. They see other people around them behaving in ways they know to be wrong and are a bit too secure about how they are different from these people.

Instead of rushing to judgment a little bit of restraint would be the best route. Just because these people are probably living life by standards lower than one's own does not mean one of the standards is good enough to qualify that person as a judge. There's a reason that in the legal system today sentences handed out vary from letters of apology to the electric chair. In all honesty, if the patient's group of friends were honest about their sins they'd probably think they had committed sins that are getting up there with the electric chair level. But, they certainly do not take this approach to their failures. They give themselves far too much credit than they should and set themselves up for Screwtape's methods. The perfect group is that easily bait for Screwtape, despite the fact they have so much good to begin with. The fact that they are harder bait than others might be just means a bigger hook, better bait, and a bit more strategy are necessary to hook them.

STL 21

Letter 21 deals a lot with the topic of ownership. Screwtape presents the perspective that this sense of ownership so many people have is "equally funny in Heaven and in Hell." Early on in the letter Screwtape starts with the different perspectives one can take on work. He points out that the patient is naturally going to want his 24 hours a day to do whatever he feels like, and work is something that doesn't go along well with this sense of owning time. The sense of ownership conversation soon switches to more material possessions, and the impractical notion of owning people in some fashion. What I find really interesting is how true it seems that ownership can become something that is so misplaced.

The problem with ownership is that so many things that we consider to be our own are so temporary. Drive your car in one Wisconsin winter and you will quickly find out how fast the nice paint turns into troublesome rust. By any piece of electronics these days and soon it will be almost useless. You might own the product, but you sure didn't get to own the value. In connecting all of this to religion, the obvious problem I see is thinking that God owes us anything, especially material. It seems the lesson Screwtape is trying to convey is that the patient must confuse what he wishes he owns with God's mercy and goodness. The patient wants to have the ideal wife, the ideal church, and the ideal outcome to troubling times politically in the world. Screwtape realizes that if the patient takes these desires too far, they will become him owning the right to all these things, with God the one who is responsible for getting them to him. Obviously this is not the way things work, yet it is plenty easy to confuse them. It far easier to endorse the idea that I, the nearly perfect person deserve to own everything I want to own, than the idea that I wish I, the not perfect person am dependent on God's mercy, and should not be possessed by the craving to own whatever I want whenever I want.

STL 16

This chapter starts out with the very interesting concept of the patient creating problems by not being pleased with his church. At first glance it would seem that Wormwood and Screwtape would be rejoicing about the patient being skeptical about his church. If he is skeptical about one church, what stops him from searching other churches with a sour taste in his mouth? Assuming the patient continues to have a hard time finding a church he likes it would seem that eventually he would just give up. Yet, this is not the way both look at the patient's situation. They are anxious for the patient to find the absolute crummiest, most hate filled church that he can love. It strikes me as being interesting that they are more worried about the patient not finding a church than finding a crummy one. The reason seems to be that as long as the patient continues to think critically and intelligently about religion, he will find a way to do what is right, even if the church search is going terrible.

This enforces the concept that critical thinking is such a powerful tool that should not be compromised. Screwtape sees that the second the patient becomes attached to a bad church, things will get really easy for Wormwood. The preacher will basically take over the role that Wormwood is supposed to be taking. Instead of the unattractive demon telling the patient what to do, the appealing and evil preacher will get the job done, and the patient will have a great time falling into the pits of ignorance. The lesson here seems to be one of thinking critically about the religious doctrine one is subscribing to. There are plenty of religious people who can do plenty of harm, and they are helped in this by people forgetting to think critically about what has been said. While the thought of falling for harmful religious teaching is not pleasant and having to think critically about what has been said by someone who one thinks of as a mentor is not pleasant, it is a lot better than not critically thinking and falling for the tricks of a Screwtape.

STL 12-15

In chapter 12 Screwtape writes about a patient who said they spent their life on things the shouldn't have, and didn't enjoy either. It is amazing how easy it is to fall into this place where misery and failure go so hand in hand. There is often a lot of focus on certain fun things being bad ideas, but perhaps more focus needs to be put on bad things that cause the same types of damage. In chapter 13 Screwtape progresses to the types of things that the nephew should try and rid from the patient's life. They are such things as reading and stamp collecting. Much emphasis is often put on how such things can be bad, but it is also interesting to think about how necessary it is in life to have interests, and how they can be geared towards things that don't hurt faith. Chapter 15 wraps up nicely how these two ideas go wrong. When addressing WWII, Screwtape brings up how the patient should have either "tortured fear" or "blind confidence." Either one of these states of mind are doomed to bring about problems when circumstances get tough. Realistic optimism is a better option, but also much harder to achieve. However, we are talking about the difference between a more optimistic life and a life that is terrible all around. Realistic optimism maximizes the ability to get the most out of the stamp collecting, reading, and such. The alternative is to become overly judgmental or just plain scared of everything. Parts of life that are not religious in nature are fair game in the struggle for religious success, and should not be forgotten or taken in a manner that only leads to more problems.

Letter 9

In letter 9 Screwtape says, "A moderated religion is as good for us as no religion at all- and more amusing." This is very interesting to me in the context of religion and politics. A popular opinion in the US these days is to say that politicians should feel free to retain their religious beliefs, but not even think of bringing one iota of their religious beliefs into their politics. Would this not qualify as moderating one's religion? If religion is to go out the window when it comes to politics, why not throw it out the window a few more times? I mean, political decisions affect millions of people and religion is too dangerous to be allowed into that arena of ideas. What arena is it safe for? If you pray at night, the kid next door might get some night vision binoculars and spy on your bedroom. Good luck to you when his parents find out that now he's also taken a liking to prayer, even though the parents have declared that they never want their child to say a bible right? I do realize this is sounding extreme but I think it is the kind of question that Lewis is bringing up with this message. It is easy to blame disasters involving religion and politics on religion, when it is in fact the people who are crazy. But there are obviously places where religion is not so interesting. I do not need to seek biblical help to find the keys on my keyboard. I certainly did not find my WEP code in the book of Isiah. Somewhere between religious insanity and moderation there is a wonderful place of balance, the key is getting there.

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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