Screwtape and the False Democracy

As a brief sequel to The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis, he wrote a letter called Screwtape Proposes a Toast in which Screwtape, the devil who trains other devils on how to win the humans over to their side, talked at “the annual dinner of the Tempters’ Training College for young Devils.”  The discussion he has about “democracy” is I think very relevant to our current society.  Screwtape said to the other devils, “You are to use the word [democracy] purely as an incantation; if you like, purely for its selling power.  It is a name they venerate.  And of course it is connected with the political ideal that men should be equally treated.  You then make a stealthy transition in their minds from this political ideal to a factual belief that all men are equal.”  Screwtape continues by telling them they need to get their man (the one they are trying to tempt) to say, “I’m as good as you” to those around him; in other words, the devils should make the humans think that they are as good as everyone around them, and that he “therefore resents every kind of superiority in others; denigrates it; wishes its annihilation” until that person thinks thoughts like, “Here is someone who speaks English rather more clearly and euphoniously than I—it must be a vile, upstage, lah-di-dah affectation.  Here’s a fellow who says he doesn’t like hot dogs—thinks himself too good for them no doubt….  If they were the right sort of chaps they’d be like me.  They’ve no business to be different.  It’s undemocratic.”  He continued by suggesting that getting people to feel this way would lead them to want to be just like everyone else around them.  Screwtape observed, “Those who come, or could come, nearer to a full humanity, actually draw back from it for fear of being undemocratic.  I am credibly informed that young humans now sometimes suppress an incipient taste for classical music or good literature because it might prevent their Being Like Folks; that people who would really wish to be… honest, chaste, or temperate, refuse it.  To accept might make them Different, might offend again the Way of Life, take them out of Togetherness, impair their Integration with the Group.”  He then quoted the prayer of a young girls who said, “Oh God, make me a normal twentieth-century girl!” and Screwtape observed, “Thanks to our labours, this will mean increasingly, ‘Make me a minx, a moron, a parasite.’” 

               I think the description C.S. Lewis gives is all too accurate of our own society in which so many have lost a desire for seeking out those things that are wholesome and refined and culturally and spiritually enriching.  This of course is easily observed by the obsession of so many for essentially useless pursuits such as playing Angry Birds or using fidget spinners or chasing Pokémon.  But the 13^th article of faith teaches us that we should “seek after” those things that are “virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy.”  And the scriptures are full of teachings that encourage us to be different from the world—if we have the same pursuits and the same interests and the same activities as everyone in the world around us, surely the gospel hasn’t changed us like it needs to.  Of course we believe that all are created equal before God, but it does not mean that we must try to be like all those around us.  Christ taught us to be “the light of the world” and the “salt of the earth”—in other words, to stand out and be different by following His teachings (Matt. 5:13-14).  In ancient times the Lord told Israel that they were to be “a peculiar people” and separate from the nations around them (Deuteronomy 14:2).  Peter similarly encouraged the Saints to be a “royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people” (1 Peter 2:9).  In our day the Lord told us, “Go ye out from Babylon” and to “lay aside the things of this world, and seek for the things of a better” (D&C 133:5, 25:10).  The Savior invited us, “Arise and shine forth, that thy light may be a standard for the nations” (D&C 115:5).  The gospel should make us different from the world so that we do not do the same activities or watch the same kind of movies or participate in the same entertainment as the world tells us is “normal”.  We must not “seek the lusts of the flesh and the things of the world,” but seek rather to please our Heavenly Father and bring glory to Him than to be just like those around us (1 Nephi 22:23).  The gospel is a call to become like the Savior, and that means that, like Him, we must strive to do the “will of the Father” instead of the will of the world.