C. S. Lewis and Progressive Pathology

"Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour, / England hath need of thee, she is a fen / of stagnant waters” begins a famous sonnet by William Wordsworth about the spiritual troubles of two hundred years back. Of course, things seem just as catastrophic today as they did in 1802. After the English people voted for Brexit, the elites of England seem to have declared war on the country’s culture and liberties. They are swiftly bankrupting the country and breaking its party system; they make a mockery of the established Christian religion while the king celebrates Muslim holidays; they have invited into the country uncounted millions of strangers, many of whom have no idea what British civilization means, while arresting law-abiding citizens for wrong-think and releasing horrible criminals from jail.

The English people tell pollsters and anyone who will listen that this is miserable stuff, that they hate their elites, who among other things censor these complaints, and that their confidence is about to break. We commiserate with them, but from a certain distance. I’ve noticed that some of my English friends have moved from a moderate, cosmopolitan libertarianism to full-blown patriotism that we might recognize ourselves—“for England, Harry, and St. George.”

We can ask ourselves, how did the mother of Parliaments, the origin of modern liberty fall into despotism? We are used to thinking about Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four when we try to understand such horror. The disfiguring power of the modern state, with technology and ideology, war and poverty, aided by fanatical young radicals—that’s the minimum necessary to exercise tyranny, according to Orwell’s description. But what is tyranny like in its first moment, rather than its full expression? For that, like Orwell, we should turn to C. S. Lewis.

It’s worth quoting from the conclusion of Orwell’s review, because he hits on exactly what goes wrong with the ending of THAT HIDEOUS STRENGTH:

“One could recommend this book unreservedly if Mr. Lewis had succeeded in keeping it all on a single level. Unfortunately, the supernatural keeps breaking in, and it does so in rather confusing, undisciplined ways....

...Much is made of the fact that the scientists are actually in touch with evil spirits, although this fact is known only to the inmost circle. Mr. Lewis appears to believe in the existence of such spirits, and of benevolent ones as well. He is entitled to his beliefs, but they weaken his story, not only because they offend the average reader’s sense of probability but because in effect they decide the issue in advance. When one is told that God and the Devil are in conflict one always knows which side is going to win. The whole drama of the struggle against evil lies in the fact that one does not have supernatural aid.”

Tolkien apparently had the same reaction. The novel is about two-thirds of the way to being a masterpiece, and it’s still well worth reading for those two thirds, but it’s ultimately a failure artistically. Nevertheless, Lewis’ depiction of the NICE’s machinations is so prophetic of what’s going on in our world now that it still has great power and relevance.

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