Time: Fri Dec 12 17:09:47 1997 To: From: Paul Andrew Mitchell [address in tool bar] Subject: SLS: C. S. Lewis Essay (fwd) Cc: Bcc: sls References: <snip> > > From "Willing Slaves of the Welfare State" (1958) in \Timeless at > Heart\ by C.S. Lewis: > > ... "Our intellectuals have surrendered first to the > slave-philosophy of Hegel, then to Marx, finally to the > linguistic analysts. > "As a result, classical political theory with its Stoical, > Christian and juristic key conceptions (natural law, the value of > the individual, the rights of man), has died. The modern state > exists not to protect our rights but to do us good or make us > good--anyway, to do something to us or to make us do something. > Hence the new name "leaders" for those who were once "rulers." > We are less their subjects than their wards, pupils, or domestic > animals. There is nothing left of which we can say to them, > 'Mind your own business.' Our whole lives \are\ their business. > "I write 'they' because it seems childish not to recognize > that actual government is and always must be oligarchical. Our > effective masters must be more than one and fewer than all ... > "I believe a man is happier, and happy in a richer way, if he > has 'the freeborn mind.' But I doubt whether he can have this > without economic independence, which the new society is > abolishing. For economic independence allows an education not > controlled by the Government; and in adult life it is the man > who needs, and asks, nothing of the Government who can criticize > its acts and snap his fingers at its ideology. Read Montaigne; > that's the voice of a man with his legs under his own table, > eating the mutton and turnips raised on his own land. Who will > talk like that when the State is everyone's schoolmaster and > employer? ... > "Again, the new oligarchy must more and more base its claim > to plan us on its claim to knowledge. If we are to be mothered, > mother must know best. This means they must increasingly rely > on the advice of scientists, till in the end the politicians > proper become merely the scientists' puppets. Technocracy is > the form to which planned society must tend. Now I dread > specialists in power because they are specialists speaking > outside their special subjects. Let scientists tell us about the > sciences. ... Let the doctor tell me I shall die unless I do > so-and-so; but whether life is worth having on those terms is no > more a question for him than for any other man. > "Thirdly, I do not like the pretensions of Government--the > grounds on which it demands my obedience -- to be pitched too > high. I don't like the medicine man's magical pretensions nor > the Bourbon's Divine Right. ... I believe in God, but I detest > theocracy. For every Government consists of mere men and is, > strictly viewed, a makkeshift; if it adds to its commands, 'Thus > saith the Lord,' it lies, and lies dangerously. > "On just the same ground I dread government in the name of > science. That is how tyrannies come in. In every age the men > who want us under their thumb, if they have any sense, will put > forward the particular pretension which the hopes and fears of > that age render most potent. They "cash in." It has been magic, > it has been Christianity. Now it will certainly be science. > Perhaps the real scientists may not think much of the tyrants' > 'science' -- they didn't think much of Hitler's racial theories > or Stalin's biology. But they can be muzzled. > ..."We have on the one hand a desperate need: hunger, > sickness and the dread of war. We have, on the other, the > conception of something that might meet it: omnicompetent global > technocracy. Are not these the ideal opportunity for > enslavement? This is how it has entered before: a desperate need > (real or apparent) in the one party, a power (real or apparent) > to relieve it, in the other. In the ancient world individuals > have sold themselves as slaves in order to eat. So in society. > Here is a witch-doctor who can save us from the sorcerers -- a > war-lord who can save us from the barbarians -- a Church that can > save us from Hell. Give them what they ask, give ourselves to > them bound and blindfold, if only they will! > ..."All of this threatens us even if the form of society > which our needs point to should prove an unparalleled success. > But is that certain? What assurance have we that our masters > will or can keep the promise which induced us to sell ourselves? > ... All that can really happen is that some men will take > charge of the destiny of the others. They will be simply men; > none perfect; some greedy, cruel, and dishonest. The more > completely we are planned the more powerful they will be. Have > we discovered some new reason why, this time, power should not > corrupt as it has done before?" > <snip>
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