B. U. G. S.

In his advice to his nephew Wormwood the Tempter on how to damn souls, Screwtape said that one could get humans into the condition in which they regard misery and agony as real, and a child playing in the sunshine as a mere illusion. I can’t find it right now but it looks as if, circa 1940, he had just read a defeatist’s words.

Defeatism has always seemed the height of wisdom. Why? We have a Judeo-Christian religion that condemns most pleasures and demands grimness. For two thousand years monks showed that the more you torture yourself, the happier God is. Wisdom came from crabby old people who were down on life. The happier old people are remembered for the fun they gave us. The nasty old ones are remembered for their Wisdom, simply because they didn’t say anything else.

But the simple fact is that grimness and pessimism are seen as Realism, as Screwtape, to his joy, noted.

Think for a moment. Try to imagine someone being called a “Realist” if he has a smile on his face.

This pairs in nicely with another point I made. If I tell you how the future is sure to be, you will laugh in my face. UNLESS I tell you the future is a blank wall of pure unmitigated misery. Anyone who says THAT isn’t laughed at. The guy walking around with a sign that says “The World is About to End” is a staple in comedy films. But someone who claims the future is a blank wall of misery is considered a Serious Thinker and a Practical Man.

This is not just an error. This is a SICKNESS. Screwtape viewed it exactly that way and was all for it.

I am unable to say what I REALLY think because everybody in the movement is carrying a huge load of baggage they don’t even know about. I can explain the basic problem very simply. Everybody who has never had any money knows all about making it. Anyone who has never even been close to power knows all about it. Every person in the movement has a picture of vast, unified, and above all, SMART powers that guide our destiny. Being where I was makes you a total atheist abut the religion that permeates our movement.

And it IS a religion. And it comes from the same source as religion first came from: We don’t know something so we find somebody who looks Wise and Grim to make up a good story. The story becomes holy. People who have spent their entire lives reading the Holy Books of Conspiracy are no more likely to change their minds than a TV evangelist is going to give up all that Old Testament he read.

So we worship the Brothers Grim. But if you live in a fantasy world, you lost out in the real world. I do not know how many hours I have listened to people explain how Washington works to me, how Capitol Hill works, how lobbies work. I listen, of course. I try to get a LITTLE reality into the discussion, but I have to do it very, very carefully. Otherwise my REAL attitude might show.