I read 1984 as a summer reading assignment in High School. I read Brave New World sometime around 2017. Both had a profound, if somewhat unexceptional, impact on my understanding of the totalitarian mind. Both end in the bleak annihilation of the books protagonist and the inevitable triumph of the omnipotent government.
As I watched the horror of Covid policy unfold in early 2020 comparisons with the regimes in both novels were abundant both in my own mind and on social media. The Covid regime was a weird mixture of the two governments from the novels, as utterly repressive in its scope and aim as ‘The Party’ but couched in language and policies analogous to the ostensible good intentions and paternalism of the ‘World Controllers.’ Yet neither novel resonated perfectly with the events unfolding around me at the time. It wasn’t until I saw a tweet that said;
“What’s going on right now isn’t 1984 or A Brave New World, it’s That Hideous Strength”
that I was aware of the existence of CS Lewis’ 1945 novel despite reading the Narnia series as a child and several of his non-fiction works as an adult. Intrigued, I started in reading The Space Triology almost immediately. Ironically, That Hideous Strength takes place entirely on earth with only one character from the previous two installments tying the series together. The first two novels are well worth reading in my opinion but deal mostly with theological questions rather than political ones. From Out of the Silent Planet one only needs to know that the protagonist, Ransom, was taken to Mars against his will and ends up helping the Martians stop his captors attempts at subjugating the population and looting their resources. In the second novel, Perelandra, Ransom was this time transported to Venus by a divine entity on a mission to thwart the introduction of evil to planet that exists in a state of innocence. Without giving away too much of the plot, he succeeds and has divine truths revealed to him and is promised an immortal place on this planet that will now persist in state of grace after he finishes his work on earth.
That summation is really all that is necessary to contextualize That Hideous Strength and with this understanding it can be read as a stand alone novel.
That Hideous Strength is the account of the rise of N.I.C.E. (National Institute for Coordinated Experiments), a cabal of scientists, academics, politicians and thugs who’s purported purpose is the elevation of mankind through scientific advancement and social engineering but who’s actual aims are unsurprisingly much darker. We come to meet the players and understand their motivations through our first protagonist, Mark, a sociologist recruited into the organization out of academia. We meet Ransom and company through the our second protagonist, Mark’s wife Jane, who is alternately recruited into a disparate little group of individuals divinely tasked to obstruct N.I.C.E.
I think it suffices to say that Lewis’ work is more than a little prescient on philosophical and political issues we discuss on a daily basis. Scientism, materialism, journalistic propaganda, orchestrated riots and power as a political end in and of itself are all worked into the plot of the story. There is also a reanimated severed head, an obese grizzly bear, and and appearance by the Arthurian Merlin to boot. Rather than go further into the plot I’m providing some relevant teaser quotes:
“Why you fool, it’s the educated reader who CAN be gulled. All our difficulty comes with the others. When did you meet a workman who believes the papers? He takes it for granted that they’re all propaganda and skips the leading articles. He buys his paper for the football results and the little paragraphs about girls falling out of windows and corpses found in Mayfair flats. He is our problem. We have to recondition him. But the educated public, the people who read the high-brow weeklies, don’t need reconditioning. They’re all right already. They’ll believe anything.”
“Isn’t it absolutely essential to keep a fierce Left and fierce Right, both on their toes and each terrified of the other? That’s how we get things done.”
“His education had been neither scientific nor classical—merely “Modern.” The severities both of abstraction and of high human tradition had passed him by: and he had neither peasant shrewdness nor aristocratic honour to help him. He was a man of straw, a glib examinee in subjects that require no exact knowledge (he had always done well on Essays and General Papers) and the first hint of a real threat to his bodily life knocked him sprawling.”
“The physical sciences, good and innocent in themselves, had already… begun to be warped, had been subtly maneuvered in a certain direction. Despair of objective truth had been increasingly insinuated into the scientists; indifference to it, and a concentration upon mere power, had been the result… The very experiences of the dissecting room and the pathological laboratory were breeding a conviction that the stifling of all deep-set repugnances was the first essential for progress.”
“Fellows of colleges do not always find money matters easy to understand: if they did, they would probably not have been the sort of men who become Fellows of colleges.”
“In fighting those who serve devils one always his this on one’s side; their Masters hate them as much as they hate us. The moment we disable the human pawns enough to make them useless to Hell, their own Masters finish the work for us. They break their tools.”
In the foreword of the book, CS Lewis explains that the point of the book is the same as that of his seminal non-fiction work, The Abolition of Man. I read this shortly after finishing The Space Trilogy. In my mind this should be foundational reading for any libertarian. Again, rather than give the grade-school book report I’ll let the selected quotes summarize the work:
“The Tao, which others may call Natural Law or Traditional Morality or the First Principles of Practical Reason or the First Platitudes, is not one among a series of possible systems of value. It is the sole source of all value judgments. If it is rejected, all value is rejected. If any value is retained, it is retained. The effort to refute it and raise a new system of value in its place is self-contradictory. There has never been, and never will be, a radically new judgment of value in the history of the world. What purport to be new systems or…ideologies…all consist of fragments from the Tao itself, arbitrarily wrenched from their context in the whole and then swollen to madness in their isolation, yet still owing to the Tao and to it alone such validity as they posses.”
“A dogmatic belief in objective value is necessary to the very idea of a rule which is not tyranny or an obedience which is not slavery.”
“An open mind, in questions that are not ultimate, is useful. But an open mind about the ultimate foundations either of Theoretical or of Practical Reason is idiocy. If a man’s mind is open on these things, let his mouth at least be shut. He can say nothing to the purpose. Outside the Tao there is no ground for criticizing either the Tao or anything else. A great many of those who “debunk” traditional or (as they would say) “sentimental” values have in the background values of their own which they believe to be immune from the debunking process.”
“The process which, if not checked, will abolish Man goes on apace among Communists and Democrats no less than among Fascists. The methods may (at first) differ in brutality. But many a mild-eyed scientist in pince-nez, many a popular dramatist, many an amateur philosopher in our midst, means in the long run just the same as the Nazi rulers of Germany: ‘Traditional values are to be debunked’ and mankind to be cut out into some fresh shape at the will (which must, by hypothesis, be an arbitrary will) of some few lucky people in one lucky generation which has learned how to do it.”
“When all that says ‘it is good’ has been debunked, what says ‘I want’ remains. (…) The Conditioners, therefore, must come to be motivated simply by their own pleasure. (…) My point is that those who stand outside all judgements of value cannot have any ground for preferring one of their own impulses to another except the emotional strength of that impulse. (…) I am very doubtful myself whether the benevolent impulses, stripped of that preference and encouragement which the Tao teaches us to give them and left to their merely natural strength and frequency as psychological events, will have much influence. I am very doubtful whether history shows us one example of a man who, having stepped outside traditional morality and attained power, has used that power benevolently.”
“Man’s conquest of Nature, if the dreams of some scientific planners are realized, means the rule of a few hundreds of men over billions upon billions of men. There neither is nor can be any simple increase of power on Man’s side. Each new power won by man is a power over man as well. Each advance leaves him weaker as well as stronger. In every victory, besides being the general who triumphs, he is also the prisoner who follows the triumphal car.”
“But the man-moulders of the new age will be armed with the powers of an omnicompetent state and an irresistible scientific technique; we shall get at last a race of conditioners who really can cut out all posterity in what shape they please. […] It is not that they are bad men. They are not men at all. Stepping outside the Tao, they have stepped into the void. Nor are their subjects necessarily unhappy men. They are not men at all: they are artifacts. Man’s final conquest has proved to be the abolition of Man.”
There you have it. I don’t have any further appeals beyond that I found it very rewarding reading that was ultimately encouraging. That Hideous Strength ends on a triumphal rather than despondent note which, incidentally, was why Orwell ultimately disliked it. I leave it to you, dear Glibs, to draw the parallels with our present time.
Years ago I recall reading an essay about Korean POWs that posited there were three groups: two that resisted Nork/Chicompropaganda: dumb love my country no matter whats and educated that knows there’s faults but that it’s still better despite that, and one that fell into their traps: the partially educated that knew enough to have a shaky foundation but not enough to be confident in the themselves.
Sometime after that I read an article in one of the Army’s professional journals that referenced that essay but as only two groups: uneducated dumbs and smart educated ones, as an advocacy for pushing education (no matter what). Completely missed the point except by serving as a perfect example of it. That didn’t help me as an E-nothing to form a very high opinion of field grade and future GOs.
“Completely missed the point”
Are you sure?
They probably got the point, but being the leader class, wanted really manipulated people.
It is interesting that many of our commenters are well versed in science and philosophy, etc. I often wonder if I’ve wasted my time by seeking knowledge rather than money. All around I see people who are less well educated but doing well. I have to remind myself that the physical isn’t the only important thing, living the right life is important too. Actually, it is more important, kind of the only thing really.
Bob, what a wonderful review!
I read the Space Trilogy when I was way too young to really get it. I’m going to re-read now. Thanks, man.
Me too. Still working on silent planet.
Excellent. The clarity of vision that came out of the trenches of WWI is often breath taking. I am working on a similar post, but from another angle and (at that horrific time) foe of Lewis.
Very interesting stuff Bob, chewing on it and I think instead of commenting I may have to write up my thoughts.
I will say this – I am strongly reminded of Nietzsche’s Last Man in what Lewis is describing, so they seem to be seeing the same thing. It is their responses to that that wildly differ. Lewis must go back to God and Nietzsche would argue we can’t go back because we have killed God, and equally we can’t develop the new values in the context Lewis describes. Reading Nietzsche for answers is a fool’s errand, he couldn’t work them out, but he asks a lot of very good questions.
Definitely, but doesn’t it seem like he didn’t really believe his own hypotheses?
He never embodied his ideals that’s for sure. His mental and physical health also failed him right after a pretty much manic period. Like I said – not the guy to be reading if you want answers. The apocryphal story of his breakdown is that the man who disdained sentimentalizing animals saw a horse being whipped, crossed a plaza and threw his arms around its neck to keep the owner from beating it any more, and then broke down in hysterics.
Reading Thus Spoke Zarathustra is as much reading poetry as it is philosophy, and there is a reason for that – Nietzsche wasn’t attempting to reason out a new philosophy. He saw reason as played out; I’d more say in my view reason has limits to what it can do; useful but not the be-all and end-all. Same thing with mathematics – which is heresy to those who worship Science! [and that is an intentionally ironic construction]
I think it was Feynman who said: I’d rather have questions I can’t answer than answers I can’t question.
“The apocryphal story of his breakdown is that the man who disdained sentimentalizing animals saw a horse being whipped, crossed a plaza and threw his arms around its neck to keep the owner from beating it any more, and then broke down in hysterics.”
This happens in a novel by Tolstoy (of is it Dostoevsky?) I believe. I can’t remember exactly which now.
Trapped in a nine-hour meeting today. Finally getting around to silly games:
Daily Quordle 386
3️⃣4️⃣
6️⃣5️⃣
Best score in a very long time and no real chance to gloat about it.
Sad.
Just played too.
Meh.
Daily Quordle 386
5️⃣4️⃣
6️⃣7️⃣
@DEG from the dead thread
I’m a lager fan and I just had one of the best lagers ever and it was brewed just down the street.
I’m wondering if Ayn Rand read C.S. Lewis as this reminds me of Dr. Robert Stadler in “Atlas Shrugged.”
Yes, and she wasn’t a fan.
She needs to stop holding back.
Dayum… tell us what you really think, girl.
You can’t fool me. That’s actually Winston’s Mom responding to another Krugnuts column.
Trying to read all that with one eye and a headache, but it seems to me Rand is missing Lewis’ point that he disapproves of the nonsense that Rand thinks he is approving.
Yeah, she’s latching on the the phrase “Man’s Power over Nature”. Lewis was arguing against postmodern attempts to declare that reality is whatever we say it is, and to mold the New Soviet Man (which, as Bob points out, was very prescient). Rand is conflating that with any and all scientific discovery.
On the other hand, they really, truly would have been at odds with each other over their views of reason and the spiritual. Rand saw the rational and the spiritual as fundamentally opposed. Lewis saw God as the source of reason, and the existence of reason as an argument for the existence of God. That wasn’t the focus of The Abolition of Man, but was implicit in it, and formed the bulk of another of his books, Miracles.
Haven’t seen you in a while Cannoli. How have you been?
I’ve been really good. I’m expecting Baby Cannoli in July, so life has been busy. I’ve been lurking, but usually catching up on dead threads so no commenting.
Mazel tov!
That’s fantastic! Congratulations!
Huzzah!
Congrats!
Thank God.
Hope you have smooth sailing until July and after. What wonderful news.
Thank you all!
“ I am very doubtful whether history shows us one example of a man who, having stepped outside traditional morality and attained power, has used that power benevolently.”
I think the issue is more that stepping outside traditional morality puts you firmly into the utilitarian arena with no ethical framework to resist the worst of what it tempts.
See Sam Harris for an example.
Utilitarian thought is the crippled bastard child of reason. God save us from the Universalist Utilitarians!
His Russ Roberts interview would have been funny if not so sad. Harris absolutely beclowned himself.
He’s a great example of really smart people (okay debatable) being able to fool themselves.
I was a paper delivery kid in Mpls in the early ’50s. The morning paper ran a serialized “1984” and I had time in the morning before school to finish a chapter between bites of breakfast. I read it verbatim, no nuance. As a 13-14 year old I really didn’t understand what the fuss was about. Then I read ”1984″ and “Animal Farm” when I was about 45-50 years old and that was the introduction to libertarianism for me. I didn’t know there were other people out there like me. I never did read CS Lewis though. Actually I had read a Robert Ringer that really piqued my curiosity.
Great article, BB, and good to know there are a lot of us that don’t fit the R-D mold of political BS. Happy to be a Glib, Thanks
I wrestled with the thought that I was alone with my beliefs. Then I found libertarianism. First Reason, then the Glibs.
I might be a member of a microscopic minority but, hell, I’m not alone!
Because I am a bit younger than you two, I knew about libertarianism and many of my friends wondered why I wasn’t one. At the time I put it down to silly reasons; they didn’t have a plank on X or a position on Y, when really I wanted those same friends to keep me in my place socially. But, as I got older, I realized that if they were friends it wouldn’t matter, and if they weren’t, it probably wouldn’t matter either.
And brick by brick, my belief in liberty seems to be increasing, with just as many friends. Albeit different ones.
I never read a lot of CS Lewis. I might have to change that.
The Tao he is referring to I imagine is the ultimate way? Is he directly referencing the Tao Te Ching?
“The Tao, which others may call Natural Law or Traditional Morality or the First Principles of Practical Reason or the First Platitudes,“
I answered my own question. Really he is using “the Tao” to represent the way=natural law.
I have a problem with natural law and traditional morality as it can be defined in dramatically ways depending on who defines it. I know there is a definition for a western way of thought, but there could be other definitions on what both terms mean.
Great “book report” Bob. I didn’t even know these books existed. I need to check out this trilogy.
A guide to Valentine’s Day.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=EXn6n22qp74&feature=shares
Popping in from lurkerdom to say hi and thanks to Bob for the write up. I read the Space Trilogy about a year ago, and had a similar reaction to That Hideous Strength. On the other hand, while I greatly appreciated a triumphant ending to a dystopian story for once, I did find that from a literary perspective (spoilers ahead) the pretty extreme divine intervention was less satisfying than the protagonists’ personal victories. I think Perelandra did a better job balancing those aspects.
Congrats, apparently!
Thanks!
Good morning and hearty congratulations! I know you’re busy (and will get even busier!) but I hope you’re able to come around here more often!
Good morning GT! Time permitting, I would certainly like that.
🙁
I want to sleep so I can get to the office on time tomorrow, but I can’t fall asleep, but I’m also too tired to be awake.
For whatever reason I drew out a visualization of my role rationalization plan for work. Users within one of our applications were created ad hoc over the years and we are making them rational so that it’s easier to maintain going forward. I’m so out of it I’m doing visios off the clock, and I still can’t fall asleep.
Seek help, son.
Good advice.
Cafe Hayek had a good letter to the editor about this subject RE “da VID” and stuff. Only a few paragraphs long.
https://cafehayek.com/2023/02/hygiene-socialism-isnt-authoritarian-capitalism.html
Congrats Cannoli!
I hope you already have $ sign and Glibs onesies for the young soon to be ruler of the house.
My congrats as well! More shitlords is a good thing!
Thanks! I don’t have a lot of baby stuff yet, but Glibs onesies sound fun
Jumping in OT. Step-Daughter #1 came by this afternoon to pick up some Amazon parcels (she lives rural). Hugs and whatnot but I came out of my lair an hour later and she had left us a Valentine gift and a card that said “Thank you for being such great Parents!” Yes indeedy-do. Mighty dusty in the old Festus place. Life doesn’t have to be so goddamned terrible all of the time every time. There is joy in this world if only we practice a teeny bit of kindness toward one another everyday. It’s the little things that count. I mean that sincerely. I’ll get back to the snark post-haste.
Huzzah!
You were supposed to point your finger at me and yell “Fag”!
*hangs head in shame*
Good mornin peeps!
” I am very doubtful whether history shows us one example of a man who, having stepped outside traditional morality and attained power, has used that power benevolently”
I was struggling to disprove this, but that is probably right. But then, I also have a hard time finding someone who has done good with power generally.
*waves*
Good morning.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nsAUZXiPYCM
🎶🎶
https://ktla.com/news/local-news/chp-in-pursuit-of-driver-suspected-of-stealing-vehicle/
2 hour pursuit? Damn.
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/trucks-overturned-mojave-amid-high-052807033.html
Trucks fall down.
https://www.courthousenews.com/dianne-feinstein-will-not-run-for-reelection-in-2024/
At 89 years old…
🙄
Gerontocracy finally ending? Probably two decades too late to fix any problems we will have in the near term… Not to say younger people would have done better, but being quite so old puts a certain timeframe on your interests.
Meet the new gerontocracy, same as the old gerontocracy.
https://www.nj.com/business/2023/02/dog-food-recall-throw-away-this-brand-it-may-cause-kidney-failure.html
What was that about chicken feed?
https://www.fox29.com/news/threat-michigan-state-shooter-anthony-mcrae-promots-closure-ewing-schools
He was fucking dead. Pussies still closed schools.
Without knowing what the threat and motivations of the guy, I can understand this, under certain circumstances.
Morning. I did manage to eke out some sleep it seems. Now I’m up and getting ready for the commute.
Fun
I’ve got deadlines flying at me like crazy, at the same time my son is sick so I have to try to work at home and take care of him. I also signed up for multiple after-work events this week.
Enjoy your commute.
I hope it’s just a minor bug and he recovers quickly.
I’m picking out what tie to wear. I think purple today.
In a curious development, the purple tie came with a pocket square. I have no use for pocket squares since I don’t wear suit jackets.
Time to change that, then.
He’ll be fine, it’s just throwing a monkey wrench into things I needed to get done yesterday.
But do you have a pocket protector??
No, why would I?
What if someone attacks your pocket?? Did you ever think of that, buster??
You really need to up your shitlording game, bro.
Good morning, U, Lack, Sean, and Roat!
Glad you were able to get at least a little bit of sleep, U. Drive carefully!
Morning ma’am
There now! Wouldn’t you rather be chatting with us than doing something productive? 😁
https://people.com/crime/wisconsin-woman-charged-in-2022-dismemberment-case-attacks-attorney-at-competency-hearing/
She seems nice.
That’s your crazy/hot matrix right there!
Maybe she’s just mean as a snake, also not hot.
https://news.yahoo.com/spaghetti-restaurant-bans-children-under-10-150622720.html
MOAR!!!
Just doing them a favor. Who eats spaghetti when they go out? Yeesh.
I had linguine at Perkins last night. That doesn’t count, does it? (Cream sauce, not tomato-based sauce. That makes all the difference, right? 😟)
I only ever seem to stop at Perkins in Erie Pennsylvania. Oh, and one in Superior, but I pass by there less often.
I’m always tempted by the omelettes, but I still have to finish using the rest of a dozen eggs I bought for the sake of having two to use in a cornbread mix.
merangue and creme anglais?
Also, Don’t you have the option of buying by the half-dozen? I tend to get that size simply to avoid wastage.
I used to be able to find the cartons of six or eight, but not any more, at least not at our Meijer. 🙁 I blame union chickens.
Where are you going to find Confederate Chickens in this day and age?
Winn-Dixie?
Mornin’, UC, GT.
Don’t you have the option of buying by the half-dozen?
Not sure about eggs, but yesterday we received the raised toilet seat Mrs. Patzer needs to help deal with her mobility issues. I looked at the box and thought it was way too large for a single item. Lo and behold, I opened the box and found six retail packages inside the larger case; the good people at the Kohl’s warehouse swnt us a wholesale case intended for a store. So we are getting a free toilet seat, and they will send UPS to pick up the remaining five. Life is good.
I would be tempted to just stack them all up. (With a small ladder nearby, of course.)
(And, as always, good morning, ‘patzie!)
That would make it difficult for the person with mobility issues to use.
But quite the conversation piece when you have guests, no?
“Why do I have to wedge myself against your ceiling to use your toilet?”
I boil extras. Good for breakfast or added with vegetables to ramen.
I make deviled eggs. Then they mysteriously vanish.
I’ll probably scramble up a couple at a time on weekend morning (plus a couple of weekdays off – I’m taking next week as vacation!)
Deviled eggs are restricted to specified holidays for our protection.
Scrambling sounds too hurried for a vacation…
An end to the balloon crisis?
Ban ban ban ban, it’s the answer to everything apparently.
Condoms are inflatable.
Just sayin’.
So are boobs!
I want to work/do productive things, but those all make noise and I also don’t want everyone to wake up (because that means I won’t be able to do anything productive). What a conundrum.
And insomnia.
3:30 in the AM here, my cats are side eyeing me, what am I doing online?
Talking to people in real time zones.
Every Glib wants to be one of the Pre-AM Lynx cool kids!
So why are you hanging out with me then?
/never cool
See above about wearing fancier clothes, it’s never too late to be cool.
I thought you were voting against the purple tie.
Not cool? Dude! You (occasionally) wear a fedora!
We love the way you dance! Very cool.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=R73iEOvkr10
What is it about 3:30AM? That’s when I woke up (in my time zone, EST). Gave up on trying to fall back asleep at 4, and have slowly been coming awake ever since. Bleah. Sadly, this seems to be well on its way to becoming my body’s new routine.
Second-sleep time
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220107-the-lost-medieval-habit-of-biphasic-sleep
I get so little done when I sleep like that.
Mornin’, reprobates.
My reading list just got several additions. Thanks, BB.
Morning!
Thanks for the post, Bob. I also added books to my list.
Mr. Lizard goes to college.
https://nypost.com/video/huge-monitor-lizard-causes-chaos-at-college-dining-hall/
suh’ fam
whats goody
Yo!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=o41A91X5pns