Barry's Blog

In light of yesterday's election, it seemed appropriate to reflect on some wise words of C.S. Lewis on what he calls the "Democratic Imperative." These words come from his essay entitled, "Membership," one of the remarkable essays from the book, "The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses." His words here seem so archaic and obsolete in our politically correct culture of the early 21st century. So out of step with the "here and now." But I am reminded, as he says elsewhere, that "all that is not eternal, is eternally out of date."

"I believe in political equality. But there are two opposite reasons for being a democrat. You may think all men so good that they deserve a share in the government of the commonwealth, and so wise that the commonwealth needs their advice. That is, in my opinion, the false, romantic doctrine of democracy. On the other hand, you may believe fallen men to be so wicked that not one of them can be trusted with any irresponsible power over his fellows."

"That I believe to be the true ground of democracy. I do not believe that God created an egalitarian world. I believe the authority of parent over child, husband over wife, learned over simple to have been as much a part of the original plan as the authority of man over beast. I believe that if we had not fallen, ... patriarchal monarchy would be the sole lawful government. But since we have learned sin, we have found, as Lord Acton says, that 'all power corrrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.'"

"The only remedy has been to take away the powers and substitute a legal fiction of equality. The authority of father and husband has been rightly abolished on the legal plane, not because this authority is in itself bad (on the contrary, it is, I hold, divine in origin), but because fathers and husbands are bad. Theocracy has been rightly abolished not because it is bad that learned priests should govern ignorant laymen, but because priests are wicked men like the rest of us. Even the authority of man over beast has had to be interfered with because it is constantly abused."

"Equality is for me the same position as clothes. It is a result of the Fall and the remedy for it...Do not misunderstand me. I am not in the least belittling the value of this egalitarian fiction which is our only defense against one another's cruelty...But the function of equality is purely protective. it is medicine, not food. By treating human persons as if they were all the same kind of thing, we avoid innumerable evils. But is is not on this that we were made to live."

How do Lewis' words provoke your thinking in this regard?