Screwtape meet the Squad

When I read my daily newspaper, my senses are assaulted by the surfeit of absurdity. Page after page of preposterousness. Gaslighters, gaslighting the gas-lit, by gaslighting! Ask a simple question, that’s misinformation. Place a call, just so you can say I placed a call. In the middle of a crisis claiming the leader of the crisis response team is irresponsible for not taking a superfluous call, which, would waste precious time, but would provide a dose of manufactured compassion for my campaign. That is only this week’s news from the Kamala Karavan. A scan of past news headlines reveals page after page of absurdity; parents and librarians being called “book burners” because they want to keep their third grade boys and girls being exposed to male and female genitalia (don’t worry it’s only a drawing, a lifelike drawing, but it’s not art!). Transactivists exposing their breasts on the white house lawn, while still in possession of their penis. Zir is just expressing joy! What’s a matter, you don’t understand who Zir is? You must be a xenophobic, homophobic transphobic wag, or maybe just a republican! Crime is down, but don’t look that way, that’s not a junkie shooting up in front of your twelve-year-old, that’s a heroin attracted, abode eschewing man, exercising his rights, which just happen to erode your rights. 

I could go on with a laundry list of ridiculousness, but I am reminded that the perpetrators of these acts are often victims themselves. Victims of addiction, born into and escaping violent homes, suffering mental illness…all manner of unfortunate circumstances (this does not include gang-related violence which is a topic for another day). So how does this criminality become a national crime spree? Well, we need to look no further than the enablers, our elected officials, the vast majority of these look-the-other way managers are democrats in blue cities. But how did the party of the working man become the enablers of social decline? For me, this all starts with the effort to remove God from public discourse,

I am reminded of one of my favorite books; The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. The “letters” are a series of 31 correspondences written by a senior demon named Screwtape to his nephew, a junior tempter named Wormwood. Wormwood is assigned to corrupt a British man referred to as "the Patient" and secure his damnation. Throughout the correspondence, Screwtape provides insights into various strategies demons use to lead humans away from God (referred to as "the Enemy") and towards Satan (called "Our Father Below"). The novel offers a unique perspective on human nature, temptation, and faith.

 Screwtape emphasizes the effectiveness of gradual corruption rather than dramatic sins. He advises Wormwood to focus on small, everyday temptations that slowly lead the Patient away from faith. In one scene, the Patient is admiring a work of art in a museum and Wormwood directs a beautiful woman into his gaze; clearly distraction is a weapon! In the letters the demons attempt to keep the Patient preoccupied with ordinary life, encouraging him to focus on himself rather than God. How many of us have been dulled by this tactic? The constant barrage of a relentless 24-hour news cycle dulls our senses to the point where the next “threat to democracy” or normalization of abhorrent behavior just rolls off our backs when we just can’t take anymore. When the President and former Speaker of the House extoll their Catholic virtues, while in support of abortion, many become uncertain about what is really…real. The demons exploit this uncertainty and redirect the Patient’s attention to worldly concerns, to the point where he no longer is certain what to believe.

The demon’s toolkit includes exploiting human weaknesses as Screwtape advises Wormwood to manipulate various human traits and emotions. Let’s look at Screwtape’s strategy by examining some common human weaknesses through a 21st century lens.

• Pride and vanity

• The beauty and personal care market in the U.S is estimated to be $648 billion in 2024 while the US plastic surgery market is estimated to be $70 billion in 2024.

• If 1% of this spend was diverted towards homelessness, we would have $7 billion more available to spend on the homeless.

• Lust and sexual desire

• PornHub averages 5.5 billion monthly visits or over 66 billion visits annually while the porn industry generates more revenue (~$97 billion) than major sports leagues combined. It's reported to be bigger than the combined revenues of the NFL, NBA, and MLB

• If 1% of this spend was diverted towards fighting human trafficking, we would have $970 million more available to spend on the human trafficking.

• Gluttony

• An astounding 40.3% of U.S. adults were considered obese during August 2021–August 2023

• In 2023, U.S. consumers, businesses, and government entities spent $2.6 trillion on food and beverages overall.

• Of that $2.6 trillion, $1.5 trillion was spent on food away from home (which includes fast food) in 2023, up from $1.3 trillion in 20224.

• Fast food expenditures accounted for 58.5% of total food expenditures in 2023 - the highest share observed in the data series.

• A new study from Harvard found that the average fast food combo meal contains 1,193 calories.

• This average combo meal also typically includes 14 grams of saturated fat, 68 grams of sugar, and 2,110 milligrams of sodium.

• For comparison, a typical adult meal should consist of 700 calories or fewer

• If 1 % of our national fast food spend was diverted to health care, we would have $16billion more to spend on health care.

• Anger and violence

• Approximately 12 million Americans are victims of rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner annually. This equates to about 24 people per minute.

• More than 16 million people in the U.S. suffer from intimate partner abuse per year.

• In the United States, an estimated 10 million people experience domestic violence every year

• In 2020, the U.S. spent $280 billion on mental health services overall.

• If we diverted 1% of our spend on psychiatry we would have $280 million more to spend on mental health

• Fear 

• 76% of adults in the U.S. said that the future of their nation is a significant source of stress in their lives.

• 68% of U.S. adults said this is the lowest point in their nation's history that they can remember.

• Young people's fear:75% of young people aged 16 to 25 across 10 countries agreed that "the future is frightening"

• Just insert the numbers from the mental health statistics and you’ll have a good idea about the “1% less impact”

Those statistics are not a plea to spend 1% less on anything, as that in and of itself would be an absurd proposal, to which virtually no one would sign on to. I offer these numbers only to give you an idea as to how we have all become numb to the results of the masterminds of Madison Avenue. Some of the smartest people in the country spend the workday lulling you into pride, lust, anger, gluttony and fear and anger, while simultaneously separating you from your money. These facts are all “small victories to Screwtape as we have been gradually corrupted into secular world that views God-fearing people as weak and pridefulness as strength. In this version of the letters, Wormwood would get a promotion. All of these emotions weaken our faith, promote pride, twist the concept of prayer, where if we pray, we often pray for selfish goals, and we see Jesus as a righteous dude, rather than a divine one. 

All is not lost, as the story progresses, the Patient converts to Christianity, falls in love with a Christian woman, and faces the challenges of World War II. Despite Wormwood's efforts, the Patient's faith grows stronger, leading to his eventual salvation. In the final letter, Screwtape reveals that the Patient has died during an air raid and has been accepted into Heaven. Wormwood's failure results in his own punishment, as he is to be devoured by other demons, including Screwtape himself.

Our problem today is, do we even know we are at war, a spiritual war, for our souls and for our county.

C.S. Lewis wrote an epilogue to "The Screwtape Letters" titled "Screwtape Proposes a Toast," which was published separately in 1959. This epilogue takes the form of a speech given by Screwtape at a banquet for young devils graduating from the Tempters' Training College. Screwtape laments the quality of damned souls being consumed at the banquet, nostalgically pining over the scarcity of truly delicious sinners like Hitler. He is confident, however, about the quantity of sinners in modern democratic societies, noting that they are producing undisciplined and ignorant souls ripe for temptation. Hmm, can you say, “Queers for Palestine”?

Screwtape criticizes trends in education. With the Cold War as context, Screwtape and other devils use the subversion of education and intellectual thought in the West to bring about its overthrow by communist enemies from without and within. Education strategies like the lowering of academic standards to ensure all students can meet them while discouraging excellence or exceptional achievement. Promoting equality of outcomes rather than equality of opportunity…remember, this was written in 1959! Can you say DEI?

 Screwtape continues on, expressing satisfaction with the continuing intensity of religious intolerance among humans, seeing it as fertile ground for temptation. This is where issues like antisemitism or Catholics for abortion take root. Throughout the novel, Lewis uses this inverted perspective to highlight the importance of conscious faith, critical thinking, and resistance to temptation in the Christian life. The Screwtape Letters serves as both a warning against the subtle nature of evil and an encouragement to pursue virtue and faith actively.

This is a battle. I’ve never been to war, but one thing seems clear; understanding your enemy’s strategy is the first step on the road to victory