I came across this prescient prophecy from C S Lewis’s That Hideous Strength – a book I have long regarded as one of the most prophetic I have ever read. We see much of it coming true in our day…it’s the ‘educated’ people who are largely the gullible, non-sceptical, non-thinking who believe that the Emperor is marvellously clothed! How else can you explain the elites belief in transgender ideology (and much more!)…
That Hideous Strength – Part 4 – Bringing Down Babel
C S Lewis and the War against Coronavirus
I don’t know that they’ll believe in anything but they’ll certainly believe whatever they read in The Guardian, etc. For example, they’ll read in The Guardian that we are in a climate disruption/emergency/catastrophe, whatever, and they’ll believe it. It doesn’t matter what the data show, if The Guardian says it, it must be true.
That’s an interesting quote.
But it’s not about someone educated being gulled and difficulty with the workman being the same for those who wish to convince that the emperor is clothed.
Educated or not, it is about discernment, wisdom and taking the courage to align with truth rather than what is convenient at any point in time for which all face challenges and must be willing to risk being mocked, hated and misunderstood when proclaiming the truth that the emperor has no clothes!
Just finished re-reading THS and remember reflecting on this exact passage. Terrific stuff.
I love C.S. Lewis. What a mind! I waited a long time to read The Space Trilogy, as the title didn’t appeal to me. How wrong I was. It’s now my favorite. Full of such insight into paradise, the fall, and our present world. Thanks for sharing.
Isn’t the quote the words of a character in a novel written before you and I were born, rather than (as you put it) a “prophecy”?
Prophecies often happened before I was born! And yes it is possible for an author to use fiction to prophecy what will happen….n
That Hideous Strength – A favourite book of mine and indeed of continuous relevance
The late lamented loony Leftist ( alliteratively speaking ), Tony Benn, once described the nursery – derived etiology of his implacable Leftism thus :
“My devout mother always explained the Old Testament as a perennial struggle between Kings and Prophets and always took the side of the latter.”
Another very relevant quote from C S Lewis is “The greatest tyranny is that which is done for your own good”. Which sort of sums up the situation in Western so called democracies under the cover of COVID.