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Sunday, October 13, 2013




 



 

It should have become apparent that the Aardvark has a penchant for the conspiratorial. What the mainstream would view as confabulist is, to his mind, most plausible, even more reasonable than the things most hold as self-evident.That the most powerful arguments the mainstreamers can offer up consist of name-calling does little to dissuade him.

I have spent the week-end in Huntington, WV, plying my shirty trade at TsubasaCon, blissfully cut off from News, Facebook, and rabbitings about Obamacare. to pass the time I run up the spindizzy on my Kindle and read; the current book of choice is That Hideous Strength, the Late Great Planet Earth of his Space Trilogy. Even that waggish comparison is unfair; THS is no more end-timey-wimey than is the Book of Revelation. It is more all-timey-wimey, a picture of the forces that are ever-present in the world, ever vying for power, ever jockeying for position; it is the always-new contest for the Domination of the World: Caesar v. Christ. The shiny chrome and tile world of the National Institute for Coordinated Experiments (NICE) and its goals read like UN agency memoranda, or talking points for Planned Parenthood, though risking to use those as examples might occlude the breathtaking scope and prescience of Lewis' literary Progressives. Written in 1945, THS takes my breath away in revealing the thought behind what is de rigueur for those who are in, who are shaping the world and our opinions in the name of The News.
“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.”
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“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.”
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“We want you to write it down--to camouflage it. Only for the present, of course. Once the thing gets going we shan't have to bother about the great heart of the British public. We'll make the great heart what we want it to be. But in the meantime, it does make a difference how things are put. For instance, if it were even whispered that the N.I.C.E. wanted powers to experiment on criminals, you'd have all the old women of both sexes up in arms and yapping about humanity. Call it re-education of the mal-adjusted, and you have them all slobbering with delight that the brutal era of retributive punishment has at last come to and end. Odd thing it is--the word 'experiment' is unpopular, but not the word 'experimental.' You mustn't experiment on children; but offer the dear little kiddies free education in an experimental school attached to the N.I.C.E. and it's all correct!”
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The N.I.C.E. was the first-fruits of that constructive fusion between the state and the laboratory on which so many thoughtful people base their hopes of a better world. It was to be free from almost all the tiresome restraints – “red tape” was the word its supporters used – which have hitherto hampered research in this country. It was also largely free from the restraints of economy, for, as it was argued, the nation which can spend so many millions a day on a war can surely afford a few millions a month on productive research in peacetime. - See more at: http://www.wanliss.com/2011/11/quotes-that-hideous-strength-by-c-s-lewis/#sthash.0pF0HOar.dpuf
The N.I.C.E. was the first-fruits of that constructive fusion between the state and the laboratory on which so many thoughtful people base their hopes of a better world. It was to be free from almost all the tiresome restraints – “red tape” was the word its supporters used – which have hitherto hampered research in this country. It was also largely free from the restraints of economy, for, as it was argued, the nation which can spend so many millions a day on a war can surely afford a few millions a month on productive research in peacetime. - See more at: http://www.wanliss.com/2011/11/quotes-that-hideous-strength-by-c-s-lewis/#sthash.0pF0HOar.dpuf
 "The N.I.C.E. was the first-fruits of that constructive fusion between the state and the laboratory on which so many thoughtful people base their hopes of a better world. It was to be free from almost all the tiresome restraints – “red tape” was the word its supporters used – which have hitherto hampered research in this country. It was also largely free from the restraints of economy, for, as it was argued, the nation which can spend so many millions a day on a war can surely afford a few millions a month on productive research in peacetime. "
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"Perhaps few or none of the people at Belbury knew what was happening; but once it happened, they would be like straw in fire. What should they find incredible, since they believe no longer in a rational universe? What should they regard as to obscene, since they held that all morality was a mere subjective by-product of the physical and economic situations of men? The time was ripe. From the point of view which is accepted in Hell, the whole history of our Earth had led up to this moment." 

Lewis during The War saw clearly the direction Things were leading, and produced a work of scientifiction that reads like a modern novel, Art Bell, Alex Jones, and Agenda 21 all rolled up into one, and more. I encourage a reading of his entire trilogy, but That Hideous Strength, if you pay attention to current happenings, will set the heart crosswise in ye.
The N.I.C.E. was the first-fruits of that constructive fusion between the state and the laboratory on which so many thoughtful people base their hopes of a better world. It was to be free from almost all the tiresome restraints – “red tape” was the word its supporters used – which have hitherto hampered research in this country. It was also largely free from the restraints of economy, for, as it was argued, the nation which can spend so many millions a day on a war can surely afford a few millions a month on productive research in peacetime. - See more at: http://www.wanliss.com/2011/11/quotes-that-hideous-strength-by-c-s-lewis/#sthash.0pF0HOar.dpuf
The N.I.C.E. was the first-fruits of that constructive fusion between the state and the laboratory on which so many thoughtful people base their hopes of a better world. It was to be free from almost all the tiresome restraints – “red tape” was the word its supporters used – which have hitherto hampered research in this country. It was also largely free from the restraints of economy, for, as it was argued, the nation which can spend so many millions a day on a war can surely afford a few millions a month on productive research in peacetime. - See more at: http://www.wanliss.com/2011/11/quotes-that-hideous-strength-by-c-s-lewis/#sthash.0pF0HOar.dpuf

6 comments:

Michael W said...

I can't remember the last time I read Lewis' space trilogy (although I have both the Narnia books and The Screwtape Letters on my bookshelves. I would seriously doubt that the titles are available through either the Berkeley or Dorchester County libraries that I haunt. There seems to be a growing trend at public libraries to concentrate on the most contemporary releases (exceptions being the small list considered Immortal Classics). I thought something was wrong when I tried to find a copy of Hal Clement's "Mission of Gravity" at the libraries, and turned up bupkus. OK . . . so libraries in the South aren't hep to SF writers such as Clement.

Then I tried to find a copy of Cain's "The Postman Always Rings Twice". No joy. Someone please explain to me how an American library can be without one of the major novels of the last century.

Anyway, if you've ever read "The Screwtape Letters" (and I figure you have), you might also want to look into Taylor Caldwell's "Dialogues with the Devil".

(What! No comment on "Cult of the Cobra"? Or did you have to skip Svengoolie last night?)

The Aardvark said...

Alas, no Svengoolie on this WV hotel TV. I WAS treated to duplicate episodes of the Red Green Show on PBS. After Lawrence Welk and a WW2 documentary.

Michael, the current darling of the masters of American Public Education is a curriculum called "Common Core". It is all that homeschoolers have flailed about public ed, and worse. 2+2=5 is acceptable as long as you explain how you arrived at it (I guess Mars is out...). A literature block frees the kiddies from fusty old things like Poe and Stevenson, and Melville, substituting more pragmatic lit like EPA pamphlets.

Go ahead. Ask "Why?" again.

As to "Screwtape" be sure to listen to John Cleese' reading. It was surelu written to have him do so.

Michael W said...

A John Cleese reading of "Screwtape"???? Oh I'm so there.

Jay said...

This sounds like a "born again" 1984/Atlas Shrugged. Read the first two of Lewis' trilogy long ago. Tried to read THiS but the first couple chapts seemed bogged down in building subplot and I couldn't continue. Gonna have to try it again.

John Cleese doing Screwtape? Does he mention the fish slapping dance? ... Albatross ...

@>Michael- Cult of the Cobra? Ugh! It's part of Universals' classic sci-fi set so I can't dump it. I especially like the part where the jeep is conveniently parked in front of the cults' temple for a fast getaway.

Michael W said...

@Jay --- Cult of the Cobra. Yeah, love the jeep as a getaway vehicle. Also love James Dobson sneaking a camera WITH A FLASH GUN into the temple to "secretly" photograph the cult's proceedings.

And these are the guys who won World War II?

Jay said...

@>Michael- You're right! Nothing like flashbulbs to make one inconspicuous.

They won WWII ... On the big screen!