C.S. Lewis: The ConditionersWill Hate the Conditioned

When all that says ‘it is good’ has been debunked, what says ‘I want’ remains. It cannot be exploded or ‘seen through’ because it never had any pretensions. The Conditioners, therefore, must come to be motivated simply by their own pleasure. 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 am inclined to think that the Conditioners will hate the conditioned.

Though regarding as an illusion the artificial conscience which they produce in us their subjects, they will yet perceive that it creates in us an illusion of meaning for our lives which compares favorably with the futility of their own: and they will envy us as eunuchs envy men. But I do not insist on this, for it is a mere conjecture. What is not conjecture is that our hope even of a ‘conditioned’ happiness rests on what is ordinarily called ‘chance’—the chance that benevolent impulses may on the whole predominate in our Conditioners.”

C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) in The Abolition of Man (London: Oxford University Press, 1943) 46-47.

Click here to download this classic work compiled after C.S. Lewis delivered a series of three lectures on 24-26 February 1943 at the University of Durham.

Today’s marks the sixth of seven reflections from The Abolition of Man. This one comes from his third lecture entitled, “The Abolition of Man.”

It’s important to start with the fact that Jesus told us that if we followed Him that we would grasp abundant life and that the world would hate us.

If you want to feel comfortable or have the world like you, please abandon the title ‘Christian’ and the faith altogether. Lewis wrote about this in his work, God in the Dock.

“I didn’t go to [Christianity] to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of Port would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend Christianity. I am certain there must be a patent American article on the market which will suit you far better (58-59).”

Have you exchanged Christianity for a counterfeit article offered by the Conditioners? The evil one is behind the curtain of the Conditioners working hard to inspire you to make pleasure the motivation for everything you do in life.

I think the leading deity in the USA is comfort - defined by the Conditioners - rather than Christ.

If your living does not cause the world to hate you or think you are crazy, then you might want to rethink how you are living?

And if your giving follows cultural rules, then it’s not generosity.