"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busibodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some time be satisfied; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own consciences."
C.S. Lewis wss a very wise man indeed.
ReplyDeleteThat is a brilliant statement! There is a certain mindset or spirit in some people that drives them to try to control everyone and everything around them. The same can be said of all the moral busy bodies who've tried to destroy our freedoms and our livelihoods via COVID tyranny over the last few years. There are so many petty tyrants who are just waiting for instructions from above so they may use them to justify their tyrannical actions.
ReplyDeleteJudging by some of the stories emerging from the Vatican over the past few years, we don't have to choose between moral totalitarians and robber barons: we are currently controlled by barons who rob us for our own good.
ReplyDeleteFirst they came for the Fox Hunters...
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of PF and Roche, would Benedict XVI really have wanted to be the first pope in 1600+ years to be buried after a Mass that did not use the Roman Canon and had the Gospel read in Italian rather than chanted in Latin? Or is that PF and Roche making a point?
ReplyDeleteWell we reap what we sow. Do we want a so-called "law" of celibacy in opposition to the express will of Christ?? Well, this is what we get - a clerical culture of sodomites, clericalists, the chronically immature and other kinds of broken men.
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As Sue Sims said the Vatican now has a fair few combining robber baron (see this or that trial in the Vatican City and beyond) and priggish pseudo-moralist, who rob us, but only to help us.
ReplyDeleteAs always with C. S. Lewis: sheer brilliance in psychological, ethical discernment. But I do wonder about something: are the "moral" (immoral?) totalitarians claiming universal jurisdiction over our souls and actions today acting on conscience or on pure sadistic pleasure and/or cupidity? I suspect they are not acting on conscience for they show at every step that they do not possess one.
ReplyDeleteHe also wrote, elsewhere, "The king's under the Law, for it's the Law that makes him king".
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