Why Images Matter

from that teacher of tempters, that marvel of malice...no, not Screwtape himself, but rather Slubgrip.  Excerpts:

...the fact that the miserable mongrels believe what they see means that if we control what they see, we control what they believe. This is why, from the beginning, we have been more interested in images than ideas. Let the philosophers and priests meddle with their minds. If we control what they look at we will control them.

What they see is invariably linked with their desire. It's simple. If they see something pretty they want it for themselves. They want to own it. They want to consume it. They want to become one with whatever it is. Therefore, the way to distract them from the enemy is to put before them multiple images of impossibly beautiful and desirable things...

Actually, speaking of Screwtape, there's been an audio production made of the book, with Screwtape voiced by no less an actor than Andy Serkis.

The Three Visions of the Apocalypse

What does it mean that the two great memes of the last 50-70 years or so have included, not just the end of the world, but also stopping the end of the world? We have two avenues of thought. The one embraces it. Apocalypticism is a great hope--the transformative event, the step into the next realm, or simply release from the painful present. Then there's a middle genre--we shunt the end of the world sideways somehow, so that the properly old die but men can continue, can go on much as we have (Lord of the Rings may be in this). Not a proper eschaton, then, but a middle way. Then we've got the sort of mindset epitomized by the quest for eternal youth, the metahumans, the sort who worship the mind melded to the machine as a greatly liberating option. We go beyond ourselves by technology, or in some way gain immortality. Usually this view is still shadowed by the haunting presence of mortality, even if it does demand a lot longer to come and claim us, but we die eventually nonetheless--but we don't permit that to trouble us. We focus on the perpetual pursuit of youth, of life, of adventure, of cheating death and outwitting fate and being smarter than the Lord of all that is, represented by some appropriately God the Father like figure, or god-like figure at least. And we're smart. And we win. The first seems like an overeager Christian view--unhealthy, in a way, a failure of the patient waiting and trust that we're supposed to maintain--almost suicidal, in a way. Overeager for death. The second feels about right. We aim to defeat evil, willing to lose our lives in so doing, and thus have the hope of coming through, evil having been shed from the world and the good going to their proper place, wherever that may be. A harmonious wrapping up. Sorrow and loss, combined with great joy and victory. The proper end comes in its own time--it may be now--but we will have obeyed, will have fought the good fight. The last--this seems to smack of the evil one. The world ender is evil, and must be outsmarted. There is a way out, there must be a way out, there's always a way out! We can take him out, we can do it, we can make this world last forever! Even if it came from him, we'll take it back, we'll claim it, he has no right! Who is he to judge us? And we set ourselves to fight heaven. See Legion for an example of this. And possibly, thinking about it, the most recent Doctor Who called "The End of Time." Where are we, then? What does this indicate, if all three strands are powerfully present in human culture right now? The latter may incline us to fight, not just evil, but God as well since he shall bring about the end--indeed, God the Father is the only one who can. The first may cause us to be reckless and pursue death. The middle--there's Michael O'Brien, and Lewis, and Chesterton, and all of them. Robert Hugh Benson, all the great Christian apocalypticists. I have no idea if this illuminates anything--just got hit by the thought.