I came across a C.S. Lewis quote on my Facebook feed this evening, that reminded me of a Certain Prominent Figure. You won’t have to think hard to guess who.
“I need only ask the reader to think what a totally different morality would mean.
Think of a country where people were admired for running away in battle, or where a man felt proud of double-crossing all the people who had been kindest to him. You might just as well try to imagine a country where two and two made five.
Men have differed as regards what people you ought to be unselfish to whether it was only your own family, or your fellow countrymen, or everyone. But they have always agreed that you ought not to put yourself first.
Selfishness has never been admired. Men have differed as to whether you should have one wife or four. But they have always agreed that you must not simply have any woman you liked.”
— C.S. Lewis, “Mere Christianity”
I don’t have to think of such a country. We’re living in it.
The first time I heard of Donald J. Trump was back in the ‘80s when he was featured in a TIME Magazine article. I didn’t read the article, because New York Real Estate Moguls didn’t particularly interest me; but I did see a letter from him that appeared in the magazine a week later criticizing the piece. It seems that the article mentioned a hotel he had sold to Merv Griffin and suggested that Merv got a good deal on it. Trump vehemently disagreed. He insisted that Merv had paid far more than the hotel was worth and that it was a base libel to claim that the Master of the Deal could ever make a deal without soaking the other guy for all he was worth. At the time I marveled that any sane person would want to do business with any man who boasted openly about the people he cheated. Turns out I was wrong.
He has belittled men who, unlike him, have served our country in war and have even died in battle for our country. He has boasted that if you are a big enough celebrity, you can have as many women as you like (“they let you do it!”), and if he hasn’t come out and claimed that 2+2=5, he has made similarly outrageous, logic-free claims. And he has always, ALWAYS put Donald J. Trump first.
Now I’ve seen some of his acolytes saying that he is like Christ because Jesus was also put on trial and convicted. But according to the Gospels, Christ was silent before his accusers. Trump won’t shut up. And when Pilate asked if he was a king, Jesus replied “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest.” Trump promises that his followers are going to rise up against the Evil Government and “It’s going to be wild!”
Lewis found it difficult to imagine a world in which someone like Trump could be admired, let alone become a head of state. But then, when I read that letter from Trump in TIME all those years back I found it difficult to imagine a loud-mouth real estate swindler from Queens having an effect on my life either.
Lewis and I were both wrong about that.
