Modernity is unraveling Western civilization by severing intellect from moral virtue, just as C.S. Lewis warned.
In 1943, Lewis wrote a short book called The Abolition of Man. In it, he identified ways in which Western identity was being undermined, beginning with elementary school grammar books up through the highest level of government. His central claim is that the modern education system takes pride in its “secular” amoral teaching and that this trend is actually unraveling the fabric of society. Educational elites claimed that what man needed was STEM, and the old moralizing from the humanities was holding him back from the holy grail of progress. The modern ethos bellows, “Technology will set you free!”
Lewis saw through this pretense and refuted it. He explained that by aiming exclusively at the brain, and neglecting the heart of man, one would get neither. The experiment would fold in upon itself because having thrown out all ethics, it would lack the conviction that truth is the final end of education. In fact, Lewis pointed out that the success of such an experiment would be incredibly dangerous as it would form men with great intelligence who lacked morals. Gosh, what could go wrong there?
By removing a man’s heart, one does not end up with a hyper-rational, meta-evolved ubermensch. Rather, both the brain and heart are lost and man devolves to his gut. It is not debates on democracy and law which cause a man to storm the ramparts in war — it is a flag, his platoon, his wife — in other words, his loves. Without the heart, man loses his ethics and motivation. With a weak chest and mind, he is left to the brutality of his natural appetites.
At this point, society begins to fray as man is progressively conditioned against the virtues and traditions that permit him to govern himself. By logic, tyranny is necessary. If the masses can no longer govern themselves, they must be governed. However, Lewis brilliantly elucidated that such a government would not be democratic. Instead, he predicted that a small group of “controllers” would mold the populace through advanced powers of technology. Currently, one can see the manifestation of Lewis’ prophecy.
We are addicted to our phones and streaming services. Indeed, many of the forerunners of AI soothe the fears of investors wondering if it will be adopted by pointing out we already live in symbiotic relationships with screens — unconsciously, many of us are cyborgs. Without getting into the minutia, a primary takeaway from COVID was that the individual is not sovereign over his own health. Americans looked to the CDC as a kind of god over society from whence their salvation would come. Government bureaucrats became the snake on Moses’ staff.
Finally, the most clear example of Lewis’ vision is in primary issues of human identity — life and gender. Picking the eye color of one’s children, surrogacy, transgenderism, and abortion are all the tip of the spear of the abolition of man. It is literally man molding man through technology without his consent. Marring the dignity of a fellow person is contrary to natural law, which is why those interested in perpetrating such atrocities focus on children. Children are powerless to defend themselves and quickly deceived, making them easy targets. Subsequently, one of the tasks of a twenty-first century conservative is to recognize, alert, and defend against the predatory nature of the “controllers”.
It should not be lost that human abolition is incompatible with the soul of America. George Orwell depicts the process of political abolition in his seminal work Animal Farm. At the beginning of the tale, the animals are driven by a kind of 18th-century liberalism — all animals are equal. But by the end of the story, the brainworkers (pigs) have taken over through both physical force and psychological manipulation employing the fraudulent justification that “some animals are more equal than others.”
While Enlightenment liberalism was certainly woven into the American founding, so was the twin brother of Classical republicanism. A through line existed from Cicero to George Mason, less concerned about chasing an elusive notion of equality instead focusing its energy against tyranny. It is impossible to recognize an American identity without acknowledging this strand of historical and political thought.
Classical republicanism will not stop the abolition of America; I merely introduce it as an argument for legitimacy. One of the tasks I’m burdened by is proving that these forces of abolition in America are illegitimate. They are unAmerican.
The Controllers who would abolish the Western heritage of American culture often seek to do so with claims about the American spirit or what “America really means.” They wish to set themselves up in the debate with implicit moral authority and sovereignty over history and language. The war against the Controllers is not just for the American mind, but also for her soul because it affects all parts of our existence. If the Controllers succeed in their mission, America as we have known it will cease to exist. The name may live on into history, but the country will be a spiritual corpse.
Lewis pinpointed major problems of modern abolition with his logical brilliance and answered these problems with his creative works. Indeed, his life could be called The Establishment of Man. The beauty and delight of his fiction are a positive answer to the evils he saw in his own age and seeds of evil taking root soon to blossom. He and Tolkien used to refer to themselves as “Old, Western, Men.” They recognized it was not enough to defend culture; one must continue in the Great Tradition by creating culture.
Looking at the state of our current society, it is with great urgency that young Conservatives emulate these men. The primary weakness of conservatism is that its love of tradition often prevents the transference of culture and the formation of anything new. It isn’t 1776, 1850, 1950, or 1980 anymore. We must renew evergreen ideas by applying them to our current context. We have the heritage. We have the goods. But unless we take them from the shelf, dust them off, and put them to use, they are merely fading ornaments soon to be forgotten.
Memory is the mother of the muses. If anyone is to be progressive, it ought to be conservatives. Progressivism left alone is blind and potentially destructive; conversely, Conservatism left alone atrophies. The opposite of abolition is establishment. By engaging the current context from the ground of tradition, one may nobly move into the future. Recollection must move to creation. I am encouraged by the rise of a young right that is driven by this mission. New Guard Press exists to do this very thing.
Benjamin Franklin famously said the Constitutional Convention had given the people “A republic, madam, if you can keep it.” Our country only exists as long as we vigilantly maintain her soul. Let us go forth against the forces of abolition with great verve and gladness to establish America.
