A Commentary in the Spirit of "The Screwtape Letters": Part Two

The following is a continuation of His Smugness the Public Proponent's commentary begun in the preceding post.  It will be concluded next week in Part Three. 

Those who have thought themselves even ankle-deep into this accursed pool also believe, by and large, in something called Conscience, which subject would require a whole ‘nother essay alone.  The point remains, however, that these Thinkers have become a disease that knows no cure.  They refuse to be pacified into submission or talked back into the proper state of uninquisitiveness.  The hateful whirrings of their mental machine, once started, do not suffer themselves to be impeded.  Let us be thankful there are so few and, since we cannot treat them, instead turn our efforts to stifling their recent growth. 

Some of my followers, and even a select number of my friends, have recommended that the best course of action is to ignore them.  Let the fools be, they say; the opiate character of their pursuits will render them harmless in time.  But the problem, I contend, is not such a simple one.  These thinkers have all too often proved their resilient nature.  “For Zion’s sake,” they declare that they “will not be silent,” and “for Jerusalem’s sake” they “will not be quiet.”  They declare this and things of similar sentiment with their deeds as well, right up through the last snap of malcontent muscles pulled tight across the rack.  Very well then, some say – if the brutes cannot be ignored, let us crush them!  But herein we of steady and unmoving mind too often take an equally false step.

Though we hate their clamor and their unceasing attempts to rouse the nation, we cannot attack and finish them head-on as we would surely like.  By too open a persecution we risk making them Martyrs and drawing still more men down the hazardous path of their cause.  No, we cannot disregard or dismember them.  Hemlock and lions only get one so far.  The course we take must become subtle, insidious, almost meek in appearance.  It must seek the Public Good, and a very general one at that, for under such guise we may even take in a good number of their side, quite unawares.  Better to hide the fangs beneath the wool and then fleece them when the opportunity presents itself, as I’m sure my good friend Screwtape would agree.  But I get on too quickly.