Mid-twentieth-century C. S. Lewis witnessed and wrote about the
increasing moral breakdown and intellectual decay of Western civilization.
He observed how secular and atheistic academics, philosophers,
politicians, intellectuals, and cultural elites abandoned reason, denied
universal truths, undermined Christian doctrines, and rejected moral principles
that formed the foundation of civilized society. "Lewis walked our
cultural ground," explained Chris R. Armstrong. "He lived, as
we do, in a society that denied objective value; lacked a coherent social
ethic; wallowed in instant gratification, sexual license, moral evasion, and
blame-shifting; and failed to pass on a moral framework to its children."
In his book The Abolition of Man, Lewis warned that moral
relativism (the denial of universal and objective moral truths and principles),
foolish emotionalism, and the rejection of reason would bring about cultural
decay and growing depravity. When societies fail to teach morality and train the hearts of men to
embrace and emulate virtuous behavior, they produce "Men without
Chests," individuals who are intelligent but behave like animals – men who
don't practice the virtues and are controlled by their appetites. Such men
will lose their humanity, prophesied Lewis; they will no longer be human.
Many decades have passed since Lewis wrote his book, and things
have gotten much worse. While mainstream secular society still maintains
that honor, ethics, and integrity matter, it has increasingly attacked,
silenced, or destroyed those institutions and organizations that used to teach
moral principles and universal truths that instilled honor and character into
men's hearts and souls.
Not only has our modern educational establishment fully embraced
moral relativism, but now other political and cultural institutions, including
so-called progressive "Christian" churches and organizations, have
followed suit. As Lewis predicted, rampant carnality and decadence have
increased exponentially as a result. We're witnessing an explosion of
sinful and immoral behavior of epidemic proportions. Corruption,
violence, mental illness, hypocrisy, wickedness, greed, addiction, promiscuity,
sexual depravity, and other vices have become commonplace and affect ever
larger segments of our society.
Worse still, a
lot of "Men without Chests" are now in positions of power, influence,
and authority in our society. They are in charge of many public and
private institutions. Moral relativists and characterless individuals now
serve in Congress and other branches of government, control the mainstream
media, lead corporations and organizations, are in charge of public schools,
run colleges and universities, and dominate most other public institutions.
Some even head religious and non-profit organizations.
Why is Lewis still relevant today? Because he saw the early
stages of the moral collapse, societal chaos, and cultural decay we're all now
experiencing full force. Inevitable destruction awaits all societies that
reject universal moral principles, deny the existence of objective reality, and
silence and punish those who teach and speak the truth.
Thankfully, Lewis also provided the solution. Men must
return to God, follow His moral principles, seek the truth, and lead virtuous
lives. His wisdom is as useful and applicable today as it was back then.
Hopefully it's not too late for us to learn from Lewis and avoid
certain catastrophe. After all, we are so much more than intelligent
animals. We were created by God with minds that reason and can discern
truth, with consciences that judge and souls that search for eternal meaning,
desire the divine, and seek the Lord, Creator, and Savior of everything visible
and invisible.
Read below how Lewis explained the dangers and effects of moral
relativism to and on man's character and civilization as a whole. To
optimize readability, I've taken the liberty to break up his large paragraphs
into smaller ones, make minor cosmetic edits, and provide brief notes and
modern synonyms for words that aren't in common use today. Great care has
been taken to preserve the exact wording and original meaning of the author.
It still remains true that
no justification of virtue will enable a man to be virtuous. Without the
aid of trained emotions the intellect is powerless against the animal organism.
I had sooner play cards against a man who was quite skeptical about
ethics, but bred to believe that "a gentleman does not cheat," than
against an irreproachable [impeccable] moral philosopher who had been brought
up among sharpers [card-playing swindlers].
In battle it is not
syllogisms [deductive reasoning] that will keep the reluctant nerves and
muscles to their post in the third hour of the bombardment. The crudest
sentimentalism … about a flag or a country or a regiment will be of more use.
We were told it all long ago by Plato. As the king governs by his
executive, so Reason in man must rule the mere appetites by means of the
"spirited element." The head rules the belly through the chest – the seat, as Alanus tells
us, of Magnanimity [generosity of spirit], of emotions organized by trained
habit into stable sentiments.
The Chest – Magnanimity –
Sentiment – these are the indispensable liaison officers between cerebral man
and visceral [animal] man. It may even be said that it is by this middle
element that man is man: for by his intellect he is mere spirit and by his
appetite mere animal.
The operation of The
Green Book [book that promotes relativism] and its kind is to produce what
may be called Men without Chests. It is an outrage that they should be
commonly spoken as Intellectuals. This gives them the chance to say that
he who attacks them attacks Intelligence. It is not so.
They are not distinguished
from other men by any unusual skill in finding truth nor any virginal ardour
[passion] to pursue her. Indeed it would be strange if they were: a
persevering devotion to truth, a nice sense of intellectual honour, cannot be
long maintained without the aid of a sentiment... It is not excess of thought
but defect of fertile and generous emotion that marks them out. Their
heads are no bigger than the ordinary: it is the atrophy of the chest beneath
that makes them seem so.
And all the time – such is
the tragi-comedy of our situation – we continue to clamour for those very
qualities we are rendering impossible. You can hardly open a periodical
without coming across the statement that what our civilization needs is more
"drive," or dynamism, or self-sacrifice, or "creativity."
In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the
function.
We make men without chests
and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are
shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings
[castrated animals] be fruitful.