CS Lewis and The Freeborn Mind

In 1958 CS Lewis wrote an essay titled, “Willing Slaves of the Welfare State”.

Reading through it, I realized just how prophetic it was for the current round of curfews, lock-downs, and restrictions hitting us across the country. We discuss in full in today's podcast, but a few excerpts from the essay to entice!

"I believe a man is happier, and happy in a richer way, if he has "the freeborn mind." But I doubt whether he can have this without economic independence, which the new society is abolishing. "

"The question about progress has become the question whether we can discover any way of submitting to the worldwide paternalism of a technocracy without losing all personal privacy and independence. Is there any possibility of getting the super Welfare State’s honey and avoiding the sting?"

"The modern state exists not to protect our rights but to do us good or make us good—anyway, to do something to us or to make us something. Hence the new name 'leaders' for those who were once 'rulers.' We are less their subjects than their wards, pupils, or domestic animals. There is nothing left of which we can say to them, 'Mind your own business.' Our whole lives are their business."