Evil Disguised as Good

After many posts, we have finally identified the true enemy of Narnia, as seen in the Last Battle, and discerned how he operates. The true enemy is the devil, whose name in the world of Narnia is Tash. He operates through subtle trickery, posing as a force of good, taking control of innocent people (and talking beasts), and thus bringing them to evil. In Calormen we see a society that, to a great degree, has fallen to Tash. The society is strictly hierarchical. Children are sold as slaves and into unwanted marriages. Laws are created by the elite but apply only the peasants. Thus, the elite can act with no moral compunction as they are the law, and the peasant can likewise as they know that laws are simply instituted to control them.  

With the ascension of Shift, the process of evil posing as good began in Narnia. The first step was Shift convincing Puzzle that it would be good for society to pretend he was Aslan. This eventually gave Shift ultimate power to determine what was good for everyone. The next step was when the Calormenes (spurred by Tash) arrived on the scene. They provided Shift with the opportunity and excuse (to fill the coffers of “Aslan”) to sell slaves and murder trees all in the name of Aslan. Finally, Tash engineered the final step: conflating himself, evil, with Aslan. Given time to mature this would have eventually caused worship of Aslan to transform into worship of Tash. While the name on the lips of Narnians may have been Aslan (or some derivative), their worship would have been accepted by Tash (just as Emeth's was accepted by Aslan). As it is, Tash had other plans, and Narnia was conquered by those already loyal to him.       

As we saw in our previous post, the N.I.C.E. from That Hideous Strength follow the same pattern. It poses as a force of good for society while slowly taking over and deciding what is good for everyone. N.I.C.E. was also headed (literally) by the devil himself.

The theme of evil posing as good only to then gain the power to define what is good, is found in others of Lewis’ writings. An example is Mrs. Fidget, from the chapter on Affection in Lewis’ “The Four Loves.” Mrs. Fidget, we are told, lived for her family. In fact, she did so much for her family, that it was far beyond what any of them wanted or cared for. And what made it worse is, “They had to help. Indeed, they were always having to help. That is, they did things for her to help her to do things for them which they didn't want done.” One can only imagine Mrs. Fidget thinking what a wonderful mother and wife she was and feeling so superior due to the sacrifices she was making. When, actually, she was tricked into harming her family, performing evil deeds, and was completely governed by pride. 

Given Lewis’ idea of how evil operates, we would assume that true goodness should leave others to be and not do things “for their own good.” This appears explicitly in the aftermath of the first battle for Narnia. After the defeat of the White Witch, the two kings and two queens, “liberated young dwarfs and young satyrs from being sent to school, and generally stopped busybodies and interferers and encouraged ordinary people who wanted to live and let live.” This remarkable statement suggests that even the White Witch, unquestionably evil, was faulted - not only for making it always winter in Narnia and turning the innocent into stone - but also for not letting people do their own thing. 

We'll think a little more about this in our next post.