Communist Calormen

We are now at the point where we can venture a hypothesis as to whom Calormen actually represents. A priori, one might think that Calormen represents Nazi Germany or the Axis powers. There are a number of reasons to support this hypothesis: 

1. The first story, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, takes place during WWII and specifically during the Nazi bombing of London

2. Some have suggested a resemblance between the Austrian eagle and Tash

3. The Nazi’s were clearly evil and Calormen is supposed to be evil

However, based on our analysis it is not simply evil that represents Calormen. It is evil that poses as good thus drawing men towards the worship of evil. Thus, it seems to me that Calormen actually represents the USSR. It was the USSR who posed as good, both in fighting the Nazis and in promoting Communism as a panacea to societal ills. However, at the same time, Stalin and his henchmen were killing hundreds of thousands of their “fellow” citizens and lowering the standard of living for ordinary Russians.

As we now list based on Lewis writings, Communism and its offshoots (such as progressivism) advance a number of ideas that lead towards the worship of evil: 

1. God as moral arbiter is replaced by something human, such as a human government or the human conscience. It is true that both governments and individuals who do not believe in God may be moral. However, without God there is no objective metric with which to measure morality nor is there an objective law requiring subservience. Unlike the Archenlandian king who is under a moral law, the Communist dictator and Calormen tisroc (who is descended from Tash) make the law. 

2. Communism insists that what they are operating with the goal of being “good” for “everyone.” In fact, Communism forces all except an elite downwards so that everything can be “fair.” This is true of the peasants in Calormen and the Narnian horses, dwarves, and dryads sacrificed to Calormen (and Tash) for the common good (which was defined by Shift). 

3. Communism redefines concepts for its own purposes. Shift redefined freedom to mean what I tell you to do.

4. The replacement of good with fair allows the common folk to act as self-righteous vigilantes calling out “unfair” results. Thus, in “Screwtape Proposes a Toast” Lewis foresees a time when enrichment at schools is done away with (as is currently planned for New York City) since other children (who may not try as hard or simply may not be as bright) will feel bad and it will be unfair. This transforms the sins of pride and jealousy into virtues of fighting for “equality.”  

We will provide some final thoughts on this in the next post.