Why The Future Haunts You
Video Premiere: CS Lewis can explain the Skywalker's fear of tomorrow
Hello, friends both new and old. Periodically, I transform my written work into video essays that more vividly capture the message I hope to convey. A few months ago I wrote to you about The Future Problem and an insight from C.S. Lewis’ iconic book, The Screwtape Letters, which explains why human beings suffer so much in thinking about the future. When I read Lewis recently, I couldn’t stop thinking about the temptations of Luke and Anakin Skywalker.
What Lewis wanted to convey was how demonic forces might strategize to lead human beings astray. This is one such thought bubble from a demon named Screwtape:
“We want him (the human) to be in the maximum uncertainty, so that his mind will be filled with contradictory pictures of the future, every one of which arouses hope or fear. There is nothing like suspense and anxiety for barricading a human's mind against the Enemy (God). He wants men to be concerned with what they do; our business is to keep them thinking about what will happen to them.”
After thinking on this for some time, it explains so much about our real world. Everything from war, genocide, and famine, to environmental doomerism and end-of-days prophecizing.
Learn to let go. For what I lay out in the video essay above about the Skywalkers of Star Wars, is no way to live.
Hey everyone! I’ve been away for a week in the woods of Pennsylvania, leading my daughter’s Scout troop at Summer Camp. It was a marvelous time full of bonding and worthwhile challenges. Somehow, I won a belly flop contest that the kids signed me up for. Video of that…below.
You took one for the team on that belly flop!