This is something very important, increasingly so. I noticed a long
time ago, that C. S. Lewis to a lesser extent, and Tolkien to a
greater extent, were easy conveyorbelts into paganism and witchcraft,
according to the statements of people on such egroups, who were
telling about how they became witches or wiccans or neopagans or
whatever, much the same way a Christian might tell about how they
became Christian.
While some themes like light vs. dark can translate into rejecting
evil, and the hobbit's longing for peaceful days when he had a
simple life and knew nothing of the gathering darkness that had to
be fought, there is a lot of darkness including the false light kind
in these books, and in Lord of the Rings and in all chivalric ideas
incl. the unfortunate Crusader image in RC and Protestantism,
and even specific knighthood organizations, there is a certain dark
allure to fighting evil.
The allure is the desire to have evil in order to have something to
give you identity as comparison to which. (pardon my syntax, but
that's how I often think.) The desire to have evil in order to fight in
the first place, a glorious death being sought, and ultimately,
never mind in the service of what, just so long as there is a great
cause to serve and die for.
to die for....wait a minute. Didn't wisdom say in Proverbs that "all
those who hate me love death"? Isn't there also something about
those who live strife love an evil thing?
It is wrong to shrink from the battle against evil when the issue is
present, and as St. Paul warns in Hebrews we are not yet in the
place of rest, there is yet a sabbath to attain.
But to seek death and strife as an end in itself means that one is
not loving good and truth and fighting evil and lies, one is glad
for the evil to appear so one can fight. As my confessor where I
used to live put it, when I was struggling to explain what the
problem was I was sensing in myself, not wanting demons around
yet somehow wanting them so I could cast them out, he said,
"you want to play."
I remember when I had a bit more wisdom I guess because of my
gut level reaction, when I read in a Sherlock Holmes story (and
that character is a load of problems centering on pride, vainglory
and haughtiness which God says in Proverbs He hates), that
Holmes was depressed because there was no crime going on for
him to work on solving!
That is the problem with the whole romance of knighthood and
fighting evil, like Nietzsche speaking of his overman said, a great
hero needs a great evil to fight or something like that.
The key problem is the romance of it all. A dance, and a dance
needs a partner.
There is a book criticizing the CIA, whose title says it all, "In
Search of Enemies." I don't recall a thing about the book, just the
title. That title is an important concept in itself, regardless of
anything the author had to say.
This mentality of course is real handy for recruiters for armies,
suicide bombers, etc. etc. Don't think for a minute, while you are
viewing yourself in this light, that your opponents don't have the
same identical view of themselves that you do.
That fact does not have any bearing on the issue of truth or falsehood
of the causes fought for (most causes are a mix of truth and falsehood
anyway), but rather on motives and on gullibility or rather, eagerness
to accept any cause provided it will get you an adrenaline rush and
maybe a quick, reasonably painless (except for some brief moment
like death scenes in a movie) and glorious (especially with a lot of
explosions and stuff) death.
back to the points made earlier about death wish.
In fact, a more pragmatic minded person once wrote (I think in a
mercenary mag, but he had a point) that someone with a death wish is
a danger to himself AND to his fellows.
Back to the infiltration of romanticism into Christianity, resulting
in syncretistic (i.e., partly false) belief systems in the churches.
Here are some VERY good articles on the subject. Mind you, C. S.
Lewis wrote a few really good things, but they are mostly not in his
fiction, except for The Screwtape Letters which is almost entirely
excellent, to be treated as material for reverse reading, that is, you read
it to see how NOT to be, do, or think or let yourself feel.
http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/2012/nathan/romanticism.htm
http://www.crossroad.to/Excerpts/warnings.htm
http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/006/nathan/romanticism.htm
more in depth than the first similar link
these articles have links on them you should pursue.
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