Wisdom is timeless. The Russian novel “The Brothers Karamazov” and the English classic “The Screwtape Letters” can help us today understand why the most destructive policies and most corrupt politicians on the left are sincerely labeled “loving” and “good” by their partisans.
“The more I love humanity in general,” remarks a character in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel, “the less I love man in particular.” C.S. Lewis’s fictional demon Screwtape observes to his nephew that he could turn a man “at a moment’s notice from impassioned prayer for a wife’s or son’s ‘soul’ to beating or insulting the real wife or son without a qualm.” As I noted in my first article in this two-part series, Dostoevsky and Lewis were highlighting the false idea of “virtue,” which professes great nobility but is nothing more than a veneer for a truly diabolical ideology or grave sin. This false idea, indeed, is the Marxist/globalist/leftist notion of virtue and heroism, which professes love and compassion for “humanity” — or at least certain groups — while actually being incredibly destructive in practice.
If you want an example of this false virtue, look no further than the talking heads who cry that Trump and his followers are racist while being as vicious as any KKK member when attacking black Republicans. To borrow a phrase from Clarence Thomas, the very individuals most convinced they are anti-racist also love “high-tech lynchings” of any black American who disagrees with them.
And again, the politicians who celebrate the brutal murder of unborn babies in abortion go to conferences to pontificate that we must save the planet for the sake of our children. Some of them know very well they are hypocrites, but some of them — and many of their followers — genuinely believe they are noble champions of justice — specifically, social justice. True justice and “social justice” really have almost nothing in common. The former is an objective, reality-based moral choice, whereas the latter is an amorphous term used to make theft, inequality, greed, selfishness, and even injustice more palatable.
Even some conservatives have been infected by this way of thinking. It is so easy to give a congressman credit for being a “fighter” because he issues strongly worded messages, even if he shrinks from ever taking a real risk or decisive action. But this false notion of “virtue” is certainly more common on the left than on the right in America.
Below is the passage from Dostoevsky’s “The Brothers Karamazov” that so perfectly captures this malignant mentality:
‘I love humanity,’ he said, ‘but I wonder at myself. The more I love humanity in general, the less I love man in particular. In my dreams…I have often come to making enthusiastic schemes for the service of humanity, and perhaps I might actually have faced crucifixion if it had been suddenly necessary; and yet I am incapable of living in the same room with anyone for two days together, as I know by experience.
‘As soon as anyone is near me, his personality disturbs my self-complacency and restricts my freedom. In twenty-four hours I begin to hate the best of men; one because he’s too long over his dinner; another because he has a cold and keeps on blowing his nose. I become hostile to people the moment they come close to me. But it has always happened that the more I detest men individually the more ardent becomes my love for humanity.’
Loving “humanity” is easy because it is an amorphous concept, with very little to do with one’s day-to-day existence. Only God is great enough to love all of humanity with a tenderness that is personal. For instance, I find it very easy to day-dream of building families in Nigeria houses, if I were rich enough. It is another thing, and altogether a much harder task, for me not to get road rage when stuck behind a bad driver.
Leftist, woke ideology gained popularity, especially with young people, because it’s such a very easy way of being heroic and saintly. Posting a TikTok, screaming at a stranger, or painting a sign is such a selfish, simple, and self-aggrandizing way of being virtuous! But precisely because it is false, those who point out the shallowness of this “virtue”, and what real morality consists in, must be destroyed. These heretics have exposed the lie, and must therefore be punished. Censorship, weaponized lawfare, and biased hiring practices are all instances in modern America of leftists punishing those who speak truth to liars.
And since Democrats and globalists alike are really Marxists, it does not matter to them or their followers how many heinous crimes they have committed, how thoroughly and despicably corrupt they are in their personal lives, if only they say the “right things.” They might be lustful, greedy, dishonest, abusive, bloodthirsty, untrustworthy, lazy, treacherous, or anything else, but they have only to profess undying love for humanity — or at least, certain “groups” and “classes” of humanity — to be hailed as saints of wokeness. Meanwhile, opponents of wokeness are virulently hated merely for having a different opinion, and vilified for mere trivialities, just as the false lover of humanity in Dostoevsky’s classic hates men for blowing their noses.
One example is the leftist women who said they would vote for Joe Biden no matter how many women he sexually harassed, no matter how true the accusations against him, because he was for “women’s rights,” by which they mean the ability to kill unborn babies. What do they care how many women’s and babies’ lives are permanently damaged or destroyed, if only the perceived champion of their sick political ideology triumphs? Is not Donald Trump a Nazi, worse than Adolf Hitler, just because he is not woke?
But we must end this dangerous ideology, if we do not want to see our society and our nation perish. It is time that we once again learn to love our neighbors, as the Bible commands (Exodus 20, Mark 12:31), rather than focusing on the false “love of humanity” propounded by the characters in “The Brothers Karamazov” and “The Screwtape Letters,” and by Democrats.
Until our virtues are something more than sound and fury signifying nothing, we shall never be able to claim love for humanity, because helping humanity is done one person or one group at a time. If a man — or a political party — professes love but hates his neighbor, beware, because he is a fraud.
