Lockdown With the Devil - Chapter Eight

Taking The Screwtape Letters as a model, Mr Hall envisions the demonic attack on the family during the COVID-19 lockdowns.

From One Peter Five

By Kennedy Hall

Read chapter I here

Read chapter II here

Read Chapter III here

Read Chapter IV here

Read Chapter V here

Read Chapter VI here

Read Chapter VII here

Malthus my boy,

The virus has gripped the mind of most nations, and they are shutting down all their services and activities except for those deemed “essential.” This is wonderful news, and I fully expect we can use this to get your failing efforts back on track. Truly a relief after your dismal report about the girl. As of tomorrow, the schools are closing down, and many workplaces will be temporarily shuttered. The governments are not giving their citizens much in the way of concrete information, and have resorted to using meaningless slogans, more so than normal. At this time the humans are sharing pictures and messages all over their electronic platforms about “slowing the spread” and “we are in this together,” many of them deluded that it will only be for a fortnight. It should not be hard for us to use this event against the welfare of the family; uncertainty and fear are some of our strongest tools.

In most democracies, citizens are actually seen as the enemy of the government. This is especially true of the family, as the family represents a competitive sovereignty against total government control. Due to modernist mythology and constant efforts from the Historical Retelling Office, most educated people believe that they have more freedom under their current regimes than they did under the former. While it is true that the odd despot from the past was truly a tyrant, there has never been a time in history wherein the members of a nation have been more easily controlled. Today’s governments claim to work for the people, but in reality it is the people who work to upkeep the ever fattening bureaucracies afloat.

Each time they vote they believe that they are sending someone to office who will work on their behalf. However, in reality it is the reverse: by voting in someone else, they are de facto advocating someone else to think for them! This means that when the time comes to make decisions that affect the moral and sociological well-being of their lives, they really believe that the politicians are making decisions in their favour, even when they work against their quality of life. In the past, for all the power that a monarchy may have had, since they could not tax their citizens into the same sort of submission today—due to the Enemy’s influence over economic morality—the old rulers largely relegated their efforts to matters specific to national sovereignty and religion. In addition, since there were no election campaigns, the leaders were not beholden to the fashions of the day, and therefore encouraged responsibility amongst the lower levels of the society. This was that insufferable time of knights and dragon slayers. Thank our Father Below—that era is but a memory! The Historical Retelling Office has done some useful work, but the dimwits still allow the humans to create period pieces and novels that add a certain romanticism to the era. When I take my rightful place in a more prestigious position, I may have to retell the story of these insolent devils myself.

Today, if a politician advocates that citizens handle more of their own affairs, hoards of lazy and entitled individuals will cry out that he “doesn’t care about the people,” or that “the poor don’t matter to him.” On the other hand, if a legislator attempts to buttress more government jurisdiction over a given affair, another segment of the populous will declare the man a power-hungry tyrant. The liberals advocate for a more bloated government that in reality takes away their basic liberties, and most conservatives work to conserve the system that facilitates the lardening of career politicians. There are a few outlier politicians, and at times a troublesome figure does slip through the cracks, but he inherits a near impossible task when elected.

At any rate, the point is that today’s state officials largely view their own underlings as a lower class of people that are too stupid to think for themselves. The fools are naïve to think this so-called quarantine will only last for a short period of time. Since the people are viewed as the enemy, they are treated like an assailant who must be gradually subdued until they inevitably acquiesce to an authority that ultimately wishes to imprison them. Except for in a few regions where devotion to the Enemy still matters in public life, expect the rats to be restricted in their basic permissions for months, even years. As I mentioned two letters ago, the level of fear that they have sadistically swallowed has primed them for total submission to a devilish seizing of all they hold dear. Not a single shot need be fired, and billions of people will willingly cower in their living rooms, consuming a slow drip of propaganda like a memetic narcotic. This is the best entertainment since the re-education programs of Stalin and other comrades!

There is even more good news; most Church hierarchs have advocated the cessation of the Sacraments. Their bishops and priests have largely bought into the same lie as the average citizen, and now look to the state for permission to do what the Enemy demands of them. Our Father’s dominion has perhaps never been more evident. The weak and effeminate religious leaders have now shown their hand; the majority lack any real supernatural faith. Sure, many of them have a sort of Aristotelian belief in the reality of the Enemy and consider the traditions and Scriptures to be a necessary matter of history, but supernatural faith is another matter. It has been decades since the majority of them possessed anything beyond a vague philosophical belief. Presently, they have shown by their annulation of the offering of Sanctifying Grace that they must not believe it is truly necessary. You would be wise to prompt the father to remind his son how easily the majority of shepherds have abandoned their flock at the threat of contracting a moderate illness. Thankfully the days of priests spending time with the sick and infirm are for the moment at a halt; how ironic in an era wherein they are told to “smell like the sheep.” You would be wise to prompt the father that his new found religion is nothing more than a Church full of cowards. Why would anyone believe the Christian notion of death where is thy sting? when they cast aside their worship at the fear of dying?

Think: if they really did believe that this virus was serious enough to warrant an indefinite cancelling of worship, then they have de facto demonstrated that they fear the death of the body more than the soul. Furthermore, since they must believe there is a real threat of bodily death, they have also declared, even if implicitly, that their precious Sacraments are not necessary for the salvation of their souls. A man dying alone in a nursing home without the care of a priest or an anointing is, according to their behaviour, now just as likely to avoid our torments as a man who dies with a sacerdotal absolution.

The bishops will by and large demand their priests stay away from their flock, many even employing that dribble about “slowing the spread.” The only spread we are concerned with is the spread of grace from the Enemy, and this class of prelates is doing our job for us. I have to ask myself daily, are they really this daft? We are the ones who want them to have long lives void of sickness, whereas the Enemy allows and even encourages the embrace of suffering, especially accompanied by heroic behaviour.

There are so many delightful opportunities for us to pick apart this family that it is hard to concentrate. Let me monitor the situation and I will provide further instruction in our next letter. In the meantime, do not allow the mother to turn off the news and do not let the father take the screens out of her sight. We will deal with these insolent children in due time.

Until next time,

Quelle

Editor’s note: this serialization is from the novella Family Be Damned.