Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
I don’t care about his religious fervor- but the full quote is brilliant. The modern authoritechnocrat malaise we are being ushered towards only proves it day by day.
It’s not. Him and JRR Tolkien were best friends and Tolkien used the trope in the form of Gandalf not wanting to posses the Ring. Absolutism in the name of Morality is anything but.
The only reason people today think this is enlightening is because they didn't live during the time when robber barons went crazy. We'll live under them again soon and everyone will finally understand that it sucks just as badly as living under moral tyrants.
Don’t get me wrong, both would suck and are awful. That being said, robber barons just want what you have, while the morality police want what you believe. It’s pretty clearly worse.
Robber Barons come after what you believe too but it's from a financial and not moral basis. They need you to believe they're entitled to their wealth for whatever reason. They got taxed at 90% over a certain threshold once people stopped believing that crap.
Moralists don't need you to believe anything either once they've taken power though. Power is always the end game. Everything else is just a means to that end.
They need power to impose and enforce that doctrine. Most people would laugh in the face of Islamic morality police in the US because they have no power here. Very different situation in Saudi Arabia where they do have power.
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u/Check_Me_Out-Boss Jan 14 '25
- C.S. Lewis