An opinion from Screwtape
Wormwood's instructions
My dear Wormwood In recent years, we have made excellent progress weakening the Quakers, with the number of members dropping on average about 800 every four years. Although many people have vaguely heard of the Friends, nearly half of those have no idea whether they are a humanitarian organisation involved with social action, a social group or a religion.
My dear Wormwood
In recent years, we have made excellent progress weakening the Quakers, with the number of members dropping on average about 800 every four years. Although many people have vaguely heard of the Friends, nearly half of those have no idea whether they are a humanitarian organisation involved with social action, a social group or a religion.
It is paramount that the Quakers are not awakened to a sense of their real position. Let them think that when people are ready for them, they will find them. They will not.
However, I note with great displeasure that a number of your other patients have started attending their Meetings. You must work hard on their coming disappointment or anticlimax.
I cannot emphasise enough the vital importance of ensuring the rituals at their Yearly Meeting remain exactly as they are. When new patients arrive full of energy and enthusiasm, make sure that the agenda opens with something very dull. Allow no changes in the formal framework. Avoid addressing what is currently happening in the world and nation.
It is fortunate that their session on engaging in the political process was safely after the election. And you kept most exchanges wisely general. It is vital that the Meeting remains unclear what it is being asked to decide, and preferably is asked to decide nothing at all.
Remember you must never allow them to work out in a disciplined and focused way what they collectively really want to say, who to say it to most effectively, why, and how. You are there to keep the Quakers talking endlessly to themselves.
I am seriously displeased about the glimmerings of recent positive media attention. Remember that your job is to transform any respect, interest and affection some non-Quaker journalists have for them into mutual contempt.
A start was made in the session about inviting the media in. If you keep the agendas too dull, of course hardly any will come. The trick is to make the agendas appear interesting, and then subject the journalists to bouts of mind-bending earnestness. Encourage Friends to fear they will be overwhelmed by ravening hordes.
Good news that the tone, misinformation and stereotyping of some contributions insulted, offended or reduced to silence several Quaker journalists present.
Some simply splendid ideas emerged from some other speakers. Like only inviting a few tame journalists. Putting them in a separate room. Telling them they have to stand up, participate and gratefully print the press releases. Throwing them out as soon as something interesting happens. Banning radio and TV (I always hated equality).
Do encourage all this. Squash any proposal that would allow access to special interest groups by ensuring confidentiality via the Chatham House rule. It is extremely dangerous if journalists get a sense of Quaker small group discourse at its best – listening to each other’s experience, respect, sensitivity.
Finally, Wormwood, we are deeply disturbed that some of your patients are beginning to see relationships with some individual journalists as valuable. A piece in The Independent recently revealed eleven suicide attempts in the Chinese factory of the electronic giant Apple, where the 300,000 people involved in the new Apple iPad are said to earn around 30p an hour.
It must never ever occur to your patients that such journalists might have any relevance at all to their damaging notion of equality, or that they could ever work in partnership with them.
Your affectionate uncle
SCREWTAPE
The Screwtape Letters were written in the early 1940s by C S Lewis. They were a series of ironic letters from a senior demon, ‘Screwtape’, to his nephew, a junior tempter named ‘Wormwood’, advising him how to secure the downfall of man, known as ‘the Patient’. Rosemary Hartill offers her apologies to C S Lewis.
Comments
Yup Rosemary, you seem to have got is sussed, although we have had some good good sessions, over the years, and not always boring. I was at the first session on the media, but couldn’t face the second session. It really was one of those ‘why am I here’ moments. I have today read the minute, and that isn’t too clear. I have two confessions - I was the poor soul who got up at 5.00am to do the Today interview at York, and I was the one who suggested that we add to the minute that we trust in spirit when it came to Sufferings. Quite frankly, I’ve never wanted to be a member of a secret society, and didn’t realise until now just how secret we were. Pip pip. Colin
By Colin on 8th June 2010 - 21:26
Friends be open to new light recognise that the spirit of life cannot be owned, or controlled let the spirit go and see just what is possible and stop being afraid of newness and fresh ideas Oh, and let the essence (sorry not testimonies)out that was discovered 350 years ago. Put the quake back into Quakers
By sylvan on 13th June 2010 - 8:56
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