Screwtape Does Politics

Politics invades almost every area of our lives, including our work.

Ben Dockery | Est. 4 minutes

Dear Hamilton [1],

I am glad you are seeing the same success as other agents related to the upcoming election. If you told me when I was training at your age that anyone could create this level of confusion related to a four-year presidency, I would never have believed it. We all knew elections were paramount for the professional politicians and their teams, but no one would have guessed the climb to prominence for the average citizen. Training manuals of old don’t even include a section on election cycles, imagine!?!

I was also glad to hear your patient convenes political conversations at work and home. The fact that no one feels truly safe to speak honestly is ideal. In addition to workplace inefficiency, it creates maximum relational division. Human subjects are making harsh unspoken judgments in all directions – you will grow in your love for this kind of discord the longer you practice the art of temptation.

Introduction

Before I address your questions, let me give you two general warnings. First, a word on strategy. Your strategies will be different for red clients and blue clients. You can often apply either strategy to the so-called ‘purple clients’ - they are particularly susceptible to feeling morally superior to everyone else.

Second, you must pay attention to the recent propaganda the Enemy is distributing to curb ‘political idolatry.’ It moves freely and quickly online, which is hard to interrupt. I much preferred the voter guides of old. We could create both fear and hubris from those sources. The new stuff is more harmful to our cause–it goes beyond issues to the voter themselves.

The fact that many have now attributed “idol” status to politics is troubling. For years, we maintained labels such as values and progress when clients were secretly creating identities and salvation-like hopes around candidates. That was then-it now seems too easy. It’s a new day and we need new charms to counter the Enemies' distribution of insights.

Your Specific Concerns

It thrilled me to hear that your client was able to simultaneously stop talking to his co-worker and brother in the same week. As you know, he and his co-worker will likely recover after months of silence – appeal to his pride to ensure he is not the one to initiate reconciliation. Repeat the justification that his colleague is older and should go first. The pattern of avoiding such conversations is common in corporate culture and we don’t want a dash of graciousness to interrupt that practice. 

When it comes to his brother, I’m afraid the offense won’t last. You have seen his brother is prone to apply the proverbs (as their mother taught) and look past an offense. It’s a generational defense against us. You might try involving your client’s wife so that she is equally offended, which doubly hardens the heart. Use the Enemy’s own logic, “if one prevails against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.” 

When politics is the reason humans avoid interaction, we are winning. Let me know what success you see–we can share with others. 

In reply to your question about what to do with his extended “listening” habits... The short answer is that it’s overall good for us. Digesting a heavy diet of podcasts will keep your client’s blood pressure up on issues as well as reinforce all the reasons he was right in the first place. Turn up the volume. Make him think he can’t miss an episode. A little quiet or reflection on his train home is Enemy territory.

We are thinking about adding an appendix to the training manual about the fear of missing out on political updates. Incessant cable news coverage and social media provide new opportunities of temptation. Again, this was not an option in past generations - we applied immediate anxieties to food insecurity and uncontrolled weather, but never media. Today, you can consume large buckets of time with political updates that foster angst. Keep him in the 24/7 cycle–a short scroll at work can domino into an afternoon of office-wide speculation.

Please note: Be sure these anxieties don’t slip over to prayer. The line is thin between fueling fears and driving patients to the Enemy for help. He’s remarkably patient to listen. If this ever happens — and it inevitably will on occasion — assure them their prayers make no difference and the outcome would have happened anyway. Or even better, make them assume their anxious spirit changed due to the good food and drink they just consumed.

Red and Blue Strategies

I am not 100% confident on your patient’s color, but it’s not essential. The goals of division and anxiety cross partisan lines. Alarm is easily stirred in both groups. The question is what lever is best to pull with which side. 

Since I think you said your client watches red television and reads red news coverage, I’ll go that direction. As long as other people at work agree with him, you can establish echo chambers or group text with increasing levels of disgust toward blue policies. In his interaction with blue and purple voters, prod him to be ‘bold’ in a meeting or ‘bold’ behind their backs. Both can fracture – you might even split the company cafe by political allegiance. Always steer his conversations toward defending the color of the policy - not asking if it aligns with the Enemy’s teachings.

Hamilton, memes are surprisingly effective in this effort. They keep the conversation “us versus them”, “win versus lose”, instead of: What did the Enemy really say? Who do we pray for or forgive? What is wise right now?

Red clients can be led to misapply their conservative impulse. On its own, the instinct to value history contradicts our hopes. After all, the Enemy is the author of history. It's frankly shocking how little humans learn from the past, which is an innately humble action – and humility remains our Achilles heel. The best tactic is to make him think he is the only one with good motives. Ensure he always gives himself the benefit of the doubt, but never extends that across the hallway to a blue co-worker. Likewise, make him want quick and quiet excuses for red sins and immediate and loud condemnation for blue sins. (Obviously invert the temptation if he is a democrat - please ask - I can send the updated blue playbook in a follow up letter). 

Finally, remember you might have to whisper to make any of this happen. If you try too hard, he will recognize the behavior as bad manners and consider the spiritual forces. We want workplace matters and politics to remain void of the spiritual realm.

Report back on your findings. 

Devilspeed,

Mr. Krow

[1] This is part of a series of letters in the style of Lewis’ Screwtape Letters, but applied to the workplace. You can read the first for more context. Lewis published his first book, Spirits in Bondage, under the pseudonym Clive Hamilton. It was published in 1919 as a collection of poems written between 1915-1918 while he was serving in trenches of WW1 and a military trainee at Oxford. Clive was real, Hamilton was not.

Image Source: Dalrymple, Louis, 1866-1905, Artist. N.Y. : J. Ottmann Lith. Co., Puck Bldg., 1900 May 9.

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