The Hideous Strength

"The thing was near enough to the true to deceive you and go on teasing your mind
even after the deception had been unmasked". C S Lewis

Whilst attending a media studies course today, I found myself conversing with the tutor about the state of our world (fitting, as we were seeking to produce material for films on modern slavery).
After a few moments reflecting on the human condition, she readily admitted to me something we all recognize - that she did not like to dwell for very long or in depth on such issues; it was just too depressing.
I recall a similar conversation a few years ago at a Hospice with a care worker, except there was a person that didn't even want to see the problem - they believed that the world was a pretty good place and people were generally OK.

Isn't it amazing how we smudge and blur reality?
Again, today, someone was trying to tell me that we'd certainly progressed from the days when slavery was practiced in the World (I had to quickly interject that on a planet where there are currently around 27 million people enslaved - far more than in the entire period we term the time of 'the slave trade' - that speaking of 'progress' didn't seem right).
Why do we so easily blind ourselves by such delusion?

We so often fail to see what is more plain than the words on our mouth. There is in us a propensity to scuttle away from what our words can betray derives from our hearts - that the core of our problems is the condition of us - we are an inherently wicked species with a well nigh insatiable propensity to be wicked.

The human condition when alienated from our Creator is one of darkened minds; a bent that prevents an imperative in motivation and desire from truth. Immediacy - in terms of comfort and fulfilment of tactile desire is what then becomes paramount, and that can proceed to encourage all manner of poison within ourselves and in our world at large. Such a degradation of true design can only leave us blatantly, comprehensively tarnished and far from our real purpose.

We need to leave this hall of mirrors - escape from fantasy - and begin to understand the real state of ourselves, our race, in the world today.