XPost: alt.books.cs-lewis   
   From: bree@bree.com   
      
   On Thu, 06 Oct 2005 23:07:52 GMT, John McComb    
   wrote:   
   /snip/   
      
   >The catastrophe at Munich ("Peace in our time"),   
   >the treachery of Stalin, the late entry of the United States   
   >into the conflict. All of this to facilitate a yearning to   
   >avoid war at all costs. This was a time for war.   
      
   Certainly that view was popular soon after WWII ended.   
      
      
   >There was no   
   >getting past it. The propensity of the world to endeavor to   
   >put it off or, perhaps, cancel it altogether only succeeded   
   >in pushing it to the point that it became the world's greatest   
   >nightmare.   
      
   The view I remember was, that inaction and appeasement had encouraged   
   Germany and others to keep pushing, till it became a big conflict, and we   
   should have fought it got big.  Lewis seems to take this for granted in MC,   
   applying that as a metaphor to the religious topics.   
      
   /snip/   
      
   >On the other hand, the period leading up to the conflict that   
   >became WWI was just the opposite. Everybody wanted a war. This   
   >was not a case of dark clouds growing over certain territories.   
   >It was a case of everybody spoiling for a rumble so that some   
   >long missing glory could be gained at last.   
      
   Or a chance for some action.... There was a bit of that sort of attitude,   
   which I think wouldn't have been so acceptable later.   
      
      
   >The declaration of   
   >war caused millions of people all across Europe to gather in   
   >the streets and cheer.   
      
   >   
   >Of course none of this assigns blame to active veterans of   
   >the first war. You are faced with war, you fight it and, if   
   >you are smart, you fight it in a way that will end it as   
   >quickly as possible. The men who fought it may be culpable   
   >in that they wanted it and they cheered for it but they are   
   >no more culpable than anyone else (did you ever notice that   
   >WWI, when viewed from a certain perspective, was really a   
   >family spat among Queen Victoria's grandchildren?). However,   
   >if one holds the view that WWI was somehow unavoidable or that   
   >the world couldn't have used a few pacifists in powerful   
   >political positions during the time that led up to the   
   >conflict then they're not going to get any agreement from me.   
      
   What do you think Lewis's opinion was? The references to war that I recall   
   are all hard-line, anti-appeasement sort of things. In PRINCE CASPIAN the   
   wise centaur pushes Caspian and some others to start a real war. PERELANDRA   
   is individual, but  the right thing is for Ransome to do some plain   
   physical fighting. (ISTR some remark of Sayers about shopkeepers not liking   
   war because it interferes with business -- as tho this were a failing of   
   theirs, silly Philstines....)   
      
      
   Bree   
      
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