Reasons of State

I’ve decided to jump on the Narnia bandwagon and borrowed the series from some teammates (only one volume missing) and started reading it to my boys today.  Most of it goes past Jon, but Jeremy, who is home with chicken pox, had me keep reading just one more chapter until finally we made it through over ninety pages.  (He finished up the last few himself when a visitor showed up.)

I never heard of C.S. Lewis growing up, only being introduced to him in college.  I think it was in 1983 when I read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe—all in one day, as I recall.  I’m sorry to say that I’ve never gone back to complete the series, so this is as new and as fun for me as it is for Jeremy.

I thought the following passage had something to say about current political debates.  It was the torture issue that first came to mind, although I’m sure there are many other areas of application as well—whether in politics, in the church, in business, or in the home.

            “The last great battle,” said the Queen, “raged for three days here in Charn itself.  For three days I looked down upon it from this very spot.  I did not use my power till the last of my soldiers had fallen, and the accursed woman, my sister, at the head of her rebels was halfway up those great stairs that lead up from the city to the terrace.  Then I waited till we were so close tht we could see one another’s faces.  She flashed her horrible, wicked eyes upon me and said, ‘Victory.’ ‘Yes,’ said I, ‘Victory, but not yours.’  Then I spoke the Deplorable Word.  A moment later I was the only living thing beneath the sun.”
            “But the people?” gasped Digory.
            “What people, boy?” asked the Queen.
            “All the ordinary people,” said Polly, “who’d never done you any harm.  And the women, and the children, and the animals.”
            “Don’t you understand?”  said the Queen (still speaking to Digory).  “I was the Queen.  They were all my people.  What else were they there for but to do my will?”
            “It was rather hard luck on them, all the same,” said he.
            “I had forgotten that you are only a common boy.  How should you understand reasons of State?  You must learn, child, that what would be wrong for you or for any of the common people is not wrong in a great Queen such as I.  The weight of the world is on our shoulders.  We must be freed from all rules.  Ours is a high and lonely destiny.”

From The Magicians’s Nephew.  Vol. 1 in The Chronicles of Narnia