Wormwood,
My worst demon, how are you doing? I’ve heard you’ve moved into aesthetics with your human. Yes, yes, nakedness is a great play with most humans. But have you considered the shame factor? Of course the human is aware that nudity is sin. Alluring? Yes. Damning? Almost certainly. But remember that a sin like porneia gets noticed by the enemy ally within the human. What’s that? You don’t know about that ally? My horrendous little demon, what have you been doing? The saved and unsaved both have it, and it’s called the conscience. In our stratagems we’ve had good success in searing it in some cases. But condemn it all, if it isn’t the most resilient little ally. It might lie dormant for years and then one day, poof! It’s working like new and none of us know why.
The trick we have found is to not alarm it, if at all possible. Or else, only alarm it in the most gradual way, starting out as minimally as possible. Now all sins will alarm it but some aren’t as quick and obvious as the “big sins” we usually aim for. Once a sin is on the radar, well it’s still useful, and it might still be a good choice of temptation. But you may need to switch up your tactic since now the target has some awareness of good and evil, where before they weren’t even thinking in those terms. Don’t you remember what I said about cards and murder in the 12th letter I sent you? For badness’ sake, please do pay attention. Of course, we have found other ways that are quite effective to get past that ally. Ahh . . . I see you’re interested. Of course I’ll explain.
Consider if you have any tools to use that might seem invisible and sneak right past that ally. Can you think of any? That’s right! Music is a wonderful tool for this. Provided you have a peppy melody (stay away from reverent or thoughtful sounds, this will not help at all), you can smuggle some ideas into your human’s mind and often they won’t even notice. What’s that you ask? What are my favorite songs for this? Well, the last 50 years have been a smorgasbord of seduction in that area. Take your pick. But if you ask me, I’d go with Taylor Swift.
You see, she has a full corpus of songs that have a sufficiently peppy sound while carrying along a wonderful message that our Father Below fully supports. For example, Cruel Summer is excellent since it comes off tame as long as you aren’t thinking much about the words. Of course, if your human starts to think, you should try to divert asap. Planting thoughts of lusting over a man’s low-body-fat physique is just what a generation of them need. We want the women to think men with flab are automatically unappealing. If we succeed, we will have torn the sexes apart and the evil plan of the so-called King of Heaven will fail right before our eyes.
But Swift has many songs that are available and will do the same trick. Do you want to encourage some feminism in a human woman? Oh yes, sorry, “feminism” is the same as what we call rebellion. The song The Man is a great choice. The best part is that not only is the song espousing open rebellion, it does so under the guise of being wronged. Er… that is what the humans call “being marginalized.” Now be careful. There is a bit of truth in there about the double-standard that we have created for the sexes. We have worked hard for the men so that they sometimes get a pass on certain sins. This song comes off encouraging those sins on the standard of fairness! Very bad, if I do say so myself!
As an aside, it’s certainly wonderful when our prey help us to do our jobs. The labels they come up with for plain old sins have been entirely too useful! You’d think the so—called King of Heaven would put a stop to this! Of course, He probably doesn’t even realize how helpful it has been. Think about it, an entire generation using terms like “marginalized” or “oppressed” for the plain old idea of being sinned against! We have many now who labeled the sin of favoritism and malice with “racism.” Provoking someone to sin? They call that “triggering.” And sometimes they even refer to our work – temptation – as “triggering.” It’s wonderful and sufficiently ambiguous! Now when they refer to sins, they don’t see where the Bible instructs them to forgive. It’s been so useful in cultivating bitterness, an unforgiving spirit, and of course haughty contempt! Not to mention loads of self-righteousness.
Another great option is her song Love Story. We have really done some work when it comes to the authority in the home! The last century has been challenging, but we are now at a point where obeying parents is seen as completely passé. In the song, she holds out happiness for all the tweens who would listen to her message. And all they have to do is disobey daddy and go for that guy the parents don’t like! Do you know how many wicked boys that parents have been unsuccessful at kept their daughters from, all because of the work we have done to cultivate a disrespect for parents, age, and wisdom? It’s just incredibly evil, Wormwood! I’m positively drunk on delight over that one.
Blank Space is a really wonderful song because of the angle. She writes about the experience of having many failed relationships, and hints that she’s probably to blame because of her poor judgment. But as the song progresses, she narrates the common experience of knowing it’s wrong but going along with it anyway. The song on the surface comes off as a warning, but don’t be so sure, Wormwood. Her perspective doesn’t have even a smidgeon of contrition, let alone regret. Rather, she has more of an excitement mixed with certainty. She doesn’t care, and she’s confident that she is ok. That’s exactly the attitude we want to grow in this generation. That way, when critique or correction come, the default response is to ignore. It’s really quite genius.
My Wormwood, taking the enemy’s side are we? Of course I’ll answer the question you just raised, but be cautious. Our father below doesn’t take kindly to questioning. As to your point, of course. Some of this could be written off as unintended or wrong interpretation. But don’t you see how thin that argument is? Look at the words, the tone, the style, the verbs. For the one looking for it, it’s hidden enough. But for the one not looking, it can lodge very easily in their worldview. That’s all by design, my evil apprentice.
The trick with Swift has been her early persona, that’s how we got to the success of today. You see, we didn’t start too forcefully with her. Again, Wormwood, you must be gradual! We let her keep her “good girl” appeal – at least in the media – so she would not seem aligned with the values of our Father Below. But please realize that nothing has changed. Go back and listen to those early albums. It’s all there, from the very beginning. But of late she has become more open about so many heinous sins. And her concerts? What a wonderful den of sensuality. It’s been one of the most gratifying experiences of my recent life.
So, my worstest Wormwood, take these suggestions into account and your strategy will quickly improve. What’s that? She just released a new album? I didn’t know that. I began writing this letter months ago. I’m excited to see what her new material has to offer. I’ll have to check it out and get back to you.
But remember that whatever she just released, as helpful as it might be, is completely unnecessary. Her corpus has been sufficiently wicked at up to the present. New material, while a curse all its own, is really rather needless. The old stuff is just perfect.
Sincerely sinful,
Screwtape
Thoughts Worth Thinking 