From your Uncle Screwtape (2/2)

This is the second part of my attempt at a modern Screwtape letters. If you wish for the first part, then click on this link: https://theaveragecatholic.blog/2025/09/18/from-your-uncle-screwtape-1-2/

Virtual world is our greatest invention.

What a day of celebration! I still remember fondly when the social media first arrived. It was actually my suggestion to Tom to rank friends on MySpace. OH, the raw jealousy and envy that was created still gives me shivers of pleasure. In past decades, I had advised it is best practice to have our charge focus on the future. The Enemy doesn’t exist in the future and so we are free to torture our charge as we please. The past is slightly better, but the Enemy still has His influence in the past. But what was absolutely ill advised was to have our charges dwell in the present. The Enemy was strongest in the present and we could not challenge Him for long on equal footing. That is until we have created the perfect weapon of escapism.

Escapism! Pure escapism! Life for the human is toil and drudgery; that is no new revelation. Humans look for any type of escape that allows them to forget their problems. This is most common in humans in their younger days. As a human ages, they acknowledge their pitiful exist cannot exist without some type of suffering. Our temptations to escapism are ignored due to the human valuing something greater than themselves. You see how insignificant these human creatures are when they acknowledge themselves not to be at the pinnacle of creation. You’d never catch me admitting to such an embarrassing claim.

Our agents has had some success with escapism before the internet. In the past, we offered drugs and alcohol. We even convinced some humans to literally escape from their problems. Some broken families were the fruits of our labor. I honestly believed we couldn’t have hoped for much more. I have never been more delighted to be wrong. After the advent of the internet and social media, we finally had a weapon that could challenge the Enemy in the present. The endless scrolling and screens practically do the job of a tempter for us. The demon who created the algorithm for short form video has been promoted as the Lord Below’s personal advisor.

I almost feel bad for the Enemy if I wasn’t too busy cackling at what our invention has wrought. To think humans willfully spend hours consumed by their screens. What is the fruit of their labor? Hours of lust, envy, pride, anger, gluttony, sloth, and greed. Never before have we been able to have humans compare themselves to each other. They are pitted in this competition of their own design. These humans compare themselves in terms of looks, money, physical ability, cooking skills, and even customer service. Their souls are being fed manure and they keep wanting more and more.

How our work is becoming easier and easier. Imagine how these humans marinade themselves in violence, gore, and lusts and still claim to be unaffected by it. I new humans to be depraved, but even I was stunned to see how they are acting. These humans have the intellectual resources to create a Renaissance five times over at their finger tips. Yet, our agents convinced them that their time is better spent looking at cat videos.

We have some humans who do abstain from phone usage and refuse to touch their phones. We are working on forcing their employers to have cellular devices be mandatory for everyday tasks. It was a huge break through to create two factor authentication and have humans even more dependent on their phones. The more consumed our charges are in the virtual world, then the less the Enemy is able to influence them. We must filled their heads with so much noise that any thought about the enemy fails to pierce their saturated minds.

The Enemy is trying to combat our efforts. But every bible video is outclassed by hundreds of our devious material. We excel at propaganda wars and the Enemy has no hope in defeating us in the virtual world. We will eliminate all semblance of truth and reality. We will have people be immersed with emotions and separated from Reason. We will discredit anything the Enemy says as being too closed minded. We will erode humans attention spans to mere seconds. If we are successful, then any type of study of the Enemy will be deemed as a herculean task by the humans. Our virtual propaganda will be an intellectual famine that will shrivel the very ability to think rationally; the hallmark of the human.

The Personal Relationship Requires solitude.

Nothing gives me greater pleasure than seeing these humans do our job for us. We must bring souls to our Lord Below. Souls are difficult to lead astray when they are in community. It appears any significant size group of humans leads to discord of some kind even without our interventions. The Enemy is aware of this and appointed Church leaders to guide our charges towards the Enemy and away from our Lord Below. These leaders offer guidance and structure to various communities. They also reinforce the Enemy’s presence amongst our charges and make obvious our subterfuges.

These shepherds are the cornerstone of the Enemy’s strategy. Fortunately for us, the shepherds are faulty humans like the rest of our charges. If we are able to corrupt one of these shepherds, then so many fall after them. Yes, so many communities are torn apart whenever these shepherds fail to perform their duties. If we are unable to corrupt these shepherds, then we must at least jeopardize their authority over our charges.

The Enemy has established a church that has deadly sources of knowledge and protection against our campaign for their souls. We are powerless to prevail against the Enemy’s church and that will not change. We have always tried to separate the weaker humans from the Enemy’s influence. I am happy to report that these humans actually don’t trust the Enemy’s church or His shepherds. I must congratulate our agents over the centuries for sowing such deep distrust of the Enemy’s shepherds. The various scandals and weaknesses of the church is left many a human skeptical of the Enemy’s presence in the church. I assure the Enemy’s presence is formidable and it is a waste of effort to eradicate it. Again, that is why we must always seek to separate the humans from the community and especially the church community.

Sound Christians recognize that obedience towards the Enemy’s church is essential to resist us. We are able to tempt these souls, but they will always yield to their shepherd’s voice over our demonic voices. That is why we must separate our charges from the Enemy’s Church. If they stay in the institution established by the Enemy, then they are easier able to discern the Enemy’s voice versus one of our agents’ voice. Proper obedience on the part of the human makes them a difficult prey to corrupt not impossible though. Which is why perverting the reputation of those they obey is one of our highest priority.

How can we convince humans to leave the safety of the Enemy’s church? We must tell them that the Enemy had promised them a personal relationship with God. This promise of a personal relationship makes me ghastly ill, but it is indeed a promise that the Enemy has made. If the relationship is personal, then it must be a relationship that can only be between our charge and the Enemy and no one else. If it’s a relationship that no one else can have, then they must keep away from a communal relationship in order to focus on their own relationship with God. You see what happened there? The human will come to the conclusion that solitary living separate from the community is the best way to grow a personal relationship with God.

If we implement this strategy well, then we can have the Enemy’s Church appear as an obstacle between our charge and the Enemy. What a blissful mindset we are able to create. It is oh so pleasing to my ears when our charges wish to stay away from “organized religion” in favor of a “spiritual not religious” approach to life. These humans fail to realize how vulnerable they are to our influence. They lack an objective outsider of their own world view to correct them. We are able to influence them to our black hearts’ content. It makes me giddy to think all of the Enemy’s defense against us is made available to these humans, but they refuse to use it at the risk of their soul. All in the name of a personal relationship with the Enemy.

There are those who are truly able to pursue a personal relationship with the Enemy in solitude. They are special cases and are rare. You may attempt to tempt them, but they are often too attached to the Enemy for us to have any significant influence. There was a monk by the name of Antony that challenged us to corrupt him in the desert. He resisted every advancement made against him. Truly, human free will is beyond our power. Most humans, however, will collapse under our temptations without spiritual guidance and nourishment from the Enemy’s church.

We must tell our charges that living a solitary life away from the Enemy’s church is how they can have the purest relationship with the Enemy. This is a weak lie, but a lie that has given us great success. Any reasonable person would know you find the Enemy inside the house of the Enemy. That is why we must work without ceasing to convince our charges that the Enemy’s church and shepherds are the actual liars. We can lead our charge believe they can find the Enemy in a life of their own choosing. All the while, they are isolated from the Enemy’s community. Thus, we are able to corrupt them at our leisure and no spiritual guide can protect them from us.

Attraction is the most important factor in a romantic partnership.

The physical body of a human is absolutely repugnant. Despite this, humans continue to be attracted to each other. This attraction is something that comes from the Enemy. The Enemy designed humans to be good and to seek good. As loathsome as it is, the Enemy values life as one of the highest goods. Human attraction is meant to bring about life and to build community among humans. It is obvious, but we cannot abide for attraction to be used in such a way.

Attraction has been commandeered by Our Lord Below. He uses it almost as much as the Enemy does. Even at the fall, the Lord Below used the Human attraction to knowledge and beauty to consume the Forbidden Fruit. Since then, attraction has been used to start wars and corrupt the most innocent of the humans. We must use it with an awareness of its original purpose. It is possible we could accidentally lead our charge to the Enemy through attraction. If our charge values the object of their attraction more so than the pleasure they get, then that will lead them to virtuously care for what they are attracted to.

It is with great pride that we have made attraction the most important factor in romantic relationships. Gone are the days when romantic relationships were about objective self-sustaining practices to prolong the survival of the human species. Since the 1900s, we have been successfully seducing the humans to desire someone they are attracted to and no one else.

The Enemy designed marriage around the consent of the marriage. This places the power of the marriage on the Free Will of the humans involve. This indeed would be beyond our power since Free Will cannot be overridden. By simply sticking to their commitments, a marriage would be able to survive any of our temptations. However, as mentioned above, humans commitments are becoming weaker and weaker.

We have successfully convinced the humans that attractiveness is more important than commitment. After all, if you are attracted to a person that you “love” then naturally you would be committed to them. We have tricked into believing that commitment is secondary. The beautiful thing about attraction is that it is highly subjective and reliant on comparison. Before the internet, a human saw relatively few number of people; barely a thousand. After the internet, a human can see hundreds of the most beautiful people within a few hours. Humans have never been more certain on what they are attracted to. It brings me incalculable joy to know that what they are attracted to is not available to them.

So many missed opportunities for marriage, because a human ludicrously believed a more attractive human will come along eventually. We will be beyond fortunate if that human ends up alone and brings about the end of the human species all the sooner. The standards for a viable mate used to be two fold: Will they help me live? Will I die with them? Now, our agents have created a 666 category analysis to aid in the humans search for what they find attractive. We demons only want to give the humans what they want after all. These categories include physical characteristics, speech patterns, hobbies, past lifestyles, taboos, and so much more. A human is drowned with options these days that it is a simply matter to tell humans to wait for the “right person” to come along. They don’t want to make the wrong decision after all and break their commitments.

Attraction works two ways too. Not only are humans consumed with finding someone that they are attracted to, but they themselves must be attractive as well. You can see the torturous comparison that quickly develops. Insecurities on both sides emerge feeling that the other person would lose attraction. If attraction is the be all and end all, then the spouses has an obligation to maintain their attractiveness. If they do not, then adultery becomes justifiable. After all, the humans are merely seeking who they are the most attracted to. Convincing adultery to occur was easy enough in the past, but it has become even easier in recent times.

I am proud of our agents in terms of attraction. Our recent efforts have proven more than fruitful. We are working on justifying self-mutilation in the name of becoming more attractive. Some humans share our dislike for their bodies. They opt to use surgeries and medicine to alter their appearance. A reward ought to be given to the demon that created the justification, “I just want to feel pretty” as the reason to perform irreversible mutilation. We also have athletes either starving themselves or doping themselves. We have diets that cause more harm than good. We have people practically giving their souls to us in order to make a good enough salary. It is amazing how neglectful a human can be towards their mind, body, and soul in order to appear more attractive to those around them.

Being free is better than being burdened by obligations.

I have to admit that our skills as tempters is only able to go so far. We are able to manipulate, corrupt, lie, and deceive. However, it is the human themselves that is essential to them being damned. Long have I wished the ability to kidnap humans and present them to the Enemy Below. But this is beyond our power. Even the Enemy faces a similar obstacle. That obstacle is Free will.

Free Will is a blasted human characteristic. The Enemy gave free will to humans for unknown reasons. Even us demons do not possess free will. We have sworn our allegiance to rebel against the Enemy. That is our singular mission. Humans do not have a singular mission. They are able to choose whatever they please. Regardless of our temptations and the Enemy’s promptings, humans are able to choose based on their free will. As shameful as it is to admit, tempting is an art not a science. There is no one way to corrupt a human for our Lord Below.

This free will allows humans to choose their own path. I fail to comprehend how the humans are able to make choices, but they do nonetheless. Their free will serves as a type of immunity to our temptations. We don’t and can’t force humans to do anything. All of their actions are their own. Our job is to merely prove our Lord Below’s original claim: humans are depraved beyond redemption. The enemy sees a human fall as some sort of failing. We demons see it as humans living out their true calling. They are worthless creatures that are far from divine. Made in the image and likeness of the enemy? I think not!

The best way to use a human free will is to have them cherish it. You see, as a human grows older, they often gain more and more responsibilities. Humans fail to recognize that these responsibilities also aid in resisting our temptations and have them grow in virtue. Some of our more skilled agents are able to have a human’s responsibility be the reason they no longer are connected to a community. “I’m too busy.” Is a beautiful phrase that has prevented the Enemy’s advancement for decades. We must have the humans believe their free will must be preserved at all cost.

Commitment! That is a word we must demonize and have our charges flee from. Commitment is a necessary requirement for humans to flourish on Earth. We must no let that happen. A tree can only grow if it has roots and commitment is how humans become rooted. The life of a human is so temporary. Barely a century and these humans breathe their last breath. Some of our most difficult charges have convictions and commitments from an early age. I had a charge from the age of eight years old who wanted to be a servant of the Enemy. I spent years tempting him and not once did his commitment yield.

Our greatest victories is when humans break their commitments to one another. Wedding vows do not mean anything. Business contracts can be broken. Even the childish pinky promise means little to this new generation. Human society is built upon trust and we are finding it less and less humans trust each other. With glee, we are having more divorces now than ever before. There is a great ecstasy when divorce happens. It is truly addictive and it leads to so many souls for our Lord below.

Our campaign to ruin humans’ trust in humanity is proceeding without delay. What is even better is that we are making progress in having humans forgo any type of commitment. Before, humans usually worked the same job for decades and even generations. Now, humans can barely hold onto a position for a few years. Youths are refusing to commit to career, family, and even recreation. They are caught in a perpetual discernment where no decision is ever made. I gave a bonus to our agents who convinced their charges that raising a dog is better than raising a baby. A dog is less responsibility and a baby is too inconvenient to commit to. We have charges who are professional daters, but never had a long term relationship. It just reeks of transience and the smell is aromatic.

Our agents work tirelessly to convince these humans that they must be prepared for major life transitions. Hahaha The humans always fail to realize it is precisely living out their next stage of life that prepares them. We are most proud in the female humans who delay in having children beyond the point that they biologically are capable. The arrogance some humans have to think they have more time than they do. Although, we can take some credit for that type of thinking. The company line is to, “take advantage of their youth and gather responsibilities when they are older and ready to settle down.”

If our agents continue to succeed, then it is quite possible that we will have solitary individuals for the first time in humanity’s existence. These individuals have no siblings, no parents, no friends, no community, no significant others, and no permanent residence. All for the sake of preserving their freedom. They drift off in isolation with the freedom to do whatever they want. They don’t realize that their idea of freedom is actually pure loneliness. These humans will be easy pickings for our Lord Below. The Enemy taught a ridiculous teaching that the greatest among the humans ought to serve other humans. These isolationist humans refuse to serve anyone for the sake of preserving their own autonomy. How they make us proud.

From your dear Uncle Screwtape.