The use of Fashions in thought is to distract the attention of men from their real dangers.
 C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters (1942). copy citation

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Author C. S. Lewis
Source The Screwtape Letters
Topic danger attention
Date 1942
Language English
Reference
Note
Weblink https://www.truechristianity.info/en/the_screwtape_letters.php

Context

“artists alike being now daily drawn into fresh, and still fresh, excesses of lasciviousness, unreason, cruelty, and pride. Finally, the desire for novelty is indispensable if we are to produce Fashions or Vogues. The use of Fashions in thought is to distract the attention of men from their real dangers. We direct the fashionable outcry of each generation against those vices of which it is least in danger and fix its approval on the virtue nearest to that vice which we are trying to make endemic. The game is to have them running about with fire extinguishers whenever there is a flood, and all crowding to that side of the boat which is already nearly gunwale under.” source